Forbes magazine (along with its Web site, www.forbes.com) is, to borrow a phrase I like to use a lot, nobody's idea of a bleeding-heart liberal publication. In fact, there was a time when the magazine mocked Communist slogan-making by using the phrase "Capitalist Tool" as an advertising slogan. It may still do this, for all I know; I confess to not being a regular reader.
In any case, you can understand (and you may very well share the feeling) why I was shocked and pleased to come across this article. Nothing about its contents surprises me in the least. But its location inside a medium controlled by Forbes is utterly astonishing. One might expect a Catholic newspaper or magazine questioning the infallibility of the Pope to be as likely. In effect one of the two or three leading press organs that exist to promote the efficacy of capitalism as the best economic system for the largest number of people has declared capitalism to be dead. Or, at least, to have gone on the record as saying that capitalism has a definite expiration date.
Even more remarkable is the fact that the article goes on to make the case not only for sustainable development, but for changes in the ownership structures of enterprises that would allow employees the opportunity to manage businesses. I've been an advocate for decades of expanding the use of ESOPs and similar structures as a way of getting past the investor-versus-labor divide that has dominated economic life around the world for centuries. And here it is, being advocated by a leading advocate of the interests of the investing class.
All I can say in response, Forbes, is: from your pages to G-d's ears. And from G-d's mouth thereafter to the ears of many others as well.
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