Capitalism at the Crossroads
Capitalism at the Crossroads looks at the changing nature of the world’s economy. It tries to influence both individual and corporate thinking in that capitalism should not only benefit the wealthy developed peoples. Instead, capitalism should become a movement that uplifts the entire world’s population in a way that protects cultural diversity and the natural world itself.
The strategies that author Stuart Hart urges multinational corporations and others to implore deal with both environmental protection and a focus toward the base of the pyramid, BoP. He asserts that these two strategies go hand in hand in that when looking for business opportunities in developing nations one needs to take into account cultural norms and practices as well as leap frog the environmentally harmful stages of industrialization. This will help to avert further pollution which has us set on a collision course with Mother Nature. Through numerous case studies Hart looks to expel the “great trade-off myth” that negatively correlates compliance with societal obligations and profits. He claims that greater profitability will be reached if a business can establish an ecosystem among the three different economies: money, traditional and natural.
Currently, in the developed world we are trying to break old habits and become more environmentally friendly through the process of greening. Eventually, Hart argues we will have to go “beyond greening”, not just slowing our course of destruction but stopping it all together. He hopes that large multinationals currently dominating the money economy will be able to take their wealth and resources and apply it to the traditional, developing economies in poorer nations which can act as launching pads for the new destructive technologies they create. Meaning the new developing nations who don’t have to break old habits of pollution and environmental degradation will start with these sustainable products and...