Dear Colleagues,
I am rejoining the list after a long hiatus. I am involved in work on
collaboration and learning cross-organizationally through a learning
network (http://www.collaborative-learning.org), and also write, run
workshops, and consult through my company Learning Mastery
(http://www.learnmaster.com). My bio is at
http://www.learnmaster.com/bio_dori.html. Thanks in advance for sharing
this dialog on learning with me.
In response to Robert Bacal's post:
>Our free market, capitalist system is based on the premise that it is to
>the common good to have a competitive, market driven and money driven
>society, BECAUSE it is better than any alternative yet suggested. The
>pursuit of money, while it leaves me cold, allows companies to grow, to
>develop, to draw investment, to employ people, to return money to
>shareholders, to pay pensions, to finance foundations (Gates is an
>example), and tons more.
>
>If one is going to suggest that this change, then it seems to me, that
>to be coherent, one would have to describe how a society NOT based on
>profit would work. And so far, the best minds of the world have not been
>able to make those descriptions into reality.
I agree with this statement. Making profit is not a problem --- it's how
you do it (sustainably and fairly) and what you do with the profit
(provide shareholder value, workers value, improve the world). I believe
the era of rapacious capatilism is coming to an end (Seattle and the WTO);
where has to be an investment in sustainability for everyone. I just went
to a Cultural Survival fair today, and there products produced by a
weaving cooperative in Guatemala were shown. 550 women buy, weave,
distribute, and share the profits, a % of which go to fund new cooperative
ventures. Another example is the Equal Exchange cooperative of coffee
growers. If this "free agent nation" change in the West really takes hold,
we have an opportunity to network together and use our profits to fund
positive change. I know this sounds very idealistic, but at the same time
I'm not sure that there's a viable alternative in the end. It may be that
we have to play it out, however, before we understand what real profit is.
Best,
[Host's Note: Welcome back, Dori! ...Rick]
--Dori Digenti <digenti@learnmaster.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>