The Best Hope for Business is the Business of Hope

The news is coming in fast and furious. More layoffs. Jobs vanishing altogether. Record profits. Increased employer/employee tensions.  Then from CIBC this week a new report acknowledging that it increasingly seems like there are only two choices remaining in play: underpaid or out of work.For the Davos Economic Forum attendees are hearing that globally people are growing restless and that perhaps present-day capitalism is no longer in sync with the world. How much longer must this go on? When the CIBC report states that things are now clearly arcing towards lower-paying positions while at the same time record profits are being announced, there will come a point when citizens will say STOP.At the risk of sounding outlandish, why not propose a new partnership between capitalism and citizens that has something progressive in it for both parties. Let’s make it a Bill of Rights and Responsibilities. And lets have a prologue that goes something like this:As Citizens We recognize the need for business investment – small, medium, large - in our midst and would seek to involve them in the ongoing deliberations of how we proceed as communities, as well as endeavouring to create a profitable investment climate by promoting healthy, smart and sustainable ventures. It is clear to us that a free market, private sector is necessary to wealth creation. We acknowledge that lasting prosperity is only possible in a community where business interests excel and produce quality products in partnership with empowered workers. As Businesses Seeking a prosperous market with production capacities, we acknowledge the importance of a vital community life to our overall success. We acknowledge that the ultimate arbiters of any community are its citizens and that their prosperity is also our prosperity. It is clear to us that an active and resourced public space, couple with an active and responsible private sector, is necessary for a community to flourish.Recognizing these declarations to be valid, we in the public and the private sectors, affirm that what brings us together is community. Ultimately, it is our one common denominator, and from it we will seek to produce sustainable wealth and an engaged citizenry.

• We hereby agree that we will approach employment as a function of economic efficiency but also as a clear social commitment, recognizing that work is not only fundamental to wealth creation but also the human dignity and personal empowerment.
• We hereby agree that healthy competition among wealth creators is a more agreeable and progressive model than the blind support of monopolies and that our products will be of higher quality as we challenge one another towards excellence. As consumers, we will purchase with more diligent selection.
• We hereby agree that since work is essential to human respect and dignity that workers should be paid on the basis of their commitment to excellence – in the workplace and in the community. Healthy wages are as important to the overall community as dedicated citizenship is to the private sector.
• We hereby agree that neither citizens nor their productive capacities have any prosperous future unless sustainability is built within our communities at all levels. There is a price to pay for production and consumption and we agree to develop new technologies and personal responsibilities that will bring us in line with the world around us.
• We hereby agree to spread the cost of better communities and productive capacities equitably across all sectors of society. We acknowledge that various challenges remain obstacles to many of the marginalized in our communities and that we can never enjoy abundant prosperity unless we both – the private and public sector – bring those on the margins into their full capacities among us.
• We hereby agree that where certain governments and corporate sectors are slow to bring about a new partnership between business and citizens, that we will work constructively together to press them towards more complementary and sustainable policies.

There we are – at least some possibilities of how we can create a new capitalism and a new citizenship in the same movement. Small and medium-sized businesses increasingly stand ready to explore their part of this compact, just as a new and engaged citizenry is prepared to accept responsibility for a healthy society and to pay attention. Should large businesses and reticent governments stand in the way of such progress, then we will just outflank them with constructive and innovate relationships that will generate wealth and civic responsibility in equal measure through high quality employment and a highly engaged citizenry.For now, let the powerbrokers go their intransigent and myopic way. We as communities could take such a compact and sign on the dotted line that this is the new way of wealth and citizen creation that can lead us to a better tomorrow. It is citizens that hold the true power of democracy and not government or corporate barons. And it is dedicated businesses and a refined capitalism that refuse to race to the bottom but seek to lift all aspects of community to a place of equal opportunity for all. We need business and they require us. Let’s sign the deal and get on with building the sustainable communities of tomorrow.