Article: Beyond the Consumer Economy: Partnerism

Paulson, Bernanke, Bush and others are working diligentlly to sell us on the bailout based on the panic that without the bailout--the economy will go down because there won't be any money for credit markets to loan and thus, business comes to a stop. Without the money available for investors to 'create economic growth'...we might have contraction of GNP, recession/depression, lots of layoffs etc. If we have the bailout, the economy will take off again is the implied message.

But there's a secondary glitch in this story which has yet to be addressed. While Wall Street has been acting like drunken fools, the American public was on a buying spree of unprecedented proportions too. They were consuming at rates that have left them in huge credit card debt--a debt that will not get a 'bailout'. Credit card delinquencies are at an all time high---and represent a silent tsunami no one wants to talk about--yet most in the banking industry know is there.

What I'm getting at is that the 'consumer economy' is pushed to its limits of buying anyway. So, its the perfect storm--even if we bailout Wall Street, the consumer economy is still headed for a crisis. And since 70% of our economy is based in consumption--any major shift in our consumption patterns is going to create a recession/depression too.

But here's the potentially good news in all this bad news--This could be a great impetus for us to begin the reinvent the economy from capitalism to Partnerism. Partnerism is a new term that has been coined to wake people up. While most of us can only think of the old names for economies: capitalism, socialism, communism and fascism being the main players, Partnerism is a new option. It is unlike capitalism or socialism or even communism which were all consumer economies (the only difference was in how things were distributed). Partnerism is an economy based on a "true cost accounting" of all the activities that enable an economy.

Since we can't maintain an economy that is 70% on consumption (both because we have no money left and also because of environmental pressures)--we need to expand into the full spectrum economy--and bring in the household, unpaid volunteer and natural sectors to become vibrant parts of the economy. Creating an economy and monetizing in these new sectors would enable us to down shift on consumption and still remain a thriving economy. In fact, the UN has measured these activities and they are valued at over $11 trillion dollars a year.

Yes, Partnerism is a twist from the same old story and offers a new, visionary solution to the current crisis--vs. where most people are right now...trying to fix a system that is no longer useful to humans and should go the way of the dinosaur.

To learn more about Partnerism--read Raine Eisler's "Real Wealth of Nations...creating a caring economy" And watch these videos.

This is a 3 minute explanation by Riane Eisler.

And this is a more serious, 7-minute explanation of her theory.

More of the same will not work--we have to open our minds to create a new system that supports the most important work of all--caring for humans and the planet.