I'm afraid I assumed that most people know who Gar Alperovitz is and what he's been advocating for decades.
That was obviously a big miscalculation on my part.
In short, Alperovitz is suggesting that our problems are systemic and that we need to completely rethink our economic model by, among other things, increasing the instances of democracy in business and in the workplace. Co-ops, such as credit unions, provide a good example of this. Single-payer healthcare (which theoretically is run by us rather than by insurance companies) would be another quite different example. The source of optimism from this talk is that although it's not publicized, there are already more than 100 million Americans who are part of worker-owned businesses. (Credit unions and ESOPs are two of the biggest.) Also, although single-payer was taken "off the table" on the national level, there are numerous statewide efforts to make it happen.
In addition, Alperovitz, who once worked for the Congressman who helped to start Earth Day, quite provocatively, criticizes Bill McKibben (whom he nonetheless respects) for attempting to roll back carbon emissions in an economy that is predicated on profit and growth. He also points out that when economic times get tough, environmental concerns are often some of the first things that are "temporarily" set aside. (Although Alperovitz doesn't mention this, I would argue that a struggling economy and the relentless need for growth are what make the Keystone XL pipeline palatable to people who would otherwise consider the whole proposition insane and suicidal.)
My apologies. Sincerely.
Ironically, I think the very fact that Alperovitz is unknown to many of us is symptomatic of the systemic problems he highlights in his talk.
= new reply since forum marked as read
fo posting.
