BILL McKIBBEN ALMOST GETS IT
Bill McKibben, the visionary environmental leader, writes that “Money is the New Oxygen” in an essay in the September 17th issue of The New Yorker. He describes the many levers he and other environmentalists have pulled, or tried to pull, over the past 30 years.
“These are all important efforts, but we need to do more, for the simple reason that they may not pay off fast enough,” he writes. “But what if there were an additional lever to pull, one that could work both quickly and globally?”
He is talking about the organized money system—finance.
His piece offers a short and piercing analysis of three major parts of the financial system—banking, asset management, and insurance.
We find the analysis exciting and the timing fortunate (because our book on the topic is coming out in three weeks). In fact, his analysis raises many points we discuss in ORGANIZED MONEY.
But I never thought I would think it, let alone say it, but McKibben does not go far enough.
Pulling the finance lever is not an extension of the social, political, and other facets of the environmental movement. It is not just another level—it is THE lever.
The U.S. financial system is, arguably, the most powerful cultural, social, economic, and financial force in the world. It is the largest part of the U.S. economy and it sets, implements, and enforces the rules it and others live by. It funds, finances, influences, and—when it chooses—constrains public policies and private practices.
Not just for the environment. Also for social issues, racial and identity equity, and much more. In a sense, finance is the intersection at the center of intersectionality.
McKibben is right that the environmental movement needs to pull the financial lever. He falls short in how he thinks that should happen. He envisions ways that JPMorgan Chase, BlackRock, and other financial leaders could tweak their business practices.
We thnk that is necessary but not sufficient.
We describe an organizing strategy for a progressive financial system, through ownership using some of the more-than $12 trillion in wealth already targeting progressive goals, that can exert a gravitational pull on the entire financial system. Because today we are not only affected by conservative mainstream financial institutions, we—progressives—are financing them. Unless and until progressives—and we mean everyone to the left of the far-right—organize their money and other money to work toward their goals and purposes, we will not win. We cannot win without progressive “money muscle” to counter the extraordinary conservative money muscle that McKibben identifies.
Pulling the financial lever as McKibben describes it is necessary but not sufficient. Progressives have the means—the wealth, the knowledge, and the expertise—to transform the financial system in service of progressive values, for the common good, and away from conservative outcomes.