Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

ABOUT THE NEXT SYSTEM PROJECT

The Next System Project is an ambitious multi-year initiative aimed at thinking boldly about what is required to deal with the systemic challenges the United States faces now and in coming decades. Responding to real hunger for a new way forward, and building on innovative thinking and practical experience with new economic institutions and approaches being developed in communities across the country and around the world, the goal is to put the central idea of system change, and that there can be a “next system,” on the map.

Working with a broad group of researchers, theorists and activists, we seek to launch a national debate on the nature of “the next system” using the best research, understanding and strategic thinking, on the one hand, and on-the-ground organizing and development experience, on the other, to refine and publicize comprehensive alternative political-economic system models that are different in fundamental ways from the failed systems of the past and capable of delivering superior social, economic and ecological outcomes.

By defining issues systemically, we believe we can begin to move the political conversation beyond current limits with the aim of catalyzing a substantive debate about the need for a radically different system and how we might go about its construction. Despite the scale of the difficulties, a cautious and paradoxical optimism is warranted. There are real alternatives. Arising from the unforgiving logic of dead ends, the steadily building array of promising new proposals and alternative institutions and experiments, together with an explosion of ideas and new activism, offer a powerful basis for hope.

SOCIAL WEALTH ECONOMIC INDICATORS

http://thenextsystem.org/riane-eisler-on-changing-the-whole-system/

The conventional assumption has been that a strong economy and caring for people and nature are at odds. Social Wealth Economic Indicators (SWEIs) demolish that assumption. SWEIs show the benefits of investing in care, and the dismal consequences of devaluing it - not only for women (who still do most of the care work), children, the elderly, families, and the natural environment, but also for economic competitiveness.

Social Wealth Economic Indicators are the missing metrics needed to empower women and girls, reduce the disproportionate poverty of women and communities of color, and, at the same time, strengthen the economy. In November 2014, we brought together a diverse group of panelists from business, philanthropy, economics, and care work advocacy who discussed how SWEIs support their work. We invite you to watch the panel discussion below, and to read more about each panelist here. November 2014 Live Stream Event CEC Public Policy

The Urgent Need for Social Wealth Economic Indicators (SWEIs)

The rapid shift from a manufacturing to a knowledge-service era is bringing unprecedented economic, social, and environmental challenges. Social Wealth Economic Indicators (SWEIs) provide the missing information leaders in government, business, and civil society need to meet these challenges.

SWEIs measure economic health and quality of life, recognizing that both are prerequisites for robust businesses, economic competitiveness, and fulfilling lives. They show how quality of life and economic health and competitiveness interrelate to ensure human capacity development -- the main ingredient for personal, business, and national success in our new knowledge-service technological era. They demonstrate how seemingly intractable problems, including the suffering caused by chronic poverty - especially the disproportionate poverty of women - lack of support of care for children and the elderly, and racial and gender inequities, can be solved.

SWEIs provide the building blocks for a more sustainable and caring economy. They demonstrate the substantial financial return from caring for people and nature – and the enormous costs of not doing so. They show where the US stands in comparison with other nations, and point the way to more effective government, business, and civil society investments.

Who Benefits from SWEIs?

WOMEN AND FAMILIES

SWEIs bring together data demonstrating the financial and social ROI from the work of care primarily performed by women for low wages in the market and no remuneration in families -- a devaluation that largely accounts for women's disproportionate poverty.

SWEIs demonstrate that care work is key to human capacity development, which in turn is key to both individual and national economic success in our knowledge/service age.

SWEIs promote healthy family/employment balance by substantiating the benefits of paid sick leave, paid parental leave, flex time, high quality childcare and early childhood education, and innovative policies such as caregiver tax credits for home caregivers.

SWEIs are essential for gender budgeting in policies, showing that woman and family-friendly policies are not only a major women's issue but also a key economic issue

CAREGIVERS

SWEIs show the differential between average hourly wages of all workers versus average hourly wages of household workers, across countries, and that this gap is growing in many developed economies, with adverse consequences for the workers, their families, the economy, and society. SWEIs highlight the wage differential between childcare workers and other similarly skilled workers, across developed nations

BUSINESS

With the rapid shift from a manufacturing-based to a knowledge/service-based economy, economic and business prosperity largely hinge on matters ignored by conventional measures such as GDP. Because success in our new technological era largely hinges on the quality of our human capital, the Social Wealth Economic Indicators (SWEIs), pioneered by Dr. Riane Eisler and colleagues at the Center for Partnership Studies in collaboration with the Urban Institute and other experts, measure both the state of our human capital (outputs) in terms of factors such as levels of education and health, (outputs) and the factors required for high quality human capital (inputs), such as support for care work, early childhood education, gender and racial equity – and how these impact individual, business, and economic capacity building.