We Believe it is Time for Another Change

The engine of our economy is business. How business defines its goals and conducts its affairs determines what values our economy expresses in the aggregate. Throughout our nation’s history different values have expressed themselves, been challenged and new ones have emerged as dominant. The most dramatic example in American history is the 19th century conflict of values regarding the use of slaves as free labor.

A more recent 20th century example is the emergence of values associated with the rise of the modern corporation, shareholder preeminence and profit maximization. These dominant business values driving our economy as we moved into the 21st century have created great disparities in wealth, a financial crisis almost unparalleled in American history and enormous societal disruptions.

Replacing these values as drivers that define how we conduct business and how our economy functions, will be new ones. What we need now is a way of conducting business that renews our nation’s prosperity and extends it well into the 21st century. We need to change the way we do business so that it supports an equitable and ecologically sustainable economy. By changing our business methods in this way -- that is by creating sustainable businesses based on a new set of values -- we can create a new economic engine for a sustainable economy.