Capitalism 3.0 A Guide to Reclaiming the Commons

Our current version of capitalismâ??the corporate, globalized version 2.0â??is rapidly squandering our shared inheritances. Now, Peter Barnes offers a solution: protect the commons by giving it property rights and strong institutional managers.

Barnes shows how capitalismâ??like a computerâ??is run by an operating system. Our current operating system gives too much power to profit-maximizing corporations that devour our commons and distribute most of their profit to a sliver of the population. And governmentâ??which in theory should defend our commonsâ??is all too often a tool of those very corporations.

Barnes proposes a revised operating systemâ??Capitalism 3.0â??that protects the commons while preserving the many strengths of capitalism as we know it. His major innovation is the commons trustâ??a market-based entity with the power to limit use of scarce commons, charge rent, and pay dividends to everyone.

Capitalism 3.0 offers a practical alternative to our current flawed economic system. It points the way to a future in which we can retain capitalism's virtues while mitigating its vices.