New Economy – U.S.A.

Massive income inequality, high unemployment, and devastating environmental degradation demonstrate today, more than ever, that old economic approaches no longer work, if they ever did. Traditional capitalism is broken, and pain is the order of the day for the young, for minorities, women and the undereducated.

While national political and business leaders appear to be missing in action, fortunately, others are stepping up to look for solutions, both immediate and long term. This economic realignment process, loosely called “New Economy” is barely in its infancy, but already shows some promising signs of innovation and combativeness.

Significant potential for structural change can be found in the movements advocating the development of Cooperatives and Benefit Corporations (B Corporations). In the short run, corporate social responsibility initiatives can have far greater positive impact, but ultimately suffer from the paradox that without a basic transformation of the corporations themselves, systematic problems will not be resolved.

Key Resources

Websites 

• Schumacher Center for A New Economics
• National Cooperative Business Association
• US Federation of Worker Cooperatives
• New Economy Coalition
• Democracy Collaborative
• Project Equity
• Certified B Corporation

Documents

• Worker Cooperatives: Pathways to Scale, by The Democracy Collaborative’s Hilary Abell (2014) PDF

See Also

• Cooperatives
• Benefit Corporations (B Corps)