The Ethical Economy

Today we have a chance to construct instruments, institutions, and infrastructure to reverse the trajectory of a quickly deteriorating economic environment. In this volume, Adam Arvidsson and Nicolai Peitersen show wealth creation can be the result of a new kind of social production, and the motivation of continuous capital accumulation can exist in tandem with a desire to maximize our social impact. They argue that financial markets could become a central arena in which diverse ethical concerns are integrated into tangible economic valuations. Indeed, such a common standard has already emerged, linked to the spread of social media, and Arvidsson and Peitersen recommend how to build upon these developments to initiate a radical democratization of economic systems and the value decisions they generate.

A new, more balanced system of economic production and wealth distribution that fundamentally rethinks the definition of value.A more ethical economic system is now possible, one that rectifies the crisis spots of our current downturn while balancing the injustices of extreme poverty and wealth. Adam Arvidsson and Nicolai Peitersen, a scholar and an entrepreneur, outline the shape such an economy might take, identifying its origins in innovations already existent in our production, valuation, and distribution systems. Much like nineteenth-century entrepreneurs, philosophers, bankers, artisans, and social organizers who planned a course for modern capitalism that was more economically efficient and ethically desirable, we now have a chance to construct new instruments, institutions, and infrastructure to reverse the trajectory of a quickly deteriorating economic environment. Considering a multitude of emerging phenomena, Arvidsson and Peitersen show wealth creation can be the result of a new kind of social production, and the motivation of continuous capital accumulation can exist in tandem with a new desire to maximize our social impact. Arvidsson and Peitersen argue that financial markets could become a central arena in which diverse ethical concerns are integrated into tangible economic valuations. They suggest that such a common standard has already emerged and that this process is linked to the spread of social media, making it possible to capture the sentiment of value to most people. They ultimately recommend how to build upon these developments to initiate a radical democratization of economic systems and the value decisions they generate.