Reader’s Guide to Action

A Dozen Ways You Can
Advance Economic Democracy

IF OUR ECONOMY is built to serve the few and our aim is to democratize it, how do we begin? What can you as an individual do to be part of the economic transformation? Here is a starting list, to help you see your role in moving our economy from an aristocratic to a democratic system design.

Remember that change begins in the mind and that the new economy, when it comes, will reside in the minds of all of us. Recall how feminism made its advances through changing the minds of men and women, one at a time, until sexism was broadly rejected as illegitimate. We can make the same change with wealthism.

BECOME AWARE OF YOUR OWN OBSESSION WITH WEALTH

Wealthism is not only about believing wealthy persons are superior to others; it’s also about believing money is the measure of all things, that our self-worth resides in what we earn and what we own, that working long hours to earn money is more important than spending time with family and friends. Wealthism is about obsession with wealth. The first step to changing it is to see it in ourselves, because once we see it, it will naturally shift. Never underestimate the power of one transformed life and how it can inspire others.

Note: Special thanks to Charles Derber, author of Corporation Nation, for many ideas used in this chapter.

DISCUSS THESE IDEAS WITH YOUR FRIENDS

Educate yourself and others about how language and the media shape our perceptions. Start to pay attention to things you always took for granted before.

• Notice how often you read or hear that stockholders are “owners” of corporations. Talk with others about whether this is true or whether it’s an attempt to legitimize shareholder primacy. What does it mean to own something? Did slave masters really own their slaves?

• Tell your friends that more than 99 percent of stock market activity is speculation, not genuine investing. Call upon the used car analogy to explain that investor money reaches companies only when they sell new stock; “used stock” trades hands from one speculator to another. Are speculators the same as owners?

• Observe how the press speaks always of “investors” and not “speculators.” Try reading aloud to your friends a financial article and inserting “speculator” everywhere the word “investor” appears. Notice how different it feels.

• Watch how worried economists and the business press become when wages go up—how concerned they are about inflation or the impact on profits—and notice how elated they are when profits and the stock market go up. Talk with others about the underlying prejudices that are at work.

• Trust your own perceptions, and don’t believe it if you’re told, “You don’t understand basic economics.” Basic economics rests on key prejudices: shareholder primacy (the assertion that shareholders matter more than all others), property rights (the assumption that wealth rights deserve protection in law that must be denied to others), and free markets (the notion that government should be powerless to govern the economy, leaving the financial elite to govern it in their own self-interest).

• When you hear about a company being sold and leaving town, ask yourself, Who should have a say in that decision? Why are stockholders the only ones whose interests are considered in such decisions?

• Count how often in one week you hear about the movement of the Dow Jones industrial average, and how often you hear about the movement of wages or the state of the environment.

• When you read about CEOs and the illegitimate wealth they’re running off with, ask yourself if you ever read about the illegitimate wealth that stockholders are running off with. Why is stockholder wealth always considered legitimate? Is it?

DREAM UP CONCEPTS FOR PRANKS TO
GET THESE IDEAS OUT TO THE PUBLIC

Feminists organized a sit-in at The Ladies’ Home Journal and raided the Miss America pageant. Freedom fighters in the South had sit-ins at racially segregated lunch counters. American revolutionaries staged the Boston Tea Party. What are the pranks we can carry off to awaken the public to the reality of wealthism and the power of the financial elite? Is it time for another Boston Tea Party—a nationwide day of action called, perhaps, the Second American Revolution? We need some great pranks. And we need slogans for bumper stickers and T-shirts, to bring these ideas down to everyday reality. Send your ideas to [email protected], and we’ll post the best on our Web site, www.DivineRightofCapital.com.

START A CONSCIOUSNESS-RAISING GROUP
TO EDUCATE YOURSELF AND OTHERS ABOUT
YOUR RIGHTS AS EMPLOYEES

Keep it anonymous, so that everyone feels safe. Find and share Web sites about employee rights. Talk to each other about drug tests and how they make you feel. Learn about open-book management and why employees have a right to see financial statements. Read about employee-owned companies. Study European economies where workers have seats on boards of directors. Start to share information and act collectively with people at work; you don’t need a union to do so. Discuss salaries with one another, even though management says you can’t. Stop believing what the press tells you—that all unions are totally corrupt and backward—and ask whether this might be anti-labor prejudice at work. Start to imagine what it would feel like to have power at work.

