A sharing economy
Juliet Solomon considers a persuasive argument for a new kind of economic model
It is now generally agreed, with a few exceptions, that the model of the economy to which we have subscribed in the last twenty years, the market capitalist model, can only deliver in fits and starts and that its benefits, which are principally material, are only available to a diminishing proportion of society. Yet, despite this failure, there seems to be huge suspicion of alternative ideas that might appear to be related to socialism or to collectivism. The reaction of some of the Labour Party to the election of Jeremy Corbyn, and the disgraceful innuendo in most of the newspapers, attest to this.
So, the pro-market model of capitalism is being propped up, although clearly on its last legs, but any sign of socialism is being aborted where possible. The current political and economic danger is that in an era where governments – and to a degree the public – believe the state has got too big, any talk of an inter-ventionist approach in growth policy will be filed away under the same heading as the failed policies of the 1970s.
Enter another model, which Stewart Lansley presents in A sharing economy: How social wealth funds can reduce inequality and help balance the books. Lansley calls a ‘sharing’ economy one which ensures that the proceeds of economic activity and rising prosperity are more evenly shared, and not to be confused with the much vaunted Uber-style economy. In this short and concise book the author sets out to demonstrate how new ways of socialising economic activity through, for example, the introduction of ‘social wealth funds’ might operate, and the way in which schemes – which are a kind of public version of cooperatives – could contribute to building a more robust economy and greater social security.
It is hard to credit the views of those who – faced with banks gone belly-up, mass poverty, colossal inequality, major housing crises and many other symptoms of a sinking economy – persist in telling us, the public, that it is functioning well. Lansley points out that the opposite view is beginning, slowly, to develop. He quotes the World Bank, Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England, and other authorities as suggesting that unbridled market fundamentalism can ‘devour the social capital essential for the long-term dynamism of capitalism itself’.
One of Lansley’s remedies for our current sad predicament is the development of ‘social wealth funds’, which would return some of the economy into the hands of public trusts, thus reducing to some extent the dominance of corporate capitalism and the culture of individualism, which have led to the current absurd inequalities. Such funds are widely used elsewhere. Lansley draws on these to demonstrate how model funds might work in the UK. He shows how such funds can be used for the public benefit and how the model of collectively owned wealth offers a potentially powerful economic and social instrument, an alternative to both privatisation and traditional nationalisation, and can provide the resources to raise social capital. By spreading the ownership of capital and its gains more widely, such an approach provides a direct attack on the roots of inequality.
The author provides quite a lot of detail about how this might be established, and how it would benefit the general public (and the measured economic statistics). Much of what he says is unarguable to anybody in or slightly left of centre. However, his view of how those in power might be persuaded to listen to his excellent case, which would involve the breakup of the present great concentrations of capital ownership in a tiny number of individual hands, is realistic. He ends on an optimistic note, with the feeling that the tide is finally turning, and so the time for change might be on its rickety way.
A Sharing Economy: How Social Wealth Funds Can Reduce Inequality and Help Balance the Books by Stewart Lansley is published by Policy Press at £9.99. ISBN: 9781447331438.
