Avoiding system failure

Abstract

Refs: "Capitalism 3.0: A Guide to Reclaiming the Commons" by Peter Barnes Berrett-Koehler: 2006. Peter Barnes is a progressive businessman who created a successful company, Working Assets, that donates 1% of its revenue (not just its profits) to environmental causes. Now he has produced a landmark book that gets to the heart of one of the most important systemic problems of the current capitalist system, and proposes workable solutions. He argues that the previous (1.0) and current (2.0) versions of capitalism that evolved up to the twentieth century, under conditions that no longer hold, are in serious need of an operating-system upgrade. Version 3.0 must address the conditions and problems we face now. Barnes fully recognizes the benefits of capitalism, and does not recommend replacing it wholesale with something completely different. But he also recognizes the major flaws in version 2.0, and describes some of the features that will be needed in version 3.0 to fix them.