The Alternative

How to Build a Just Economy

By: Nick Romeo

Narrated by: Jamie Renell

Winners Take All meets Nickel and Dimed in this provocative debunking of accepted wisdom, providing the pathway to a sustainable, survivable economy.

Confronted by the terrifying trends of the early twenty-first century – widening inequality, environmental destruction, and the immiseration of millions of workers around the world – many economists and business leaders still preach dogmas that lack evidence and create political catastrophe: Private markets are always more efficient than public ones; investment capital flows efficiently to necessary projects; massive inequality is the unavoidable side effect of economic growth; people are selfish and will only behave well with the right incentives.

But a growing number of people – academic economists, business owners, policy entrepreneurs, and ordinary people – are rejecting these myths and reshaping economies around the world to reflect ethical and social values. Though they differ in approach, all share a vision of the economy as a place of moral action and accountability. Journalist Nick Romeo has spent years covering the world’s most innovative economic and policy ideas for The New Yorker. Romeo takes us on an extraordinary journey through the unforgettable stories and successes of people working to build economies that are more equal, just, and livable. Combining original, in-depth reporting with expert analysis, Romeo explores:

• The successful business owners organizing their companies as purpose trusts (as Patagonia recently did) to fulfill a higher mission, such as sharing profits with workers or protecting the environment
• The growing deployment of new models by venture capital funds to promote wealth creation for the poorest Americans and address climate change.
• How Oslo’s climate budgeting program is achieving the emission reduction targets the rest of the world continues to miss, creating a model that will soon be emulated by governments around the world
• How Portugal strengths democratic culture by letting citizens make crucial budget decisions
• The way worker ownership and cooperatives foster innovation, share wealth, and improve the quality of jobs, offering an increasingly popular model superior to the traditional corporation
• The public-sector marketplace that offers decent work and real protections to gig workers in California
• The job guarantee program in southern Austria that offers high-quality meaningful jobs to every citizen

Many books have exposed what’s not working in our current system. Romeo reveals something even more essential: the structure of a system that could actually work for everyone. Margaret Thatcher was wrong: there is an alternative. This is what it looks like.

Details and results

Great threads throughout . Points out betters ways to communicate and live in community. Melds high tech production with small town community values.

Amazing. Overwhelmed with optimism and energy.

I've never read a book so inspiring, educational, and pragmatic about seemingly dire, insurmountable, societal issues. This is an antidote to despair with prescriptions to not only heal our problems, but create new heights of happy, harmonious living. The book is grounded in actual case studies, not theory, and acknowledges limits, challenges, and shortcomings along with the success. It is solution focused. It is a page-turner, addictively well-written and narrated. I was sad to have it end. This book should be required reading. It could provide a manual or recipe book for a better world, implementable on the smallest or largest scales. It is a compelling Book Club choice that could last a lifetime if engaged, let alone discussed. I cannot recommend this book enough.

Cogent and thoughtful

Excellent real life examples of alternatives to our failing capitalist economic system that presently exist. Also expanding on ideas for future implementation and possible limitations to these views. Fair but optimistic.

Hopeful imagineering of capitalism

Optimistic path towards a future in which capital markets can be reconfigured in a way to create livable wages, dedicated and engaged workers and most importantly sideline predatory private capital that sucks the life out of communities by making living to expensive for the average citizen. Examples are drawn from actual working public benefit corporations in places around the world.

A must read for social equality advocates & business owners.

This book was extremely thought provoking. The amount of data researched to compile each argument, including live examples, was astounding. This is a must read for any business owner, as the concepts here are not only ideas anymore, they are in the here and now and will continue to drive economic change globally. Whether you believe in social equality being a part of the economic formula or not, we cannot ignore the data nor the pace with which newer generations are demanding real change. Extremely eye opening book.