Not too long ago our economy was primarily agricultural. Then we moved to an industrial economy. In the early part of the last century we became a manufacturing economy creating consumer goods. Within the past thirty years we have moved to a service economy to support selling consumer goods and services. Most of these goods are now manufactured elsewhere on the globe. Within the past decade, many of the services were moved off-shore as well. The advent of the Great Depression/Recession in 2008 demonstrated that service jobs will not provide the economic engine we need to move our economy forward.
Our economy is stuck. We need a new vision. A new idea about what will use our talents and resources to fulfill a need. Our biggest resource is people and their talents. The world’s biggest need is to solve poverty. Two thirds of the world’s people live in extreme poverty.
So how will we marry our resources with our world’s need to eliminate poverty? Non-profit organizations have been doing this for a long time. Perhaps it is time for the U.S. to move to a non-profit economy.
This would focus the talents we have on those who need it most, while providing employment. Just as we have seen growth in environmental businesses we are beginning to see interest and growth in the work of non-profits. Witness the meteoric rise of micro-ending as an example of this. This is not about charity. Charity cares for the symptoms of poverty without removing the causes.
The problem of poverty is complex. Poverty can be situational, generational as well as systemic. So a real increase in our efforts to solve the causes of poverty would require many creative, effective solutions. Effective solutions involve careful listening to those who are struggling as well as creativity and imagination.
An example are the ESPERA Funds or community lending funds of Mary’s Pence, the women’s group receiving an ESPERA fund determines what interest rate works for them and decisions are made locally for loans within the fund. Ideally they will use the funds repaid to begin another ESPERA Fund. In other words the fund is not only sustainable, it has the possibility of being paid forward. “Local solutions” for “long-term change” work best.
I think it’s a pretty powerful idea and one that will move us forward – as a nation and as a global family.
[…] I must ask myself, “Does my desire for a new car (or new XXX) trump someone else’s right to eat?” More and more the answer for myself is “No”. I used to think that my purchasing a new car supported others’ salaries in that industry. But now I think that I should be supporting industries that use those same skills in a way that directly works to solve the problem of poverty (see my post on the Non-Profit Economy). […]