David Korten Quotes

In a world of increasing inequality, the legitimacy of institutions that give precedence to the property rights of 'the Haves' over the human rights of 'the Have Nots' is inevitably called into serious question.

But we can also take the radical view that the test of an economy has to do with the extent to which it is providing everybody with a decent means of living.

An active propaganda machinery controlled bv the world's largest corporations constantly reassures us that consumerism is the path to happiness, governmental restraint of market excess is the cause our distress, and economic globalization is both a historical inevitability and a boon to the human species.

It will take some time before a politician will capture the imagination of the American people and have the vision and understanding to do what is necessary for a better future for the people of America and the world.

The professional study of economics has become ideological brainwashing. It is a defense of the excesses of the capitalist system.

The first principle of the market economy is that it is comprised of many small buyers and sellers, which implies a substantial degree of equity. Another fundamental market principle is that costs are internalized in the producer's price.

I am in favor of increased communication and cooperation between countries, but it is more important that each country becomes responsible for its own actions, its own communities, its own economies, before starting to integrate in large regional or global supranational organizations.

In the US, most progressives start to see the differences between internationalism and economic globalization.

If there is to be a human future, we must bring ourselves into balanced relationship with one another and the Earth.

My own experience in the third world was that even if people started to make more money, the cost of living and housing increased often faster than the wages.

It is interesting to note that the 200 richest people have more assets than the 2 billion poorest.

As an economy measures performance in terms of the creation of money, people become a major source of inefficiency.

There is a huge shift taking place in the global awareness in the last 5 years with strong views about globalization and the power structures of major corporations.

There was a time in the United States when most of our financial institutions were local. Which essentially meant that local communities were able to create their own credit, or their own money, in response to their own needs. We still depended on banks, but it was a much more democratic process.

Our defining gift as humans is our power to choose, including our power to choose our collective future. It is a gift that comes with a corresponding moral responsibility to use that power in ways that work to the benefit of all people and the whole of life.

To achieve true sustainability, we must reduce our "garbage index" - that which we permanently throw away into the environment that will not be naturally recycled for reuse - to near zero. Productive activities must be organized as closed systems. Minerals and other nonbiodegradable resources, once taken from the ground, must become a part of society's permanent capital stock and be recycled in perpetuity. Organic materials may be disposed into the natural ecosystems, but only in ways that assure that they are absorbed back into the natural production system.

Europeans say they are proud of their social fabric, of strong rights for workers and the weak in society.

My claim is that we do not have a market economy, but a capitalist economy.

The current system is organized around financial values over life values. We need to shift that locus of power down to the community level because the financial markets recognize only money and thereby only financial values.

Money is a mechanism for control.

And each of these perspectives comes to the same conclusion, which is that our global economy is out of control and performing contrary to basic principles of market economics.

Wall Street sees a social fabric or social contract as inefficiencies, which need to be removed.

There is no visible sign that the current politicians in the US are willing to see the need for change.

There are actually very few US politicians who have integrity and vision.

Money is not wealth. Money is a claim on wealth.

Capitalism and the market are presented as synonymous, but they are not. Capitalism is both the enemy of the market and democracy.

Global competition is about winners and losers.

I think one of the most important skills of a local organizer of a local economy is an ability to put on a terrific street party.

If I would need to make a prediction I still believe Kaplan's scenario is very plausible.

We can have democracy and a prosperous, just, and sustainable human future. Or we can have corporate rule. We cannot have both.

More humane societies are usually smaller, like the Scandinavian countries and Holland, where it is much easier to reach consensus and cooperation.

An economic system can remain viable only so long as society has mechanisms to counter abuses of either state or market power and the erosion of the natural, social, and moral capital that such abuses commonly exacerbate.