[Dialogue] Something to think about

Thu Nov 15 23:04:36 EST 2007

I know money is never THE answer...but this article from today's  
Christian Science Monitor presents some thinking points that come at  
the conversation of "what next" from a different angle.

from the November 15, 2007 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/ 
2007/1115/p09s01-coop.html
$1 trillion to the rescue

If Iraq is worth $1 trillion, let's allot just as much to benefit  
humanity.

By Woody Tasch

San Francisco
Economists project that the cost of the war in Iraq, when all is said  
and done, will come in at $1 trillion or more.

I say: Let's do it again!

Let's allocate another trillion dollars – but this time for the good  
of all humanity and all species. Let's do it with the same moral  
urgency and vision that has made America great at so many critical  
junctures in history.

There's an emergency and an opportunity out there that calls for The  
Next Trillion.

It's about more than geopolitics and petrodollars. It's about more  
than the science of climate change.

It's about the need for global economic institutions to evolve in  
response to the social and environmental challenges of our time:  
growth in population, accelerating technological change, accelerating  
capital flows, growth in consumption, increasing pollution, widening  
wealth gaps.

Today's global economy creates a thousand billionaires and a billion  
thousandaires. It has created what venture capitalist John Doerr  
calls "the greatest legal accumulation of wealth in history."

But it also drives China to add 65 gigawatts to its electric grid  
each year, most of which is produced by highly polluting coal-fired  
power plants.

And today's global economy is driven by Americans, who use more  
energy, put more carbon into the atmosphere, and generate more waste  
than any citizen in history – and by a shameful margin.

The financial returns of the 20th century depended upon environmental  
and social trends that are unsustainable. The old worldviews and  
economic institutions are no longer adequate. We must begin to move,  
and move boldly, in a new direction.

The good news is that out of the current military, political, and  
environmental quagmire arises an unprecedented opportunity for  
America to leap into a new era of economic leadership.

Here's how The Next Trillion should be invested:

•$250 billion for clean energy and energy efficiency;

• $250 billion for carbon sequestration and bioremediation;

• $250 billion for sustainable food and forests; and

• $250 billion for community development.

This is a wildly important moment. A tectonic shift is occurring  
beneath the culture of conquest and consumption. A tectonic shift is  
occurring in the consciousness of the consumer, the entrepreneur, and  
the investor.

We must seize the opportunity to accelerate the transition past  
"sustainable development" all the way to a full-fledged restorative  
economy, in which jobs, wealth, and economic vitality are created by  
enterprises that restore and preserve the common good.

For 15 years, I've been helping investors steer capital toward  
"triple-bottom-line" private companies, which aim to produce strong  
financial, social, and environmental results.

We at Investors' Circle have begun to see the power of "patient  
capital" to support entrepreneurs whose companies are leading the way  
toward the restorative economy. Such companies include Farmers Diner,  
building new, local connections between organic-food producers and  
consumers. Or Verdant Power, pioneering submersible turbines for  
tidal electricity generation. Or United Villages, providing wireless  
internet access for villages in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Slowing money down, bringing it back down to earth, thinking longer  
term, recapturing money, and redeploying it as an agent of community  
and bioregional health, creating what some have called "virtuous  
globalization" or, even, localization – this is the next great work.

Let The Next Trillion, then, be the most urgently deployed patient  
capital in history.

If $1 trillion over five years seems like a lot, view it against the  
$2 trillion that speeds through Wall Street daily or America's $14  
trillion gross domestic product.

If we can spend $1 trillion on an Iraqi nightmare, then we can invest  
$1 trillion in a new American Dream.

The New Deal, Marshall Plan, Manhattan Project, Apollo Program –  
when America sets its mind to it, anything is possible.

Let us set our mind to The Next Trillion.

Deployed with requisite vision and courage, it will unleash forces of  
reconstruction, restoration, and healing, the likes of which the  
world has never seen.

Full HTML version of this story which may include photos, graphics,  
and related links

Priscilla Wilson
TeamTech Press
Mission Hills, KS 66208
pwilson at teamtechinc.com

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