After outgoing President Biden warned of oligarchy, Google searches on the word “oligarchy” immediately spiked. Just as back in 1995, when there was an awakening to the dangers of transnational corporations, there is now an awakening to the dangers of oligarchy—when a few of the world’s wealthiest billionaires rule the world. The billionaires who have taken control of the U.S. government are alerting us to the self-evident truth that redistributing their financial wealth must become a defining priority of our time. How do we do that? Here are four global priorities essential to a viable and inclusive human future. Advance aggressive global tax policies to capture and redistribute the wealth of the world’s billionaires to fund programs that bring up the bottom and heal the Earth. The goal is a global society in which everyone has a fulfilling means of living and no one is positioned to exploit others. Replace profit-maximising corporations with institutions that share power among individuals committed to community wellbeing. A promising model is provided by the Mondragon workers cooperative in the Basque region of Spain. Each worker owns one share that can only be sold back to the corporation for sale to another worker. Shift to public or cooperative community ownership of for-profit banks and other financial institutions authorised to issue official currencies, cryptocurrencies, financial derivates and other artificial financial assets. Impose a financial transaction tax on all trading in financial instruments to discourage financial speculation. There is no place in this world for billionaires or profit maximising corporations devoted to the exploitation of Earth and its people to maximise profits for Earth’s already richest people. Though these essential reforms will not be easily achieved, the first step is to recognise that all four are possible and fulfill an essential public purpose. We are long overdue in getting them on the agenda for public review and debate. We have arrived at a choice point that calls us to address our billionaire problem. Those who have chosen money as the defining purpose of their lives have taken control of our governing institutions.
sounds communist, im in. (This was publish in a WTO warning book) By David Korten, member of The Club of Rome and President of the Living Economies Forum
