The Story of Solutions

The Story of Solutions explores how we can move our economy in a more sustainable and just direction, starting with orienting ourselves toward a new goal.

In the current 'Game of More', we're told to cheer a growing economy -- more roads, more malls, more Stuff! -- even though our health indicators are worsening, income inequality is growing and polar icecaps are melting.

But what if we changed the point of the game? What if the goal of our economy wasn't more, but better -- better health, better jobs and a better chance to survive on the planet?

Shouldn't that be what winning means?

THE STORY OF STUFF

AND FREE RANGE STUDIOS

PRESENT

THE STORY OF SOLUTIONS

WHY MAKING REAL CHANGE STARTS WITH CHANGING THE GAME

Do you have one of these?

Of course not! This thing is 5 years old.

Now everyone's got one of these.

Can you imagine how much genius and focus it took to turn a music player

into a handheld computer, phone, gps, remote control

for everything in life in just 5 years?

Seriously, the thousands of people who made this thing

had to solve thousands of problems

that literally could not have been solved 5 years ago.

That's what people can do when they are motivated to find solutions to problems.

For the problems we've busy solving are not the problems that most need solving.

So much focus has gone to faster, cheaper, newer

that we've actually lost ??? on things like safer healthier and more fair.

It's as if getting better and better at playing the wrong game.

And in many ways, this system is a lot like a game, but with very high stakes.

Just like a game, our economy was designed by people to get everyone to play by certain rules.

And like a game it comes with instructions, telling us what the goal is.

Think about the last time you played a new game. Remember?

The first thing you did was find what it means to win

and that guides every decision you make along the way.

So naturally the solutions that most people are working on pursue this game's simple goal.

And that goal is MORE.

More money being spent, more roads being built, more malls being opened, more stuff.

That's what economists call growth.

So we take all the money spent is stuff that makes life better,

and all the money spent on money that makes life worse,

and we add it together to one big number, called GDP.

We're told that a bigger means that we're winning.

So it's the number that thousands of rules and laws are designed to increase.

But there is a big difference between more kids in school or more kids in jail,

more windmills or more coal fired power plants,

more super efficient public trains or more gas wasted in traffic jam. Daaa!

But in this game of more, they are counted the same.

Now we can't change a game this dump one rule or one player at a time.

The problem is the goal itself.

We need solutions that change that.

What if we build this game on the goal of better?

Better education, better health, better stuff, a better chance to survive on this planet.

That's what we all want, right?

So shouldn't that be what meaning means?

Changing the goal of the entire economy is a huge task.

Of course we can't do it all at once.

But when we focus on game changing solutions,

we gradually make it possible for a new game to be played.

To do that we have to be able to tell the difference between a game changing solution,

or just a new way to play that old game of more.

For example, let's look at two solutions to one of the many problems we face today.

The scourge of plastic packaging that everyone knows is a disaster for the planet,

especially the oceans.

And here are our two groups of people with very different ideas of solutions to the plastics problem.

These guys decide that enough is enough.

And they start by launching a citizen campaign to ban the plastic bag in the community.

These guys have a different solution.

They start a business that gives people gift cards to buy stuff

if they recycle their plastic waste.

Both of these are happening right now, but only one of them changes the game.

The gift card solution does keep some plastic out of landfills and incinerators

but it creates more plastic by encouraging people to buy more stuff.

Even worse, it teaches them (that) more consumption is the right reward for being a good citizen.

making it even harder to think outside that old game box.

The "Ban the Bag" solution it's harder to achieve but it's a game changer.

Why? Well, by volunteering their time

these citizens are declaring that there is something more important to them

than just earning and spending more.

To win this campaign,

these citizen are gonna have to team up with forward thinking businesses

offering alternatives to throw away plastic packaging.

They are gonna have to build power to fight back against the American Chemistry Council

which is lobbies for the companies that make all that plastic junk.

And they gonna have to get out and talk to their neighbors and friends,

inspiring yet more people to begin to question the old game.

This is exactly what's happening in towns and cities all across the world,

and they are winning!!

But can banning a few million plastic bags transform the goal of the game?

But itself no.

But in combination with millions of others working on game changing solutions that they care about, yes.

Together these solutions are beginning to turn the tide.

As people build power to change the game, their citizen's muscles grow.

They work to ensure that the local solutions they create get copied and scaled up.

And when they see these solutions getting blocked by corporations with way to much influence,

they team up with other solutionaries to fight for a real democracy, by the people for the people.

Gift cards would never do that, but thousands of citizen's campaigns can.

Whenever I'm asked to join in in a solution, I want to know if it is transformational.

Will it change the goal?

To figure it out, I use the word "GOAL".

I want to know that it:

G: Gives people more power, taking power back from corporations to build democracy.

O: Opens people's eyes to the truth that once basic needs are met,

happiness and well being don't come from buying more stuff,

but from our communities, our health and a sense of purpose.

A: Accounts for all the costs it creates, including the toll that it takes on people and the planet.

In other words, it internalizes costs instead of externalizing them as most businesses do today.

L: Lessens the enormous wealth gap between those who can't even meet the basic needs,

and those who consume way more than their fair share.

When I see a solution that does all that, or can be redesigned to, I'm in.

And they are popping up everywhere!!

Like the "Evergreen Cooperatives" in Cleveland,

where worker owners are running green businesses,

a laundry, a solar company and a superproductive urban farm, that are healthy and safe.

They provide secure jobs to people that the old game has left behind.

We all know we need to get businesses out of our democracy,

but cooperatives go even further and bring democracy into the businesses.

Sustainable, Democratic and Equitable? That'a a game changer.

Or in Capannori, a town in Italy, where local citizens

working with businesses and governments, are not just seeking to manage waste better

but are questioning the very inevitability of waste.

They are promoting solutions to waste not with expensive technofixes,

but by working together as a community to reclaim compost for the soil,

to find reusable substitutes for disposable products,

and then to put discarded material to good use.

They've already reduced some waste tunes??? by 82% while creating jobs and building social fabric.

And how about the new trend of Collaborative Consumption formerly known as sharing.

Sharing may sound like the theme of the Barney Song, but think about it.

It's a huge challenge to the old game.

It gets us off the treadmill of "More, More, More",

conserves resources, gives people access to stuff that they otherwise couldn't afford,

and builds community.

What's it look like?

Bike share programs in major cities,

online platforms that let us share everything from our cars, to our homes, to camping gear,

In my town the public library system lends out tools.

There is just no reason that every house needs it's own power drill,

??? blue-ray torch, scanner, wheelbarrow, bike pump when we can share.

As transformational solutions like these gain traction, we will reach a tipping point,

if we keep focused on the new goal of better.

Without a new goal all the work we are doing to build a better future will be:

a) Not Enough

and b) Really hard.

Too much genius and focus will continue to go to solving problems like iPhone battery life,

while the problems that threaten human life spin out of control.

5 years ago, when we made the "Story of Stuff" we started building a community of people

who sense that something was really wrong with this old game.

We agreed there was a problem.

Now it's time to build the solutions.

Solutions that won't just change a few of the rules, but will change the entire game.

Wanna help? Come on, let's do it.

Let's Grow Solutions Together

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