Just a quick note to remind you all that the system of wealth supremacy is the problem.

Great piece on wealth supremacy and some of my quick takes.

“A paradigm shift for our economy begins when we name and see the bias that lies at the heart of the capital-centric system. It begins when we see wealth supremacy clearly, in the same way that we’ve learned to name and see white supremacy and male supremacy.”

https://www.yesmagazine.org/opinion/2024/05/07/money-wealth-democracy-capitalism?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

This week, I am traveling for a conference on optimizing work processes. I realize that many more people are reading this substack than I’d assumed, and indeed, I need to just write more often instead of nursing five draft posts endlessly.

At this conference on better working methods, the subject of power structures and their outsized impact on preserving the status quo seems to recur in my hallway conversations.

I’ve been heartened and surprised by the amount of welcome I’ve experienced from these folks about some of my “crazy” socialist ideas and that many others are starting to think similarly about changing the economic system.

Without getting into too much detail, a person in a hallway conversation became quite frustrated about our critique of capitalism and, when pressed, offered his definition of the socialism he’s opposed to …

”Everyone working together for the greater good.”

Nice, not wrong in principle, but he became livid when he was asked what was so harmful about that.

I am inspired to dive more into these things and write more but wanted to share this excellent article about wealth supremacy and the systems that preserve and create these problems.

Some concepts of things we can try to combat these systems would be…

1. Tie the maximum wage to the minimum wage. If you want to pay your CEO 10 billion dollars, you’re going to have to pay a percentage to the lowest-paid employee.

2. No more liability protection for corporations other than worker-owned co-operative B corps. Liability protections were intended to be a contract between society and industry that the corporation would be a good steward of the land and community in exchange for liability protections. Since they all seem to love their bootstraps these days and their libertarian personal freedom, let’s go ahead and say you, as a private corporation, are free to take all those risks you love to justify your outsized compensation. You’re a “risk taker,” eh? Risk your personal property. If you want the government to shield you from liability, turn over ownership and governance to your employees.

3. No more dividends, executive bonuses, hiring, or stock buybacks within four years of a layoff. If you want to justify layoffs by claiming they’re for maintaining “cash on hand” for uncertain market conditions, go ahead and keep that cash on hand; there is no cash out for you or anyone else.