Inspiration Feed – 01.12

Magna Carta and the commons, Prosperity vs Growth, digital revolution, the super-rich and offshore assets & more.

links selection – 12.jan.16

Who May Use the King’s Forest? The Meaning of Magna Carta, Commons and Law in Our Time
by David Bollier (commonstransition.org)

In King John’s time, enclosure was mostly about the forest. Today it’s about everything, including life itself.
Commons can meet people’s needs in fair, open and effective ways, and provide a dignity, respect and equality that the market/state order has trouble achieving.”

What Prosperity Is, Where Growth Comes from, Why Markets Work
by Nick Hanauer (evonomics.com)

Capitalism may be humankind’s greatest problem-solving system, but this view says little about how the benefits of such problem solving might be distributed.
Making money might be a necessary condition for solving many problems—businesses need profits to endure and grow. But saying profits are the goal confuses means and ends.”

5 Ways to Take Back Tech: a few big ideas for a digital revolution that enriches us all—not just the wealthy
by Nathan Schneider (thenation.com)

A commons arises whenever a group of people decides to collectively manage a resource with a special regard for equitable access and long-term stewardship. Much preferred to “a few guys manage a resource with a special regard for making billions of dollars.”

Wealth doesn’t trickle down – it just floods offshore, research reveals
by Heather Stewart (theguardian.com)

The sheer scale of the hidden assets held by the super-rich also suggests that standard measures of inequality, which tend to rely on surveys of household income or wealth in individual countries, radically underestimate the true gap between rich and poor.”

* weekly inspiration illustration by Ilan Katin