of something much deeper and more challenging. Fast money creates a baffling environment that can- not be understood or managed, even by financial experts. This kind of befuddlement arises when the relationships among capital, community and bioregion are broken. If we continue to invest in ways that uproot companies, put- ting them in the hands of a broad, shallow pool of absen- tee shareholders whose primary goal is the endless growth of their financial capital, the depletion of our social and natural capital will continue.
Why do you believe today’s industrial finance strategies are not working?
Organized from “markets down,” rather than from “the ground up,” industrial finance is inherently lim- ited in its ability to nurture the long-term health of a community and bioregion.
These limits are nowhere more apparent than in the food sector, where financial strategies bent on optimizing the efficient use of capital have resulted in cheap, chemi- cal-laden food; millions of acres of genetically modified corn; trillions of food transport miles; widespread degra- dation of soil fertility; depleted and eutrophied aquifers [where nutrient and algae overload snuff out oxygen and helpful organisms]; a dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico; and an obesity epidemic that exists side-by-side with persistent hunger in this country.
What do you believe is the crux of the problem with the present financial system?
The bifurcation of social purpose and fiscal prudence is at the root of the problem. If the goal is to make more money through our investments as fast as possible, so that we have more money to give away for cleaning up existing problems, then we are on the wrong track. Cleaning up problems with philanthropic money may have seemed to make sense in the 20th century, but it is no longer con- scionable or appropriate for the 21st century. We need more realistic expectations for smart investments that can sustain and preserve the planet’s wealth for generations to come.
We have to ask ourselves this: Do we want communi-
ties whose main streets include local merchants whom we know, or do we want them made up of multinational com- panies, owned by people we think we know, that produce products under conditions of which we are not aware?
For more information about Woody Tasch and Slow Money, visit SlowMoneyAlliance.org.
April 2010
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