This is adapted from a talk that I gave at Conscious Company’s World Changing Women’s Summit on January 29, 2020. Click here to book me for your next conference.

FIVE RULES FOR CONSIDERATE CAPITALISM

1. Fuck the status quo.

2. Reshape the role of markets.

3. Design with human nature in mind.

4. Seek to minimize harm to others.

5. Figure out what part you will play.

Rule #1: Fuck the status quo.

By many indicators to gauge the state of the world, America is in a rough spot.

• Income inequality is the highest it’s been in 50 years. [source]

• The national birth rate has fallen to a historic low. [source]

• We are the richest and most powerful country in the world, yet life expectancy has consistently declined in the last 6 years due to drug overdoses, suicides, alcohol-related illnesses and obesity. [source]

• In 2017, 40 million people struggled with food insecurity in the United States. 1 in 6 American children don’t know where their next meal is coming from. [source]

• 36 million adults in the U.S. lack the basic literacy skills needed to sustain employment. [source]

• At least 63 million Americans have been exposed to unsafe drinking water in the last decade, and recently the Trump administration stripped protections for the water sources of nearly one-third of all Americans. [source and source]

• Climate change has become a clear and present crisis. In the US alone, the cost of climate-related disasters has topped $525 billion dollars in the last five years. [source]

We are experiencing a reckoning, y’all. And something has got to give.

Let’s not waste time fighting about a past when America was considered “great” and by whom. Instead I ask this question: What has she done for us lately?

Now, don’t it it twisted, I love being an American. This is my land. Which is why I will fight for it to keep getting better every damn day. And the best place to start, is from a place of TRUTH.

The truth is: in colonial times… we imported autocracy, transformed it into oligarchy, and branded it as democracy.

The truth is: we live in “the land of the free”, but it has yet to make good on its promise. And that promise was disingenuous from the beginning.

The truth is: that so much of class, race, and gender struggles point directly to BUSINESS as a source. 

The truth is: bigotry, prejudice, and discrimination are symptoms of a capitalist disease that should have been quarantined a very long time ago (spoiler alert: the disease is GREED).

And the the truth is: it’s now our way of life. We’ve gotten really comfortable with the way things are. 

We are highly adaptable beings and if you raise the temperature gradually enough, you can get used to hell without even realizing it. It’s easy to get comfortable with things that are wrong. But here’s the problem with comfort: if that’s all you ever look for, then you’ll never find TRUTH. 

Greatness doesn’t come from staying within your comfort zone. And change is going to happen anyway -- with or without you. Change isn’t easy, but the more we resist it, the more pain we experience. Having the ability to grow and change -- especially yourself -- is everything.

So, FUCK THE STATUS QUO. You can make a choice today about what role you will play in the future of business. At most, will you be a leader of change...? At the least, will you be able to keep up...?

Rule #2: We must reshape the role that markets play in our lives.

When I say markets, I mean how we buy and sell stuff.

When I say that many class, race, and gender struggles point to business as a source, it’s because we’ve continuously fabricated social reasons to justify the immoral behaviors of business throughout history. Slavery. Genocide. Health crises. Senseless gun violence, just to name a few. You can trace almost all of it back to a small group of people who want to make money.

In a world where almost everything is for sale, money begets power, and power corrupts people. Also, in a world where everything is for sale, money decides life and death, because it becomes a means of survival.

As the wealthy get wealthier, people on the bottom end of the income scale are stuck, running in place. Today, we have record low unemployment rates, yet wages can’t keep up with the basic costs of staying alive. Eventually, this becomes a problem for the rich, too. Wealth can only insulate the rich from instability for so long. 

At some point, you have to care, even if it’s not out of compassion. It’s more expensive to ignore inequality than it is to fix it. And I’m not just talking about dollars and cents, but danger and violence. Inequality inevitably paves the way for social and economic dysfunction. History has proven it. When systems and institutions stop delivering on their promises, people stop following the rules that prop them up.

The antidote to inequality is MOBILITY. So, if we want to move people up the income ladder… if we want to have healthy and thriving economies… then people need to have their basic needs met. 

People need and should be entitled to:

• Good healthcare; 

• A safe place to live, rest, and sleep;

• Clean air, clean water, and healthy food;

• An honest and useful education;

• A livable wage or resources to satisfy other essential needs; 

• And an equal vote. 

These are the basics and there is enough for everyone. So, we have to ask ourselves: Should money make the world go ‘round? 

Some of these things may involve monetization, but we should be judicious about what we commoditize and how. Many economists and business people like to pretend that markets are neutral, but that's an increasingly absurd notion. Markets shape behaviors and cultural norms. 

