(Author's note: this is a revised version of a previous post. I received some great and critical feedback, which, hopefully, is reflected here.)
Whether you recently lost your home or your job, had a pay cut, had to run up your credit, or can't get a loan, most of us are reeling from the breakdown of our economy. Our heads and hearts are pounding with the raw hangover of capitalism run wild—the aftermath of testosterone, hubris, greed, excess, I win/you lose, see-you-at-the-billion-dollar-bail-out-spa.
Mirroring individual turmoil, our collective credit card is beyond maxed out: the national debt is estimated around $10.6 trillion, growing at $3.5 billion per day, while our nation's annual "salary" (i.e., taxes and other revenue) is only around $2.5 trillion.
The good news about capitalism's failure here in the U.S. is the prospect of coming together to design something better. We are well on our way to "hitting bottom," as recovering addicts would say, and reinvention of capitalism itself is now a very real possibility. And the time is ripe.
Yet our impulse is to tinker and not to reinvent. Some say it’s time for socialism, or quasi-socialism. Others want less regulation or more regulation. New relief packages are under way, and more bailouts are lining up to be done. Yet how can we trust any of these ideas?
I don’t think we can. We as a nation have lost trust in the steering mechanism itself. To restore it will take individual responsibility and great leadership—nothing short of a national economic reinvention that provides a new, bold, and global vision. Tinkering with what has failed us in the past will only get us more of the same.
So as surprised as I find myself saying this, it’s time to discard evolution and get back to creation. Just as our nation’s founders did so brilliantly so long ago, we must now take on the larger questions of who we want to be from an economic standpoint. Let’s put together a team to create it deliberately, expediently, smartly, and in a way that reflects the greatest good we can imagine—the best in all of us. I suggest we make it a big thing: a new Manhattan Project . . . or a Moon Shot for the reinvention of capitalism itself.
Unlike the industrial revolution, or the reactive post-depression era translation of our values into economic behavior, this time we can rethink our system from greater self-awareness—better informed by history's mistakes and lessons, enabled by great technology and global communication, and in the bright and sober light of the morning after.
And let’s not shoot the horse—capitalism has great potential and rock solid core ideas. Ratchet it back to its positive intentions and you have the American Dream: the desire to give everyone a chance to “succeed” through entrepreneurial freedom, opportunity, and innovation. In short, the best of capitalism is turning possibility into fruition. It’s about kindness toward the dreamer willing to roll up their sleeves and take risks. It’s a passion to create something great out of nothing.
This team will likely have to rethink how we define success. To restore trust and make it sustainable, our notion of economic and individual “success” itself will likely have to encompass values more relevant to the needs of people around the world. Fortune, fame, and the private-jet CEO are dinosaurs. Is that the best that humanity in 2009 can do?
So let's make it a national priority to sequester and empower a brilliant team of people—the best and brightest from around the world. Lock them in a room until they reinvent capitalism, and come up with a plan to implement it. Whether it’s economic team Obama, which seems unlikely, as it’s already up to its gonads in crises, or a more nimble group, we’re going to have to support it by not settling for less. We’re way beyond the curative value of hand-wringing, worrying, and tinkering.
Yes, I’m proposing we redesign and rebuild the car while it’s driving down the track at 200 miles per hour. Some might say that’s impossible, and they may be right. Yet it’s falling apart anyway, so what have we to lose by trying? When it comes to America, history has proven the doomsayers wrong. We are far more resilient than we seem.
I would rather live in a society that wakes up and responds to a crisis of this magnitude by pulling out all the stops to create something new, than one seeking greatness by doing more of the same and hoping for a different result. Wouldn't you?
