America Beyond Capitalism

In a recent article in "Dollars and Sense," Gar Alperovitz presents cooperative enterprise, especially worker-owned co-ops, along with other methods of democratizing capital -- an essential direction for the U.S. to climb out of its present long-term economic decline and to reverse the ongoing transfer of wealth to the 1 percent: http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2011/1111alperovitz.html

Alperovitz offers more detailed and nuanced set of examples than his recent column in the "New York Times," which was extremely condensed, making it seem somewhat scatter-shot in treatment. The article linked above gives good food for thought on what is possible and what is necessary to increase the democratic control of capital.

Underscoring the importance of that fundamental issue of democratizing capital, I recommend an excellent piece found on the CommonDreams website, an explanation of "How We Got Here and How to Get Out," by Robert Freeman, an explanation of recent decades public policies that mandate the transfer of wealth upward -- a review that is so clear only a good high school teacher could have written it: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/01/01