They "crowd out" other things that lack market incentives (AKA stuff that doesn’t make money hand over fist). Markets have allowed money to creep in and suffocate the value of things we should hold sacred. Like healthcare, education, a living wage… and truth.

Markets are also built on a baseline assumption of infinite growth. Just think of the stock exchange and how it’s only supposed to go up. When things drop significantly, it’s catastrophic. Infinite growth is not sustainable, yet we pretend like there’s no other way. There’s a tyranny to the idea of mobility when people are ONLY allowed to go up. 

Obviously, for people at the bottom, they suffer from having inadequate means to survive, but for the people at the top, it’s an unending rat race. There’s pressure to keep that money growing. This expectation is ultimately is passed down to the next generation, who then take on major anxieties and stress, and it becomes no wonder why “deaths of despair” are at an all-time high.

This means that we should have systems that presuppose that people will go up AND down. And it has to be okay for both. As long as basic needs are covered, people can lead happy lives. Because the truth is: a person’s quality of life is actually best measured by the quality of their relationships.

I’m paraphrasing the famous therapist Esther Perel here: “The bonds and the connections that we make with other people give us a greater sense of meaning, happiness, and well-being than any other human experience.”

Nowhere in there do you see the words: money, wealth, or business.

So, Rule 2: Reshape the role of markets. We must recognize the moral challenges they pose, and continuously make adjustments. And we must untether someone's “worth” from how much money they possess, and instead, tie it to what they do to contribute to our collective goals. 

Rule 3: Let’s design with human nature in mind.

Remember how I said that a lot of class, race, and gender struggles point to business as a source…? I believe that it’s because humans are highly corruptible. I think it all boils down to SURVIVAL. Our instinct to survive is powerful, and we all have the capacity to be both GOOD and BAD.

Natural selection doesn’t give a shit about values and morality. They are subjective anyway, shifting over time with changes in culture. Kindness, generosity, AND greed and violence are all characteristics that exist inside of all of us because they have allowed our species to make it this far. We are naturally programmed to keep ourselves alive, thus we are inherently self-interested.

When you understand this alongside our relationship to money, how money helps ensure one’s survival, and how business is a means of acquiring it, the picture gets clearer. This is not to say that a person can’t ever be self-interested in business, but sometimes you have to choose the greater good over yourself. My bet is that knowing our limitations is half of the battle, and that having “purpose” and “accountability” is the other half.

I believe that many of us can come together, redefine the rules of business, and use it as a tool for changing other systems through an equity lens.

As the political philosopher Michael Sandel says: "People should be able to truly rise as far as their efforts and talents will take them.”

That means we have to redesign things with an aim to divest from the “winner takes all” and “zero-sum” culture that it’s centered around today.

So let’s talk about what makes that possible. There are three key elements that nurture innovation: community, opportunity, and safety.

• COMMUNITY refers to groups of people who you have meaningful access to. In one case, for emotional support and solidarity. In the other case, to create a solution that most effectively solves their problem (they may or may not be the same group).

• OPPORTUNITY is... a “chance”... a “shot”... it may be luck… it’s the train you can hop onto to create something new. 

• SAFETY is protection from financial, mental, and physical risk.

All three of these things must be present for every person we want to innovate and lead. It’s the only way to create a considerate capitalist society.

A “considerate capitalist society” is one that has agile systems that can move and adjust with quickly-changing times. It has a flexible process that allows us to experiment and iterate over time. A considerate capitalist society allows us to try things that we know are equally as likely to fail as they are to succeed, and, it has a response for either outcome. It has solid feedback loops, and based on what we learn, it allows us to make decisions around growth, repair, or scrapping and starting over.

A considerate capitalist society requires an equitable distribution of power and resources. We know our limits, so let’s take a pragmatic approach to implementing this.

That pragmatism should guide us to maximize satisfaction for ourselves, while minimizing suffering for others.

Which brings me to…

Rule #4: Minimize harm to others.

Humans are guided by a moral grammar—an innate set of rules that help us shape what’s right. This isn’t just about right and wrong, though. As I mentioned, there will always be evil as long as there is good, and each of us is capable of both, depending on the circumstances. What this is actually about is understanding what’s EFFECTIVE and INEFFECTIVE at achieving our goals, and doing so in a morally-acceptable way.

But first we have to define those goals, and define the line of morality. And in order to do that, we have to talk to each other. That means we must create spaces for truthful and authentic discourse on today’s pressing issues, because we can’t solve problems that haven’t been acknowledged. The first step is admitting you have one.

If we want to continue our species into the future, then the community has to sometimes come before individual needs. This should be coupled with changing how we value people, shifting it away from material assets, and normalizing a worth that’s based on contributions to the common good. To be successful, we need to align market incentives around the concept of minimizing harm to others. And not just here at home, but globally. 

