wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

Leonard. you may want to interview Joel Fleishman.

His recent book, The Foundation: A Great American Secret, addresses some of the issues Yunus described about inefficiencies in the philanthropy market to address real social needs and allocate capital to the most productive projects.

"Fleishman, who may be the world's greatest authority on foundations, studied 100 'significant foundation initiatives' in preparation for writing this book. 'The Foundation'...is certainly a must-read for the staff and board members of non-profits and for anyone running for public office." - Fayetteville Observer

According to The Wall Street Journal,

"The Foundation is [Fleishman's] critique of philanthropic practice and an agenda for reform. But it is not mere polemic... He is anything but a diehard foundation opponent. He says, rather, that he has been engaged in a lifelong 'lover's quarrel' with foundations. His book is a form of tough love."

Fleishman is a Professor of Law and Public Policy at Duke University and former president of the Atlantic Philanthropic Service Company.

He is a foremost authority and can de-construct the myth of the great American philanthropy to solve our social justice challenges.

please ask about similarities and differences between social businesses, not for profit businesses and credit unions.

Actually I just got a second business idea for this concept of a social company. getting computers and internet for poor families by recycling computers.

It's a great idea, and I have a lot of ways that it could also provide:
job training
initial jobs
recycling points

but again, getting financing and the idea together seems to be too difficult.

Leonard
Your question "is it a problem here?" I hope that was rhetorical! US banks only want to target families with certain kinds of 'wallet sizes' for their services. For investments, that means like $500K and above. Everybody else does not have access to products designed for their needs. These are the people who need retirement security the most in the day of 401K plans and no more traditional pensions. The worst part is that they have no access to understand the arcane financial system which is the bastion of some kind of disappearing Great and Good!

when you lent the $ for bamboo, did the price of bamboo rise? (ala us property values today)

Please ask Muhammad Yunus hiw free trade fits into social markets.

Thanks - Paul

I just wrote a long memo today about how 'mutual aid societies' were an alternative to providing financial services to community based groups in the 1800s, early 1900s, but our education system doesn't teach people about them, nor about the full injustice of our current system. Therefore, there is no activism or social entrepreneurship to address these grave issues of economic justice and retirement security. Since media is controlled by public company CEOs there is no platform for this discussion in the media. We need a BBC over here! NPR is not reaching the right people to create action.

I think it makes sense that it is more humane way, but I don't quite agree with the idea that we can solve all social problems with free market capitalism. I wholeheartedly believe #1 - that there are some problems that will take money and not make money off of it (for instance, taking care of the severely mentally handicapped) #2 - that during times of recession - coverage of micro loans to social programs will decrease and social programs that are eeking by will not weather harsh storms. Could you address these concerns?

the us govt paid for your fulbright and for the feds bailout yesterday. this is anything but a free market...

to KRB:

the CONCEPT that the guest is talking about COULD work. Look at the local "food Co-op"

A small group of people work together, each does X amount of work per week/month/order, and all benefit.

Same concept he discusses!

Hi.

Listening to this, I have an idea for (what I thought was a non-profit)
but fits perfectly in this category.

It is Green, it is a co-op, and would absolutely help the community, and I envisioned it as a non-profit (not for profit) so that It would be charging a reasonable price for the products.

Any ideas about where I can find capital, or people htat would back this?

I think this business could be a national business in the long term!

markbnj @ excite dot com

I completely agree with #2. Capitalism is a pyramid with rich people at the the top (and fewer of them as you go up) and a wide base of poor at the bottom. It's not possible to have this system work w/o there being an automatic "underclass". Please, please, please have your guest address this.

Doesn't capitalism *require* an impoverished class in order to function, whether this class be internal to a nation or be externalized entirely from a rich nation to poorer nations? I'd love to hear it explained to me why not...

Does the US Fed's move to artificially prop up the market yesterday in order to *Save* the market from "free market capitalism" qualify as humane?

I imagine free markets as China, Saudi Arabia, etc. where poverty or wealth falls upon one solely according to the strength of their grip on commodities, and the economy is a zero sum game...