HOW THE POOR CAN SAVE CAPITALISM

HEADLINES OF THE DAY: ANOTHER 15,000 PEOPLE DIED YESTERDAY BECAUSE THEY WERE TOO POOR TO LIVE. THE RICH INCREASED THEIR WEALTH YESTERDAY BY $0.3 BILLION. THE 21st CENTURY VERSION OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION IS ONE DAY NEARER.

“O Ye rich ones on earth! The poor in your midst are My trust; guard ye My trust, and be not intent only on your own ease.”
Bahá’u’lláh

A preview of the unpublished book A CIVILIZATION WITHOUT A VISION WILL PERISH: AN INDEPENDENT SEARCH FOR THE TRUTH by David Willis at willisdavid167@gmail.com. CHAPTER 1: INDIFFERENCE TO POVERTY (Part 103). This blog is a continuation of the review of HOW THE POOR CAN SAVE CAPITALISM: REBUILDING THE PATH TO THE MIDDLE CLASS by John Hope Bryant, published in 2014.

Chapter nine: Project 5117
Project 5117 is Operation HOPE’s revolutionary four-pronged approach to combating economic inequality by improving financial literacy; increasing the ratio of business role models and business internships from today’s national average of 5% to 20%; empowering adults and families to become involved in the banking system; and to help raise their credit scores.

Changing and transforming an entire generation
Project 5117 is about changing and transforming an entire generation, empowering future leaders for America, and stabilizing and rooting this generation of working-class, and middle-class communities, first by addressing the untapped power of business role models and business internships for youth and then by creating opportunities for those families to participate in banking and credit.

Conclusion: Where we go from here
people seem genuinely confused about how the poor get out of this mess. I am not. In many ways, I am building upon the solid foundations of thoughtful global leadership focused on poverty eradication advanced by such people as Dr. Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank, and C.K.Prahalad, author of The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid. America’s poverty is not just about money and not having enough of it. The core of the problem is that poor people have more time than money in their days and not enough tangible opportunity in their lives. They pay the most to get the poorest quality goods and services, and all too often they feel beaten down before they even get started with their day. Bad capitalism then feeds on this sense of despair, cynicism, and lack of hope.

Making free enterprise and responsible capitalism relevant
While the world is still adjusting to and trying to recover from the worst global economic crisis since the Great Depression, I am focused on what comes next. In the midst of this crisis I see an opportunity to finally make free enterprise and responsible capitalism relevant to and workable for the poor and the underserved. This time round, world economic growth will require the positive inclusion of us all.

Four major “big bangs” in economic growth
The United States has seen four major “big bangs” in economic growth in its history: an agricultural phase, and industrial phase, a technology phase, and our present information age. These previous stages of economic growth required land, buildings, equipment, or other “things” to light the fuse of economic growth and prosperity. Even the information age, which we currently are in and have arguably led, has depended upon the thing called a microprocessor.

The fifth stage of economic prosperity will be very different
Our next economic big bang, the fifth stage of economic prosperity, will be very different. Rather than relying on things, it will rely almost wholly on what we might call the “software of human development.” This is the development and unleashing of empowered human capital around the world. The new software of human development is what arises when you energize and inspire a generation of young people with the power of a new, transformational idea. The idea is this: you are the product. And when people know this, when they believe this, when they are given the tools and opportunity to achieve this, they become what I call “the CEO of you.”

This is how the poor can save capitalism
What the world needs now is a generation endowed with the empowered human capital to create its own jobs. And when they do this – when one billion youth around the world figure out how they can light the fuse to lift themselves up through self-determination – they not only help secure the gross domestic product growth that the world needs but also gain dignity for themselves and all those around them. This is how the poor can save capitalism. Remember, we only need 5% of a community to serve as role models to stabilize that community.

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