Harnessing the Energy of the Market

In theory, the democratic public life should run as follows:

In this model, we can see that the market, government and community are of equal value. The system is supposed to run on accountability and dependence as each sector relies on the other for growth and strength. Unfortunately, this is only a theory, as the below diagram shows how our public life works today.

As you can see, the government and market are substantially larger than the community. Both have a ‘special relationship’ with each other while the community is left out down the bottom. An important thing to note is that as the market is larger than the government in this diagram, it has the biggest influence.

This may seem like all bad news; however, we can use it to our advantage. With fossil fuel industries at the high end of the power spectrum, they have had an enormous impact on climate change — as do many other businesses who are hostile to climate action. There is something we can do about this? There is no point going straight to the top of the food chain with the fossil fuel industry and request that they turn ‘green.’ There is no imaginable scenario in which that would work. We need to start with the smaller industries and companies and work our way up. Once we get these businesses onboard to support climate action, we will create a ‘movement’ that ultimately, could possibly take down the fossil fuel industry before coal completes the task itself. Not only that, but it will also shift the views of the market from ‘against-climate-action’ to ‘pro-climate-action.’ As the market has significant influence over the government, their overall shift in the view of climate change would most likely drive the same movement in the government.

Once this happens, it will allow the market and government to use their power and influence for the good of the planet, while simultaneously allowing the community to grow stronger and stronger to let their voices be heard. Although it is not the case nowadays, nothing is stronger than the community. Our voices and actions have the power to make the biggest difference. It’s just a question of whether we have courage and motivation to do so.