Moving Wealth Down the Ladder

The beauty of a ladder is that it works in 2 directions, you can climb up it or down it. Or forwards and backwards if you lay it on the ground but I digress. Unfortunately, money must be getting lighter because it seems to only go one way, and that is up.

Let’s take everyone’s favorite stabbing stone, the good old US of A. According to the website Inequality.org, in 2018, the 3 richest men in the nation Bezos, Gates and Buffet (if you don’t know who they are then where have you been living?), had a combined wealth equal to that of the poorest half of Americans. That’s right, 150 million Americans have the same amount as the top 3. You have to admit that it is shocking?! 

They’re asking themselves why it isn’t 70% and it must have been Corona holding them back.

Is that a fair society? Is that an equal society? Well thanks for pointing out how poor we are but where are you going with this?

My point is capitalism needs to change if it's going to survive and ultimately be a force for change itself and not just another massive Boy’s Club.

Which brings me to my second point, men have been in the driving seat of the economy since the Industrial Revolution (1760-1840) and look where we stand, at a precipice of climate collapse that we are trying to innovate ourselves out of knowing full well that it is this exact pursuit that has led humanity to this very place. All the while, the elephant in the room gets pushed further away because Daddy’s got to get a Tesla.

Ok, It’s all well and good pointing out the problems but any danger of hearing a solution? At least an idea masquerading as an answer. As radical and abhorrent as it might sound, is it not time to let women take the reins? At least offer them parity on the economic playing field because let's be honest, it’s a joke! VC funding going to start-ups with a female CEO in the US stands at 2.4% over the last 30 years according to the Harvard Kennedy School and if you think Europe is miles ahead you’ll be sadly disappointed. A report from European Women in VC revealed women founders accounted for just 1.1% of investment in Europe in 2021. 

But maybe we’re looking at the wrong metrics?

While traditional businesses quite frankly suck at creating something close to egalitarian, social enterprises are amazingly already there. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, ironically one of the last bastions of rich, white men, the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship together with Deloitte released a report giving us a global picture of corporate social impact and ideas on how to accelerate it.

I recommend you read through the report but one of the biggest takeaways for me was that 50% of social enterprises, the world over, are led by women. So, maybe it is that as more traditional businesses shift to include social upsides that women and those that need help most in our societies (on a truly global scale) will benefit? The jury is still out on this obviously, but the possibility is there because this is why businesses existed in the beginning, to create value for all stakeholders not just shareholders. Yes, there are those that benefit more than others in a monetary sense but if these businesses invest a portion of those profits back into social enterprises then there starts to appear a lovely circularity (which means you don’t need a ladder) and that is what we are all about here at the Circular Entrepreneurs.

Xx
Alex Nash