This article was published in The Futurist July-August 1995.

"The Model of the Social Market Economy is a productive compromise between economic freedom and social balance. It is considered "social" because its goal is a system of socially just compensation, with everyone participating and sharing according to their ability in social, cultural and economic life, whether they be in paid work or not… It is essential to an understanding of the social market economy to realize that economic success and social balance are goals of equal rank and that each has to be seen as a precondition of the other."

The Deepwater Horizon disaster is not just an industrial accident – it is a violent wound inflicted on the Earth itself. In this special report from the Gulf coast, a leading author and activist shows how it lays bare the hubris at the heart of capitalism

It's now estimated that about 150,000 teachers will lose their jobs next year because of the financial crisis touched off by the financial industry. Hedge fund manager Tepper earned more in one minute (32K) than the average entry-level teacher earns in a year.
"In a saner world, we would have placed a 50 percent windfall profits tax on all financial earnings in 2009. That would have helped compensate for the massive public subsidies we provided to your industry. It would have replenished our local, state and federal coffers. But as a nation we are cowed by financial power. We simply do not have the will to challenge our distorted distribution of wealth — at least not yet. However, with the stroke of a pen, you can help re-balance the scales."

"The unrelenting pressure to cut fiscal spending imposed by the IMF and the European Union has exacerbated the crisis. By dictating the austerity program, it leaves those people to pay for the crisis who played no part in bringing it about and already shoulder the burden of capitalism's crisis."

Like the community centers in Vancouver Canada, a guaranteed basic income could create public spirit and social cohesion for youth, seniors and long-term unemployed facing brutal capitalism.
More articles are available at www.basicincome.org and www.grundeinkommen.de.

This article was published in The Guardian November 13, 2009.
Our current system is doomed.
But 1989 gives us hope
at least we have the power of self-liberation.

If it was supervised, if it was overseen, if it was regulated by the federal government, Cheney with his marvellous bureaucratic talent moved in and essentially replaced the people who were in the positions that were central to this regulation, this oversight, with people who were either lobbyists for the industry being regulated or executives from that industry.
A half century's work on regulation was destroyed.