I too have become disenchanted with capitalism, especially as it seems incompatible with solving climate change. Oil companies are sitting on a lot of potential profit and they don’t want to give that up. Capitalism will cut corners, say by polluting a waterway, because it increases profit. Conversely there is no profit to be made in cleaning up their messes, so they don’t or at least try to weasel out of it. So I’ve been thinking about alternatives. Maybe it’s contrary to human nature, but to solve climate change, we need a system based on cooperation rather than competition.

I like the “thought experiment.” This diagram might help in regard tossing preconceptions and starting in a neutral place. Perhaps you are in a small group or maybe a lecture hall. You grab one person and say you represent the 1 billion people on earth who live on less than $2 a day and walk barefoot for transportation. Grab three people and say you represent the 3 billion people who live on $2 to $8 a day and so on, you have shoes and maybe a bike.

It becomes pretty obvious that a persons economic place in the world has more to do with your place of birth than anything else.