Economics
FLIP THE SCRIPT: ECONOMIC SYSTEMS THAT DO NOT EXPLOIT
Today, we’re talking money.
Not just how we spend it —
but how our entire economy is built.
Because here’s the thing:
The system we’ve been handed?
It runs on extraction.
Extraction of labor.
Extraction of resources.
Extraction of time, creativity, and well-being —
all to fuel someone else’s profit.
This economy wasn’t made for everyone to thrive.
It was made for a few to win — and the rest to compete, struggle, and accept “that’s just how it is.”
But we’re here to flip that story.
Because there are economic systems that don’t exploit.
They already exist.
They already work.
And they’re growing.
Let’s break it down.
1. Cooperative Economies
Businesses owned and governed by the workers, not just bosses or investors.
Profits are shared. Decisions are democratic.
That means more equity — and more dignity.
2. Solidarity Economies
Rooted in mutual aid, trust, and shared survival.
It’s not just about transactions. It’s about relationships.
Repairing wealth gaps. Resisting systems of harm.
Building from the ground up — together.
3. Circular Economies
Designed to eliminate waste, not people.
Products are reused, repurposed, shared.
It’s about living within limits — and designing for regeneration.
4. Community Wealth Building
Instead of profits leaving your city, they stay.
Through community land trusts, credit unions, local food hubs, and public ownership —
neighborhoods keep the value they create.
5. Degrowth and Post-Growth Models
Because endless growth on a finite planet?
That’s not just unsustainable — it’s violent.
These models prioritize well-being, balance, and care over profits.
It’s about enough — not more.
These aren’t fringe ideas.
They’re already happening.
And they’re flipping the script.
So what’s your role in this?
Here’s your action step for today:
✅ Take a look at where your money flows.
- Do you bank locally or with a mega bank?
- Do you shop at worker co-ops or chain stores?
- Could you join a timebank, mutual aid group, or local trade circle?
✅ Choose one shift this week — even small — that supports a non-extractive economy.
Because change doesn’t just happen in governments or boardrooms.
It happens in how we build, share, and imagine value — together.
An economy that works for all of us isn’t a dream.
It’s a decision — and it’s already in motion.
Highlights:
- Defines alternative economies in plain, powerful language.
- Offers a clear personal action tied to larger systems change.
- Balances critique with vision and optimism.
Let’s build the economy — and story — we deserve.
Richard Allen comes across a massive tax fraud that makes the Channel Islands loophole look like a tea party. He teams up with two more retailers whose businesses are being destroyed by it and they start to apply pressure to the tax authorities, HMRC, who seem reluctant to take on big online market players Amazon and eBay.
Music (in order of use) is courtesy of Cherry Red Records: Steal No Egg by Electric Orange and Movement by Praise Space Electric.
This is a Tax Justice Network podcast with Naomi Fowler of the Taxcast podcast. Produced by Naomi Fowler and Leo Schick and sound designed by Leo Schick.
Tax evasion is an illegal – usually criminal – activity, by which a taxpayer escapes tax through deception. Tax avoidance, on the other hand, means getting around (or avoiding) the spirit of the law without actually breaking the law. There is a large grey area between the two poles of avoidance and evasion.
Tax evasion is an illegal – usually criminal – activity, by which a taxpayer escapes tax through deception. Tax avoidance, on the other hand, means getting around (or avoiding) the spirit of the law without actually breaking the law. There is a large grey area between the two poles of avoidance and evasion.
A tax haven or secrecy jurisdiction is a place that deliberately provides an escape route for people or entities who live or operate elsewhere. They shield them from whatever taxes, criminal laws, financial regulations, transparency or other constraints they don’t like. Ordinary people whose lives are affected by tax haven laws are not consulted on these laws because they live in other countries: they have no say in how those laws are made, thus undermining their democratic rights.
“Tax is one of the smartest investments you can make.” That’s Professor Chris Harrop’s promise to companies, and his new tax funded impact model proves it by helping quantify how paying tax is not only good for their businesses, but for the economies they’re operating in, and of course for people and society.
Plus: Why have OECD countries just bent the knee to Donald Trump and given up their sovereign rights to tax US businesses operating within their own borders? Naomi Fowler speaks with Zorka Millin of the FACT Coalition about how US companies now have an exemption from the global minimum corporate tax. Also, Zorka discusses some progress on the Corporate Transparency Act’s rollercoaster journey in the US towards setting up a beneficial ownership register – a court ruling has pushed things a little further forward, which is good news since the United States is the world’s biggest financial secrecy offender. Now some of the watering down of the act needs to be reversed…
And finally, the UK has strengthened its whistleblower reward scheme, lawyer Mary Inman of Whistleblower Partners tells us more.
Produced by Tax Justice Network
