This is a paper written to further Richard Cornuelle’s abiding vision of a more responsible economy and posted here to invite comment. The basic idea is revisit the whole idea of a market economy dominated by absentee-owned and publicly traded corporations (“Wall Street Capitalism”) that disconnect companies (“the Mother of all disconnects”) from the natural desires of the people working in the companies to improve their communities. Locally-owned family firms, worker cooperatives, employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), and even Japanese-style community firms are alternative forms of enterprises that are naturally more socially responsible. The point is not to assume large companies run by disconnected managers who need to be trained or incentivized to be more “socially responsible.” The point is to look at forms of corporate organization wherein the company staff can use their organized capacities to improve their own communities so that markets will naturally operate in a more responsible manner. Instead of only trying to make the philanthropic sector work better to clean up after irresponsible absentee-owned businesses; the idea is to make enterprises and markets more responsible in the first place.
Click here to download the paper for comments.