A Capitalism Restitution Budget

A Capitalism Restitution Budget

Capitalization must compensate the planet and its people for damages

By Charles Bensinger

Our world is dangerously out of balance, financially.

The planet’s elites, whose century-long, growth-at-any-cost ideology and scorched-earth financial actions have led to horrendous exploitation, injustice and environmental degradation requires us to reflect on the errors and blindspots of global capitalism.

Oxfam noted that “the world’s billionaires now control more wealth than the poorest 4.6 billion people, some 60% of the world’s population, or six times more wealth than the poorest 3.1 billion people.

It’s now clear, that without massive re-alignment of the financial forces driving global climate change, the world humans have known for millennia will soon devolve into a lifeless, blistered and flooded hulk.

What’s needed is a multi-trillion-dollar capitalism restitution package to begin to turn the tide toward planetary economic, social and environmental stabilization.

Here’s how the budget might look:

Program Description

Financial relief for two billion absolute poor

World Innovation Fund for social/economic/political/technical ideas Global distribution of renewable energy generation devices

Clean water and sanitation projects

Climate, economic and political refugee relief

Protection of high biodiversity and ecologically-sensitive areas Support for endangered and threatened Indigenous cultures

Debt relief for small farmers and training in agroecology

Reduction of animal factory farms

Education of girls and women

Fund for independent journalism

Student debt relief

Low income food relief and nutritional programs

Low Income housing assistance

Global education and training

Public Transportation

Implementation of Fair Trade global economic relationships Infrastructure repair/rebuild/village relocation

Amount in USD

$2 trillion $50 billion $300 billion $400 billion $600 billion $500 billion $150 billion $1 trillion $50 billion $400 billion $30 billion $2 trillion $500 billion $800 billion $300 billion $100 billion $320 billion 1 trillion

Global Social Security payments to low-income recipients Environmental restoration and wildlife and oceans protection

TOTAL

$2.5 trillion $2 trillion $15 trillion

To some, $15 trillion is a lot of money. But consider that the Federal Reserve failed to account for $9 trillion following the 2008 economic crisis. A University of Michigan economist working with graduate students and a former government official found $21 trillion in unauthorized spending in U.S. government funds between 1998 and 2015. In 2012, Forbes Magazine estimated that the amount of cash squirreled away in tax havens by the superrich totaled at least $20 trillion. In 2015, the Global Tax Justice Network estimated that there was between $24 and $32 trillion in hidden wealth worldwide, or about 10 to 12 percent of the world’s wealth. In 2017, the Tax Justice Network estimates that the “offshore economy” and private banks are hiding as much as $32 trillion in stealth accounts globally. Likely these numbers have increased considerably, given the dramatic increase in high income wealth during the COVID crisis in 2020 and 2021.

So there’s plenty of cash lying around to reboot civilization and radically reform the social/financial human relationship in such a way as to create a world where all can truly thrive, not just survive. It’s called sharing, something the elites should have learned in kindergarten.

Charles Bensinger (charlesbensinger4@gmail.com) is the published author of ten fiction and non-fiction books and the former Director of the Alternative Fuels and Biofuels Center of Excellence Program at Santa Fe Community College in New Mexico. His publications include Designing the New World and the People of the Change Trilogy, a series of novels exploring ingenious solutions for dealing with our climate emergency and global inequity. His website is: www.peopleofthechange.com