Betterness: Economics for Humans (Kindle Single)

When a person is wealthy relationally in social capital, environmentally in natural capital, managerially in organizational capital, personally in human capital, emotionally in emotional capital, and intellectually in intellectual capital, he or she might be said to be authentically, broadly, and deeply rich.

I call this positive paradigm betterness; in contrast with business, it’s not about being busier and busier (to what end?) but about becoming better. I believe it’s the next step in the evolution of prosperity and that its foundational principle is living lives that matter in human terms.

Hence, modern theories of management also rest on this negative paradigm, and the modern manager exists largely to prevent dysfunction, limit deviance, and correct error, just as classical psychologists focused on ridding the conscious and unconscious mind of neuroses and phobias.

The paradigm we casually call business is just one approach to human exchange. It was built in an industrial era, and for it. Its fundamental assumptions—shareholder value creation, mass production, hierarchical management, disposable goods made for consumers—are today less profitable, useful, worthy, and beneficial than ever. Betterness, in contra

So think of constraints as negative rights: rights that we, the organization, don’t have because they damage the potential of any or all of our constituents.

Here then is my modern twist on eudaimonia, how I might put paid to the idea of “faring well.” A good life is about more than quantity of gross product, denominated in nominal income. It’s about net real wealth. And real wealth, in turn, consists of much more than mere money.

Polo Ralph Lauren: “We have redefined the American style by providing quality products, creating worlds, and inviting people to take part in our dreams.” “McDonald’s vision is to be the world’s best quick service restaurant experience. Being the best means providing outstanding quality, service, cleanliness, and value, so that we make every custome

Your biggest threat today isn’t external; it’s internal. If you want to go into betterness, if you want to compete in twenty-first-century terms, if you want to take a quantum leap into the future of commerce, well, then it’s not rivals that must be bettered. You yourself must be bettered.

Business, today, is fighting back hard against the inexorable rise of constraints—demanded by constituents across the globe—largely by expending hard-earned cash on influencing the political process.