Purpose Economy

The "Purpose Economy" or the Responsible Ownership Initiative (VGE initiative for short) brings a fresh, concrete impulse to our thinking. A recent ARTE contribution (title: "Re: Mehr Sinn statt Gier - Kapitalismus neu gedacht") introduces it. It is - in short - about a company standing for a purpose: the "idea" or "purpose" of a company should come to the fore. 

Today, businesses are usually privately owned by a few (often in the case of family businesses) or many people (often in the case of public limited companies). An existential problem usually arises when people gain power over the fate of a company (e.g. through inheritance or purchase), but do not want to or cannot continue to run it (e.g. because they do not have the entrepreneurial skills to do so). The company goes under, is bled dry or merely serves as an object of financial speculation.

The people behind the Responsible Ownership Initiative want to prevent this from happening by creating a new corporate legal form that facilitates appropriate regulations that tie corporate capital to those people who identify with the company. 

This initiative points in the right direction. Here is why I see it that way:

Capital is always linked to spirit

The characteristic of capital - and here we are referring primarily to business capital - is that it is created by "ideas" and with "ideas" is in turn transformed back into concrete economic actions. The VGE initiative takes the right step in tying corporate capital to the purpose or "values" of the entrepreneurs. Thus, the management of capital goes into the realm of the Free Spiritual Life (cf. Threefolding) where it belongs.

Understanding a company as a community project

Companies are like "internal economies" where "fellow" workers work together to produce goods and services. One of the great, unfortunately persistent, errors of thinking even today is that we believe that work for wages is a reality. But this is impossible, because in economic life only goods - or more precisely, economic values - are bought and sold. Every employee is in reality a "producer" who works proportionately on the final product of the enterprise. This end product, the commodity, is the object in economic life. Not the work itself. The VGE initiative takes a step in the right direction here, because company shares would mostly only be allowed to be given to employees of the company.

It is interesting that this "solution proposal" for important economic problems arose from the concrete actions of entrepreneurs and did not come from pure thinking, i.e. not from economic science. Even if the clarity in thinking for the real reasons is missing, the VGE initiative is a valuable advance and worth supporting! I wish that the "becoming aware" of the deeper reasons for this initiative will awaken along its implementation!

Oliver, 11 November 2020