Béla Curtius
How can the economy of a city contribute to the common welfare of its citizens?
That’s a very comprehensive question that cannot be answered very easily. Fact is, however, private capital has an enormous effect in shaping a city for good and for bad.
In the past, cities that were economic powerhouses thrived. Images of high skyscrapers, fancy restaurants and expensive shopping stores immediately pop in our minds. And it is true, cities that attract private companies profit from the created jobs, a high tax income and investments in education. But not necessarily everyone participates from these benefits. Economic inequality and environmental damage threaten wide parts of society while others profit. One impressive negative example for this is San Francisco. The US-American city that is home base for many giant US-American tech companies that bring high-income jobs and technological advancement.
On the other hand, the city has a severe problem with severe poverty and homelessness resulting in criminality making some parts of the city inaccessible.
A city wants its companies to contribute to the financial, social and ecological stability of the region. The concept that brings all this together is the concept of “Business for the common good”. It shifts away the focus on profit maximization as the main objective in our economy but instead focuses on the welfare of society. The concept isn’t widespread worldwide, but I have been able to visit one example in Germany in the last week: The GLS bank is a Genossenschaftsbank (co-operative bank) in Germany that is not owned by a little group of profit-oriented shareholders but by its clients that pay an annual membership. They then decide as a collective how the business should develop in the future. In addition, the co-operative is also dedicated to its founding purpose of financially supporting and facilitating sustainable projects. All the members must dedicate themselves to this goal as well. In Germany, this concept is mainly widespread in the agricultural sector where people pay for their share and then participate from the produced goods. There are comparable examples in South America as well and in Durango and the state of Durango this concept could be applied as well. It is a concept that prevents unnecessary over production and better connects local farmers with the consumers.
To conclude, private companies are needed in a successful transformation process of a city. The bring innovation and employment. At the same time, the economical system of the past years has caused serious problems such as inequality and environmental damages. Alternative concepts must be promoted and tested. In some parts, strong governmental institutions will also be needed in restricting the negative influence and impact of private companies.
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