Shared Capitalism Institute Book Page

Mon May 22 14:29:03 PDT 2000

hi Everyone
        Margie Bushman just called and let me know she had just heard Jeff
Gates
speak on New Demension Radio show and wanted to spread info on his work and
his
book. Check out his full webpage
                                                wes
http://www.sharedcapitalism.org/book.html
The newest book by Shared Capitalism Institute President Jeff Gates, Democracy
at Risk: Rescuing Main Street from Wall Street -- A Populist Vision for the
21st
Century, will be released by Perseus Books in April, 2000. More information
about that book will soon be available on this webpage.

Some of the early endorsements for Democracy at Risk include:

We all know that in the transition to the 21st century there are many paradigm
shifts. Jeff Gates' book helps to understand the new direction.  
-- Professor Klaus Schwab, President, World Economic Forum/Davos  
Jeff Gates’ new book -- Democracy at Risk -- argues for widespread
ownership of
capital resources in an era of massive disparities of wealth that subordinate
democracy to plutocracy. Gates is a practical man, which means he offers
politically practical and financially feasible ways toward a broad-based
prosperity around the world. His facts will enrage you into higher expectation
levels for what a modern economy should look like and be for.  
-- Ralph Nader  
Jeff Gates is a new kind of populist. He makes some folks uncomfortable by
wanting to correct a capitalism in which the wealth of the wealthiest 1%
exceeds what 95% of Americans have to live on. But he also wants to make
capitalism worth conserving -- by making it more civilized and more
democratic,
by making owners of all those who contribute to its success. Democracy at Risk
is a tough diagnosis, with a fresh and future-oriented prescription
attached.  
-- Harlan Cleveland, President, World Academy of Arts and Sciences; author,
The
Global Commons and Birth of a New World  
At a time when the need is great, Jeff Gates offers us a Populist vision for
the 2lst century.  
-- Lawrence Goodwyn, author, Democratic Promise: The Populist Moment in
America 

With passion and precision, Jeff Gates reminds us that capitalism does not
have
to be an exclusive system. We make the rules! Here, from the man who helped
bring us employee stock ownership is compelling commonsense for how we can
make
capitalism work for all of us by "ownerizing" it. Mind expanding. Hope
inducing. And we need both!  
-- Frances Moore Lappé, author, Diet for a Small Planet, co-author, The
Quickening of America 

Democracy at Risk is a highly original, gutsy, carefully thought through work
that offers practical alternatives for a new economics and politics - and in
the process reclaims populism from demagogues who have used it to divert
people
from the core issues Jeff Gates so thoroughly documents. This is an important
and timely book.  
-- Riane Eisler, author, The Chalice & The Blade, Tomorrow’s Children, and
Sacred Pleasure

Democracy at Risk invites -- no, compels -- us to open our eyes to what
seems to
be an ominous contrast between the capitalism of today and the fundamental
ideals of an inclusive democracy. It is, at the very least, a wake-up call--if
you can speak of an exploding stick of dynamite as a wake-up call. Yet, the
solutions offered leave us gratefully optimistic that a truly democratic
capitalism is in fact attainable -- but that there is not a moment to waste.  
-- Jacob Needleman, author, Money and the Meaning of Life

Written with uncommon clarity and candor, Democracy At Risk is a book which
should be read by everyone who is concerned with liberty and equitable
distribution of power and wealth. The more prosperous and powerful you might
be, the more important it is to pay attention to what Jeff Gates has to say.  
-- Dee Hock, Founder and CEO Emeritus, VISA; author, Birth of the Chaordic
Age 

Gives us hope that capitalism and humanism are not necessarily mutually
exclusive.  
-- Paul Krassner, editor, The Realist

Meticulously documents the need for broadening capital ownership in the USA --
not ony for overall efficiency and social development -- but to fully release
the talents and motivations of all our citizens in growing a more prosperous,
just and ecologically sustainable society.  
-- Hazel Henderson, author, Beyond Globalization and Building a Win-Win
World  
Jeff Gates is a phenomenon. He is turning the economics searchlight on
ownership and demanding to know why the morally unbearable maldistribution of
wealth and income is taboo in classical and contemporary economics. Jeff has
achieved this focus, in two books two years apart, to the profound benefit of
economics and democracy. He comes straight from top-of-the-mark work on
Capitol
Hill for Russell Long and the Senate Finance Committee to the crisis for
democracy in which we Americans are all now mired, whether we want to be or
not. American democracy is in great danger, if it's not already over the
cliff,
and Jeff Gates is making his special heroic effort to help save it and free
enterprise. Can it be done? I don't know.  
-- Ronnie Dugger, founder and co-chair, Alliance for Democracy 

The Ownership Solution (1998)

Backed by a wide array of influential supporters from the worlds of business,
finance, government, non-profits, and academia, The Ownership Solution is
nothing less than a new capitalist manifesto -- a blueprint for making the
system of free enterprise really work.

To Jeff Gates, a pioneer in the field of employee ownership, the central
problem of capitalism is that it doesn't create enough capitalists. In the
United States, for example, despite rising living standards, full employment,
low inflation, and a bull market that can't stop setting records, the gulf
between the haves and have-nots is widening. Feelings of alienation and
cynicism are being voiced in bitter labor disputes, exposes of government
overspending, and calls for campaign finance reform, caps on executive
compensation, and repeal of tax laws that favor the wealthy. Concentration of
wealth at the top results in what Gates calls "disconnected capitalism,"
and it
will cause the system to implode, unless politicians, corporate executives,
investors, social activists, and common citizens come up with creative
strategies to make the system more inclusive. (See
<http://www.sharedcapitalism.org/book.h tml scfacts.html>Why Is A Shared
Capitalism Needed? for highlights of wealth and income statistics.)

That is what The Ownership Solution is all about-giving capitalism a human
face
and and encouraging all participants in the economy to share the
responsibilities and reap the rewards of its success. Gates operates from the
fundamental assumption that people are likely to become better stewards of all
the systems of which they are part-social, political, fiscal, cultural, and
natural-as they gain a personal stake in the economic system. The process is
already underway, as Gates demonstrates through his insider's recounting of
the
creation of employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) legislation in the Unites
States, as well as descriptions of numerous private- and public-sector
"ownership engineering" intiatives around the world. From United Airlines to a
chicken-processing plant in Jamaica, corporations and nations are
experimenting
with a variety of employee ownership programs designed to make every worker
not
just a jobholder, but a stockholder. Drawing from the experiences of over a
dozen nations, Gates offers a set of strategy and policy recommendations to
reinforce this trend toward capitalism by and for the people.

Already making its way onto both liberal and conservative agendas, as well as
the platforms of think tanks, philanthropic foundations, environmental groups,
and international banks, among many other organizations, The Ownership
Solution
charts a course for free enterprise well into the twenty-first century,
delivering a sincere expectation that the future will be better -- and
different -- for all.
<http://www.sharedcapitalism.org/book.h tml book.html#top>
Return to the top

"This book may save capitalism." 

-- Stephan Schmidheiny, Founder
World Business Council for Sustainable Development 

You may order a copy of The Ownership Solution at any on-line bookstore. At
<http://www.amazon.com>amazon.com search for the title "Ownership Solution."

Book jacket design by Suzanne Heiser 

<http://www.sharedcapitalism.org/book.h tml index.html>introduction |
<http://www.sharedcapitalism.org/book.h tml assoc.html>associates |
<http://www.sharedcapitalism.org/book.h tml act.html>activities |
<http://www.sharedcapitalism.org/book.h tml book.html>book info. |
<http://www.sharedcapitalism.org/book.h tml scfacts.html>The Numbers 

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