Capitalism 3.0 by Peter Barnes Chapter 9: Building the Commons Sector

Capitalism 3.0by Peter Barnes

Chapter 9: Building the Commons Sector

Local Initiatives:

• -Land Trusts:• -Surface Water Trusts:• -Groundwater Trusts:• -Community Gardens:• -Farmers’ Markets:• -Public Spaces:• Time Banks:• Municipal WI-FI

Regional Initiatives:• -Air Trusts • -Watershed Trusts• -Buffalo Commons

National Initiatives:-An American Permanent Fund

-The Children’s Opportunity Trust

-A spectrum Trust

-Commons Tax Credits

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Global Initiatives:

• -Global Atmospheric Commons• “the deeper problem is that nearly two hundred sovereign nations are trying to

negotiate a deal that satisfies everyone. The process is inherently cumbersome, and not surprisingly, the results fall far short of what scientists say is necessary.”

• “…once trustees are appointed, their loyalty would shift from individual nations or regions to future generations. This is critical…”

• “The general membership could override a trustee decision by, say, a two-thirds majority. In this way, signatory nations could put short-term interests over long-term ones, but they’d have to do so explicitly, and implicitly admit to stealing or borrowing from future generations”(149).

• “Compared to the benefit we and all nations would gain, a stabilized climate, our

loss of sovereignty would be small potatoes”(150).



The Children’s Opportunity Trust

• It’s a way to fix capitalism’s other bad habit of perpetuating class privileges from one generation to the next.

• The Children’s Opportunity Trust would give every child, as a birthright, an

infusion of start-up capital, a kind of Social Security for the front end of life.



Commons Tax Credits

• “The federal government would raise the uppermost tax bracket by a few percentage points. At the same time, it would give affected taxpayers a choice: pay the extra money to the government, or contribute it to one or more qualified commons trusts.

• The message to the wealthy thus is: You have to give back more. Whether you give it to the IRS or directly to the commons is up to you. If you want to eliminate the government middleman, that’s fine.

• What qualifies as a commons trust? It’s a trust that either benefits all citizens more or less equally or collects money to restore an endangered commons” (147).

An American Permanent Fund

• “The American Permanent Fund’s income would come in part from the sale of pollution permits, mostly for carbon dioxide, and in part from the commons’ share of corporate profits”(143).

• “This revenue source would give every citizen a stake in increasing corporate profits, just as the first source gives them a stake in decreasing pollution”(144).

• “It’s a way to fix, or at least ameliorate, capitalism’s flaw of concentrating private property among the top 5 percent of the population”(144).

Success stories…

New York City’s Bryant Park• “-the success of the park feeds the success of the

neighborhood. The chorus was joined by the business community, whose assessments helped fund the renewal and now benefit from higher rents and property values.” -http://www.bryantpark.org/



Richmond Land Trust

We have led the effort to conserve approximately 650 acres of Richmond farms, river banks, woodlands and recreation areas & important parts of the quality of life people enjoy here

･ Helped save the former Universalist Church and the Elementary School, historic buildings now housing the Richmond Free Library, and the Town Center and Post Office

･ Spearheaded a project to preserve three historic farmsteads in town, including twin “monitor” barns and 1,000 acres of surrounding agricultural and forest lands ･ Created canoe and fishing access points along the Winooski River ･ Established hiking trails through the town’s floodplain forest & one of the few remaining in Vermont

• Is Public Access Required?• Not necessarily. Some funding sources may require public access, but no agreement is ever finalized without

the landowner agreeing to the full set of terms. The Richmond Land Trust has protected several parcels in Richmond which the owners and their families have kept private. As noted above, all conservation agreements are tailored to meet each landowner’s family and financial objectives.

(http://www.richmondlandtrust.org/)• Is this still an example of the commons if parts of it are private?



Farmers’ Markets• There are now nearly four thousand farmers’ markets

in the fifty states, double the number that existed ten years ago” (139). Burlington Farmers’ Market: 8:30-2:30, Every Saturday. City Hall Park from Mothers day weekend to Halloween weekend. “The market has been in City Hall park for over 25 years now,”“Items sold are limited to locally produced Vermont agriculture-oriented products

and crafts manufactured in Vermont.”

(http://burlingtonfarmersmarket.org)





The Role of Government

• 1. Until it assigns responsibility for a commons to someone else, government is the default trustee, and should be held to trusteeship standards.

• 2. Government is the initial assigner and ultimate arbiter of property rights. Instead of privatizing nearly everything, it should assign more property rights to commons trusts and give commons rights precedence over capital’s.

• 3. Only government can broker inter- and intragenerational compacts like Social Security and Medicare. We need government to do this again for health insurance and the Children’s Opportunity Trust.

• 4. Government can help finance the reacquisition and restoration of previously privatized pieces of the commons.

Documents

Capitalism 3.0 by Peter Barnes Chapter 9: Building the Commons Sector