09/15/2021

Leadership: Hiding in Plain Sight

An excerpt from Mutualism

As economists and theorists circle around the idea of the “future of capitalism,” the old-new concept of “mutualism” is emerging from the bottom up, as the next “ism” beyond capitalism that provides the moral compass and game plan we need.

The mutualist sector is a giant trillion-dollar sector of the economy, running through our country's history, but hiding in plain sight. The mutualist sector is made up of unions and their pension funds, cooperatives (including well-funded agricultural and rural electrical cooperatives), the mutual aid groups that sprung up across the country since COVID, and faith communities with their universities, health systems, and real estate holdings.

This mutualist sector gives us the blueprint for a reciprocal economy centered on local communities focused on meeting our most pressing needs: addressing climate change, income inequality, and racial equity. Silicon Valley investors have seen the tea leaves of the future as they move toward “group infrastructure” (i.e. Zoom, Facebook Groups, Google Groups, Substack, etc.) to take advantage of the human honing device for collectivity and togetherness.

Please select this link to read the complete article from SSIR.