"Moving from an 'I' economy to a 'We' economy" At the May Bay Area Thought Leader Gathering, Peter Barnes posed the question he'd been wrestling with for years: “Is there a way to have a market-based economic system that doesn’t destroy the planet and widen the inequality between humans, and makes us happy? Is that even conceivable?”

Capitalism 3.0 is an expansion of the idea of trusteeship. Our whole system is currently run by an OS that has major flaws. Peter asks, "What would Bill Gates do? Get into the OS and see what kind of upgrades are needed… What are the bugs that are causing the problem, and is it possible to fix those bugs?"

More on Peter's model and "The Challenge" he posed to the group....

The model of capitalism imagined by Peter—Capitalism 3.0—is a balanced system where you still have capitalism, pursuing their own profits, but you also have a Commons sector, and organized sector that consists of many different trusts that preserve common assets for future generations. Not only preserves them, but they charge rent and have the ability to recycle some of those resources back to the beneficiaries, all people – one person one share.

The implication of that is that although the corporations are maximizing their profit—5% of America owns most of the public stock—if you offset that with a more balanced sharing – one share one person – you begin to balance this economic equation. Now that it is harder and harder to make money through your labor, it is becoming more and more important to have some property to call on.

The Challenge: "You’re all imaginative, creative people. Think about some piece of the commons… that you feel a real affinity to, that isn’t being adequately protected, managed, What might you do to change that, or protect that particular piece? Say a creek, or a watershed, or maybe something more intangible… bicycle path, transportation, wi-fi system that serves everybody. This is a creative question. What’s missing where you could add something that would protect or enhance something that we all share?"

And last but not least: in considering these bigger questions: What is your personal legacy? What is our collective legacy?

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