BECOME ECONOMICALLY LITERATE

Companies pull the wool over your eyes only because you don’t pay attention. Read the fine print about your credit cards, and add up how much you’re spending on late fees and finance charges and interest in a year. If they seem excessive, call the company and protest; sometimes they’ll remove portions of fees. Don’t get stars in your eyes about home equity loans; look not at your monthly payment but at the total amount you will repay over the life of the loan. Read the business section of your newspaper, and keep reading it even if you don’t understand it, because eventually you will. Learn how to read financial statements. If we common folk are ever to have power economically, we need to have a clue about what’s going on in business and economics.

BECOME A SOCIAL INVESTOR

Visit www.SocialFunds.com and educate yourself about social investing. Historical performance shows that socially screened assets do not underperform other assets, as shown by the Domini Social Index (DSI), a screened cousin of the S&P 500. For the ten years through August 2002, the DSI substantially outperformed the S&P, with average annual returns of 11.36 percent, compared to the S&P at 10.4 percent. Consider putting your funds into a socially responsible mutual fund that files shareholder resolutions and does community investing, which means it’s really committed to social change. Consider doing community investing yourself with 1 to 5 percent of your assets—for example, taking out a certificate of deposit with a socially oriented bank or credit union, where loans are made with a social conscience. A great place to get started in community investing is through the Calvert Social Investment Foundation, a nonprofit that offers a professionally managed note (a debt instrument) that allows individuals in essence to invest together in a variety of community development financial institutions (www.CalvertFoundation.org).

LOBBY FOR YOUR STATE, CHURCH,
AND UNIVERSITY PENSION FUNDS AND
ENDOWMENTS TO BE SOCIALLY INVESTED

Encourage your church to get involved in the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility in New York City, a group of religious institutional investors who are using their combined clout to influence corporations. Start a campaign for your state treasurer to adopt a policy of “smart investing,” as California State Treasurer Phil Angelides has done, so that infrastructure loans, pension fund investments, and other state financial decisions are made using social criteria. Contact his office for a copy of the June 1999 report Smart Investments (Office of California State Treasurer Phil Angelides, 915 Capitol Mall, Room 110, Sacramento, California 95814; 916/653-2995; or www.treasurer.ca.gov).

START A READING AND DISCUSSION GROUP
ABOUT ECONOMIC DEMOCRACY

Read and talk about reclaiming our economy from the financial elite. You can start by educating yourself on the history of corporations and reading about alternatives. Besides The Divine Right of Capital, other related books you can read include David Korten’s The Post-Corporate World; Lawrence Mitchell’s Corporate Irresponsibility; Ralph Estes’s Tyranny of the Bottom Line; POCLAD’s Defying Corporations, Defining Democracy; Jeff Gates’s Democracy at Risk; and Charles Derber’s Corporation Nation.

WORK TO CHANGE THE STATE LAWS
THAT DEFINE CORPORATE PURPOSE

Former corporate attorney Robert Hinkley (for his article in Business Ethics, see www.business-ethics.com) has proposed a model law, the Code for Corporate Responsibility, to say that directors may not maximize profits for shareholders if it is at the expense of employees, the community, and the environment. This law could change corporations at the level of their DNA; its effects could be profound. A grassroots group has formed in Minnesota to pursue passage, and the Nader-inspired group CitizenWorks is encouraging similar state groups to form. (See www.citizenworks.org, or call 202/265-6164.)

VOTE IN ALL ELECTIONS, INCLUDING PRIMARIES

Attend party caucus meetings; you’ll be surprised at the influence you can have. Don’t give up on the political system; it is the only way we will ever make lasting change. You might also consider getting involved in enacting election reform (see www.publicampaign.org).

SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT THIS BOOK

With the glut of books out there, it’s hard for a book from a smaller publisher to get attention. Your help is needed. Tell six people to read The Divine Right of Capital. Tell your library to buy it. Ask your local bookstore to carry it. If you’re a teacher, use this book in class; it’s already being used in many college courses, from accounting and career planning to ethics. If you’re a student, suggest it to your professor. Visit www.DivineRightofCapital.com and download copy to make an e-mail message about the book; send the message out to friends and ask them to read the book and pass the e-mail on.

BECOME A FOUNDING MEMBER OF THE
NEW ECONOMIC DEMOCRACY PROJECT I’M STARTING

Founding membership is $25 and includes a one-year subscription to my publication Business Ethics, which offers ideas both radical and practical about corporate accountability. Visit DivineRightofCapital.com to learn more. Or sign up for the free e-mail newsletter, BizEthics Buzz, and keep up to date on news, trends, and resources. You’ll also learn about where I’m speaking and other events of interest. Send your e-mail address to [email protected], and ask to be put on the free BizEthics Buzz list.