Community Capitalism

Based on their individual efforts, all participants can benefit equally from community capital and earn the same premium dividend on their investments in the community.

To appreciate the NewVistas economic system, it’s vital to understand two foundational principles: community capitalism¹ and individual stewardship.

Most human economic systems have overemphasized either communalism or individualism at too large or too small of a scale. However, an economy can’t be sustainable or scalable unless community capitalism and individual stewardship are balanced together in the right proportions and at the right scale of 75,000 to 100,000 participants, with a fully integrated community platform to facilitate the economy.

Capitalism comes in many forms.² The current U.S. system of individually based capital works well for many high-income individuals. However, individual capitalism allows too much gaming of the system and always eventually polarizes wealth.

In America, the middle class is shrinking as more capital is consolidated by those who are already wealthy.³ Globally, the trend is even worse. According to Oxfam, “New estimates show that just eight men own the same wealth as the poorest half of the world.”⁴

NewVistas provides an effective, market-driven alternative to individual capitalism. By enabling contractors and small businesses to concentrate their financial and intellectual capital at an effectively sized community level, a community’s banking system leverages the combined capital as a larger, more diverse, maximally efficient portfolio for the benefit of all participants.

Instead of individuals acting as solo capitalists, an entire NewVistas community of up to 100,000 participants acts as a single capitalist. With the community trust owning all the community’s assets and investments, each individual participant has equal economic opportunity and potential. All participants benefit proportionately equally from community capital, based on their actual efforts and investments. Everyone earns the same premium 12-percent dividend on their investments in the community capital bank. No one gains an exclusive insider advantage by being more connected or fortunate than others.

Each NewVistas community invests primarily in the community’s own infrastructure and, as needed, in helping grow the community’s diversified, individually owned small businesses. Each individual focuses on his or her own productivity instead of trying to manipulate the economic system to make money on inflation, timing, insider knowledge, or the labor of others. The entire community benefits from everyone’s increased productivity. By participating in a NewVistas community, most participants become more prosperous than they ever could on their own.

Another benefit of leveraging capital at the right scale is that more capital stays within a community and enriches it. In today’s economy, insurance companies, banks, venture capitalists, lawyers, accountants, and landlords extract tremendous value out of individuals for their own benefit. This is avoided through the efficiencies and safeguards of community aggregation of capital.

By focusing capital at the size of 75,000–100,000 participants, an economic community becomes large enough to manage its own risks and leverage its own assets, so capital stays within the community rather than leaking to outside expenses and investments.

1. “Community capitalism is an approach to capitalism that places a priority on the well-being and sustainability of the entire community, not just the lucky few” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_capitalism).[↩]
2. For a useful overview on capitalism, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOaJe68C-bU.[↩]
3. See http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2015/12/09/the-american-middle-class-is-losing-ground/[↩]
4. Oxfam, “An economy for the 99 percent,” January 15, 2017, https://www.oxfamamerica.org/explore/research-publications/an-economy-for-the-99-percent/[↩]