Capitalism in Crisis: Our Opportunity for a New System

Capitalism in Crisis: Our Opportunity for a New System

Wednesday, 19 June 2013 13:30
By Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, Truthout | News Analysis


It's time to end the era of Big Finance capitalism and an economy based on the extraction of resources, especially for energy. This statement is not an ideological proposal, but a practical one. We simply cannot continue on the present path, and as systems fail and resources become scarce, we will be forced to change what we do.

While this sounds pessimistic, it is actually an opportunity to be optimistic. Out of crisis spring new opportunities. The transition to a new economy based on sustainability and democracy has been growing worldwide for decades now and is taking root in the United States. And the new economy is being founded in principles that strengthen people, communities and the planet.

We are literally in the midst of reshaping the world and as a result, this is the time to make the new economy in a way that is redefining, as economist Joel Magnuson writes, "what is good, beautiful, fair, or wholesome, and making sure that our economic system allows us to live according to these beliefs."

Magnuson is author of The Approaching Great Transformation: Toward a Livable Post- Carbon Economy. As the title implies, Magnuson focuses on the decline of fossil fuels and the ways this will force us to develop smaller localized economies that do not emphasize growth. ....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/17083-capitalism-in-crisis-our-opportunity-for-a-new-system