Why Wall Street Can't Be Fixed and How to Replace It

Part III

Agenda for a Real-Wealth Economy

Wall Street interests have defined not only the structure of our economy but also the indicators by which we assess its performance. Focused on financial indicators, we accept that the economy is sound even when it is killing us. Real-wealth indicators of the health and well-being of our children, families, communities, and natural systems reveal terminal systemic failure. Since we get what we measure, we should measure what we want.

We humans are awakening to the reality that we are living beings and that life, by its nature can exist only in community. Our future depends on getting with the program and organizing our economies in ways that mimic healthy living systems—which not incidentally look a lot more like Adam Smith’s vision of a market economy than they do Wall Street’s.

We have the right, the means, and the imperative to declare our independence of Wall Street and get on with the work of building real-wealth economies that are based on the foundation of what remains of the Main Street economies over which Wall Street presently exercises imperial dominion.

Chapter 9, “What People Really Want,” makes the case the human brain is wired to support caring and sharing and that we humans have long dreamed of a world of vital, healthy children, families, communities, and natural environments: the world we must now create if we are to have a future.

Chapter 10, “Essential Priorities,” summarizes the foundational design principles that living real-wealth economies must honor and outlines the opportunities at hand to reallocate real resources in ways that strengthen community, increase equity, bring us into balance with Earth, and increase human health and happiness.

Chapter 11, “Liberating Main Street,” sets forth a 12-point agenda for liberating Main Street and banishing Wall Street to the dustbin of history.

Chapter 12, “Real-Wealth Financial Services,” spells out a strategy for creating a new financial services sector accountable to the real-wealth needs of Main Street.

Chapter 13, “Life in a Real-Wealth Economy,” offers a fictional account of a visit to the future in which our grandchildren may be living if we succeed.