Being in the land of cryptos for two months now, mining and watching Ethereum mostly, I cannot help but look forward how technology slowly grinds on established centralized systems. And now, because I am always late to the party - I discover Steemit! A blockchain and crypto-currency based information sharing network! It is lovely and it makes me want to share something with this community.
I am a very critical person and the current situation regarding geopolitics-media-military-industry-finance-politics (please connect the dots yourself) did not change much for the better in recent years despite the technological unicorn Internet. But the net is still my secret hope in uniting the meek against the powerful individuals. Steemit - the change! ;-)
I live in Austria and work in film and TV production, so I can see for myself every workday how deliberately created and constructed audiovisual media really is. The power of mainstream media cannot be overstated - in our country the connection between TV and politics is getting ridiculous. But precisely becuase of this (and a similar situation in neighboring countries) underground culture flourishes and brings to light (and popularity) some theories that are not easily dismissable. Unfortunately to fully understand my point you have to be able to understand german (or follow the link at the end of the post.
The economic theory I want to highlight in this post is called Gemeinwohlökonomie which translates to "Economy for the greater good" and its main point of attention is the way we rate the success of companies. Basically the idea is to change the rating focus from financial to "the common good" - meaning: You are not considered successful because of the financial return only, but also on how your company treats the workers, treats the environment and integrates into society. So in reality, if you produce weapons - you will have the worst possible ratings, loans to you would incorporate high interest, you would have to pay higher tax. For the opposite, if you run a sustainable kindergarden, the business will have a good rating, loans will have low interest, you might be eligible for state funding and your tax overhead will be lower.
TL;DR: Awesome economic model subsitutes financial balance with a balance for the greater good in rating companies. Nicely thought out, originating in Austria and written in german, hence not much information available in english - full book at end of post.
GERMAN: Nice interview with Christian Felber - Roland Düringer, "Gültige Stimme"http://www.puls4.com/video/gueltige-stimme/play/3072959
Change Everything, by Christian Felber: https://www.amazon.de/Change-Everything-Creating-Economy-Common/dp/1783604727/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1468588665&sr=8-6&keywords=change+everything