We also have to own the repercussions of what we do. When our innovations create problems, we should be expected to repair and fix the harm done. We should be willing to be held accountable.

Here’s the challenge—as humans, it’s really hard for us to apply the same level of consideration to others outside of the people we actually know. But we have no other choice. We are ALL connected. The future of business requires you to look beyond yourself.

My vision for a better future is: 

• One where people are committed to their personal growth and doing something to improve the lives of others who need help.

• It’s one where people are trying to preserve genuine goodwill in the commons. 

• It’s one where everyone’s needs are met at a level that ensures safety and satisfaction.

• It’s one where people don’t want to take from others without a willingness to replace it with something equally valuable. 

• It’s one that holds bad actors accountable for their transgressions.

We need to explore a world where we build businesses in a moral and socially-accountable way, and we need to allow more people to have a crack at doing it. 

Rule #5: Figure out what role you will play.

Think of changing the world as changing YOUR world. Solve problems for communities that you have meaningful access to, or support the people who are already doing the work (no one likes it when a stranger comes to town forcing their “ivory tower solutions” on everyone).

So, start with yourself and what’s close to home. When the problems feel too big and overwhelming, focus on what you can handle. Lower the stakes. What can you consistently show up and do? Master that, then grow from there.

Commit to a lifetime of learning. Be curious, be open, be flexible, and be willing to admit when wrong. You won’t get things right every time, none of of us do.

Join a community that’s aligned with your values. Respect it and be useful. Protect it. Preserve ferociously the things that make the community meaningful and valuable to its members. Create a foundation of mutualism and collaboration. Put that to work on problems you think you can solve.

Figure out what part you’re going to play, because we are the saviors we’ve all been waiting for. Remember, history does not look kindly on inaction.

To create conscious economies and considerate capitalism, we must start from the most basic foundation of who we are. HUMANS. We are sophisticated animals, but we’re constrained by the limits of the stuff we are physically made of. Our minds make us exceptional, but the systems we have built around us currently exploit the worst parts in order to collect and hoard money and power.

The transition won’t happen overnight, but we don’t have to have a solution for every problem to get started.

We have to neutralize fear, which means changing our relationship to money into one where our survival doesn’t depend on it. Because as long as that’s true, we will all continue to suffer.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

As you think about your place in all of this, here are some suggestions and questions for you to work through.

• Define your Values and your Purpose (keep it simple)

  • Who are you? 

  • What guides you? What motivates you? 

  • What do you draw on when you have to make hard decisions? 

  • What kind of legacy do you want to leave behind? 

• Create your own systems for self-improvement and accountability 

  • You need a mirror (someone to reflect your words and actions back to you). Start with honest people that you trust.

  • Listen to their observations with an open mind. Even if their delivery isn’t perfect, there’s likely something important about who you are /what you do in what they share.

• Break bread regularly with people unlike yourself

  • Observe and LISTEN to other people’s experiences and allow them to inform your own. 

  • Believing is FREE. Trust but verify, if you need to. It costs you nothing to acknowledge someone’s pain.

  • Do not make others responsible for your feelings.

• Support the fight for social justice 

  • Make space for marginalized groups. Start close to home.

  • Be kind. Make yourself useful. Have patience.

  • Give money, time, access to causes or leaders that resonate.

  • Make attempts to minimize harm done to others everyday.

QUESTIONS TO PONDER

• How do we make human survival less dependent on money? Should valuable contributions to the commons become a new kind of currency or a way to obtain it? If so, how could we normalize it?

• How can we realign business incentives so they can tackle major challenges, avoid active harm to people? When should we engage in disruptive vs. non-disruptive innovation? 

• Are humans capable of consistently making decisions that go against our self-interest but serve the greater good? Can we move beyond self-actualization to community actualization? How should we measure this and hold ourselves accountable?

• How far do we want to continue pushing beyond what was intended for human life (ex: living off-planet, cloning, robotics)?

• How can we successfully create a world where every person is valued equally? What does that consist of? Beyond the basics needs for survival, should everyone have equal things (wealth and possessions)? What’s YOUR biggest fear of a world where this is true?

• With seismic social shifts, what happens to the things—especially tangible things—that already exist?

• How can we respectfully question the decisions of the past, decide if effectively meets our needs, and make new decisions for our future?

• How can we create better checks and balances for our institutions while building in measures for agility and speed?

• How can we create spaces for truthful, authentic discussion? How can we then turn these discussions into policy?

• Are there too many expectations for us today? Should we re-examine the role and duty of “model citizens”? What would a world look like where it’s OK for people to choose to live a life that’s less ambitious?