The Solution Revolution: Conscious capitalism and capitalism's future in global economy

Book Reviewed: The Solution Revolution: How Business, Government, and Social Enterprises Are Teaming Up to Solve Society's Toughest Problems, by William D. Eggers

The 2011 Wall Street protesters shook our conscience regarding the traditional way of thinking about wealth-sharing. Why the top one percent is controlling the global economy when the 99 percent majority continues to be poorer. Why don't we bring some kind of consciousness into our capitalism that helps solve societal problems besides making profits and higher returns for the stockholders? This book addresses that question in a socially responsible way. The authors suggest that we can create a trillion-dollar market by unlocking the value of underutilized global resources in a way that was never possible before. In a world where the global population is nine billion, governments alone cannot sustain the overwhelming problems, but citizens need to team up with business, social enterprises, philanthropists, non-profit organizations such as universities, research institutions and hospitals with the government participation to tackle the society's problems. This will break the traditional boundaries that exist between the public and private sectors and the society. This is a shift from the government dominated model to one in which government is just one player. In 2009 alone, American philanthropists exceeded the United States government aid by $9 billion; 184 corporations, at an average of $22 million each, contributed to global philanthropy; the total exceeding $15 billion. Institutional investors funded groups that create public value, thus increasing socially responsible investing to $1 trillion. This demonstrates that it is possible to for the public, private and citizens to collaborate and compete to solve mega-problems. Instead of patching market failures, we can create a market for solutions. The underlying economic concepts are the same; the supply and demand; goods and services; trade and distribution; capital markets and government regulation. What is new is that the participants and how they interact. The authors suggest six features in their plan; the wave-makers who can solve societal problems; innovative technologies - fast and furious; business models that can scale up; currencies, public value exchanges and ecologically responsible approach are central to the solution. Gradually the political, legal and economic infrastructure will realign with new developments. The final results can be measured in terms of lives saved by improved and immediately available healthcare, mass education and lowering the gap between wealthy and poor. The book is innovative and revolutionary. If this idea works, I think humanity has future and everyone is able to rejoice at the new found meaning for global economic equality.