ASBC Releases Proposal For An Equitable Economic System
Public Policy Initiatives Forge Path To “New Normal” For A Nation In Crisis
WASHINGTON, DC, October 7, 2020—The American Sustainable Business Council (ASBC), the nation’s foremost business advocate for an environmentally safe and equitable economy, today announces the release of its public policy proposal, Creating An Economic System That Works For All.
Over a year in the making, the 100-page proposal outlines the major crises the nation now faces, from racism to climate meltdown, and supplies strategies to permanently end them, including advocating for reparations for African Americans and Native Americans, Worker Representation on U.S. Corporate Boards, the adoption of Full Cost Accounting, a Wealth Tax and a Progressive Consumption Tax.
The comprehensive proposal comes at a time when many across the country view the current capitalist system as rigged and not working for them. According to a May 2020 Capital/Harris poll, an astonishing 75% of Americans believe our current form of capitalism doesn’t ensure the greater good of society.
“America is in the middle of a major moment, and almost everything lies broken,” said Jeffrey Hollender, ASBC CEO. “But hiding inside this rubble is the opportunity for history’s freshest start. The only question is what ideas are capable of rising to meet it. Our proposal is intended to inform and stimulate discussion, while ensuring that business leaders, managers of NGO’s, educators, and legislators understand the public policy system changes that are required at the national and local level.”
The public policy initiatives advanced in the proposal reinforce the growing importance of systems thinking and offer a series of changes in the culture, compensation, ownership, and the careful measurement of business performance as well as the passage of public policies that are based on serving the needs of all stakeholders.
Among the proposal’s fundamental goals:
1) Establishing better balanced corporate governance and fiduciary responsibility that represents all stakeholders—not just shareholders—through full-cost accounting, supply chain reporting, dedicated sustainability investments, and other new habits.
2) Assuring equal access to capital for people of color, women, and other underserved populations who presently lack a seat at the table.
3) Addressing tax system inequities, accounting rules, and investment regulations that hide and concentrate wealth.
4) Ensuring workforce well-being through education, employee ownership, labor union support, disability assistance, universal income, and paid leave and other benefits.
5) Taking the private money out of politics so governments work for the common good.
6) Ending environmental racism and protecting Earth’s biosphere by greening our infrastructure, building a circular economy, and engineering zero-carbon energy and regenerative agricultural systems.
“The challenges we face have been designed into our system of governance, by and large, over the past 30 to 40 years,” said Hollender. “You can’t solve climate change without dealing with environmental justice, you can’t solve environmental justice without addressing health care for all, and you can’t solve our healthcare challenges without addressing the impact of the hundreds of millions of dollars that have been spent by the pharmaceutical industry to influence public policy. These challenges are interrelated and interconnected. The time to act is now.”
To read a full copy of the proposal, click here.