Common Wealth: For a Free, Equal, Mutual, and Sustainable Society

by Martin Large

"Brings us bang up to date and tackles difficult questions from the perspective of a man who has made new ideas work. In fact, he has inspired me to re-think much of what I do." -- Alastair Sawday (from the foreword) Just when "the market" nearly took over all areas of life, the credit, climate and democratic crunches came along, challenging us to rebuild a society that works well for all. Common Wealth asks, 'How can we build a more free, equal, mutual and sustainable society?' We know that we don't want a "market state." This turns our public services into businesses, uses relentless surveillance to secure compliance, destroys the planet for corporate growth and widens inequality. However, tripolar society is emerging as an alternative, where civil society, government and business push back the market, and work in partnership for the common good. Common Wealth tackles key challenges for remaking society building a sustainable local economy, vibrant culture and community - transforming capitalism for public good and for individual enterprise - securing permanently affordable homes for all through community land trusts - enabling social inclusion and individual initiative through the Citizen's Income - freeing education from bureaucracy and children from commercialism - leading and learning from the social future as it emerges.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2010

Reviews

[Curtis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very well researched--the author is brimming with anecdotes and examples of (almost) anything needed to back up his points. His argumentation is a bit spotty in places, however. At one point while defending Universal Basic Income he says "research shows that most people are motivated to work," without saying what research he's citing, or what 'most people' or 'work' means. Throughout the book he uses a false dichotomy between the common good and commodification, when in reality the two often spill into each other). In one or two places he veers into pseudo science by advocating against GMOs and citing debunked papers.

Despite the hiccups, the broad strokes of his arguments are really enlightening, and definitely worth looking at for someone looking at capitalism and realizing how broken it is, and how it's only getting worse. I was introduced to a lot of social programs that sound like good ideas (land value tax, de-centralized and progressive approaches to education, community land trusts, etc), as well as good arguments to bolster my already-favorable opinions on things like Universal Basic Income.

Large also does a great job at sounding the alarm to really bad trends which serve to turn robust social programs into profit-generators that gouge the average person and decrease the standard of living. He does a good job at painting a picture of the decline of things like the National Health Service and UK's education system. Though there are large sections where he fails to hold my attention and other areas where I simply didn't understand what he was talking about--and Large rarely takes pains to explain certain subjects to people who haven't heard of them before--I found the book to be a useful introduction to social threefolding.