Our current experience of capitalism -- corporate, short-term and globalized -- is rapidly squandering our shared inheritances. Peter Barnes, Co-Founder and Former President of Working Assets Long Distance, a wireless, long distance and credit card company that links its products with donations to nonprofit groups, examines the dynamics of the market place in Capitalism 3.0: A Guide to Reclaiming the Commons. Barnes argues that capitalism in its current form gives too much power to profit-maximizing corporations that deplete the public goods on which our life depends, and distribute their profits among only a small percentage of the population. Barnes does not reject capitalism, but proposes an alternative framework -- Capitalism 3.0 -- that protects the commons while preserving the many strengths of capitalism as we know it.
Join the New America Foundation for a brownbag lunch session featuring Peter Barnes as he points the way to a future that would enable us to retain capitalism’s virtues while mitigating its vices, followed by a question and answer dialogue moderated by Mark Schmitt.
Copies of Barnes' book will be available for purchase after the event.
Peter Barnes Senior Fellow, Tomales Bay Institute Co-Founder and Former President, Working Assets Long Distance Author, Capitalism 3.0: A Guide to Reclaiming the Commons
Mark Schmitt Senior Fellow, New America Foundation