Broadening Capital Acquisition with the Earnings of Capital as a Means of Sustainable Growth and Environmental Sustainability

Abstract

In a prior article in this edition – entitled Addressing the Crisis in Employment and Consumer Demand – it was argued that environmental sustainability with sustainable economic recovery requires sustainable earning capacity for poor and middle-class people. In general, earning capacity can be enhanced by some combination of two contributions; (1) wages earned through employment and (2) money earned through the ownership of productive capital. The latter includes ordinary investment from wage savings that people might make through the purchasing of stocks, bonds, and property; changing ownership structures of businesses (see Marjorie Kelly’s approach of generative ownership), employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), and extending effective market opportunities to poor and middle-class people so that they can acquire capital with the earnings of capital based on principles of binary economics. This article focuses on the binary economic approach and explains how this approach can enhance not only their capital earning capacity but also the demand for employment and the prospects for achieving environmental sustainability.