Our Common Wealth by Jonathan Rowe

Our Common Wealth by Jonathan Rowe

Author:Jonathan Rowe
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Published: 2013-03-19T07:00:00+00:00


OUR COMMON WEALTH

PRACTICE

Jonathan Rowe wasn’t only a thinker; he was also a doer and an admirer of doers. In this part of the book he discusses current and potential efforts to make the commons a vibrant counterweight to the market.

One new practice he invites is better accounting of common wealth. This would reveal that much of what we think is growth is in fact a cannibalization of assets we depend on. No business would last long if it were managed this way.

Other practices Rowe wants more of would enlarge the public domains of science, art, and ideas. The Constitution allows patents and copyrights for “limited times” only because, in the founders’ minds, the purpose of these monopolies is to populate the world of freely exchanged ideas. Today, long-lasting intellectual property rights impede creativity and research.

Rowe envisioned other practical twenty-first-century uses of the commons. For example, time-banking systems could match unmet human needs with people willing and able to meet them. And trusts that charge market prices for use of common resources could generate cash income for millions. A proven model for this is the Alaska Permanent Fund, which pays all Alaskans equal dividends from state oil leases. “This isn’t wealth redistribution,” Rowe observes “It is a return to owners for use of their property.”

Chapter 15, “Build It and They Will Sit,” tells how Rowe and a friend seeded a commons in their home town. They fixed up some old garden benches, deposited them in a vacant lot, added a bunch of tree stumps, and waited. Very quickly, an informal town square took shape.

Other practical measures Rowe encourages include municipal wi-fi, open source software, farmers’ markets, trusts to protect ecosystems, and more time off from jobs. He concludes that seeds of a new commons movement are spreading. What are needed now, he says, are new commons institutions and property rights, and “government nurturing the commons as zealously as it nurtures corporations.”



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