FOR TOO LONG, people and the planet have suffered the consequences of a global economic model by which wealth is extracted for the few at the expense of the many — at the expense of even life itself. It’s a model made possible by government policies that have historically favored the large over the small. Regulations, taxes, and subsidies have all been used to promote bigger businesses, more technology, more energy use, and longer transport distances.
Judged by conventional yardsticks like GDP, this global economy has been a big success; we have, it seems, been doing better and better. But look behind the graphs and pie charts, and you see a very different, and deeply disturbing, reality. Across the world, economic growth has erased diversity, degraded the environment, undermined democracy,…