Systemic design and systemic crisis in the United States: the pluralist Commonwealth

Mounting an adequate response to the environmental and social crises we face must be undertaken within the context of the systemic nature of these crises. The continued reliance on traditional policy solutions that do not address the underlying drivers of inequality and ecological overshoot is inappropriate given the historically unprecedented productive capacity of our nation and the fundamentals of post-scarcity monetary theory. As the ecological crisis deepens, we must recognize that core features of corporate capitalism are incompatible with a sustainable, just, and equitable future. We identify five key problematic drivers embedded in the current system and outline the ecological rift inherent to capitalism. To address these issues, a pluralist vision of a new economy, centered on democratic ownership of capital and its surplus, is needed. Such a vision can draw upon local experiments in democratized ownership and community control of production. Similarly, it can draw upon the monetary tools utilized in the wake of the financial crisis to inform a green quantitative easing. Together, we can create the theoretical and policy space in which systematic alternatives may grow and flourish.