Rudolf Steiner's Vision for the Future - Anthroposophical Society in ...

Book Review
selves and take action.
To that end, the book offers a great chart that deserves
mention. It descriptively compares a neoliberal, capitalist
society and a tripolar one in twenty different areas of contemporary
social concern. The idea of something so
schematic might pique concern among those who are familiar
with the oft-repeated caveat of social threefolding—
that it’s neither a blueprint nor a quick-fix for our social
ills—but as evidenced by the examples below, Large does a
commendable job of communicating qualities and leading
thoughts, not prescriptions.
What emerges as one of the book’s central concerns is
that free-market capitalism, in rewarding self-interested,
competitive behavior, makes everything in its grasp a commodity
to be bought, sold, and privately owned, including
some essential aspects of our common wealth: land, individual
human labor power, and capital, (according to Large, we
ignore the fact that capital is socially created, unable to exist
without society’s support). Part 3 addresses how to redraw
boundaries and transform capitalism to overcome this seizure
of common wealth. However, this shouldn’t be confused
with a return to some long-lost utopia. Large aims to map a
way forward that helps the natural systems of economy,
polity, and culture emerge, untangled, into our contemporary
48 • being human
context. Echoing Steiner and others’ call for the decommodification
of land, labor, and capital, Large offers practical
models for how to transform these bedrocks of our economic
system into commons for the benefit of all.
The subsequent chapters present convincing evidence
for the viability of these models just at the point where many
writers often falter, unable to maintain equal footing in both
the conceptual, academic work and the nitty-gritty details of
carrying out their ideas. Here Large offers a trustworthy synthesis
of scholarly insight along with his own practical experience
and personal impressions.
With respect to land, we’ve all had front row seats to the
market failure that’s unfolded as a result of land speculation.
But not everyone is familiar with the powerful measures some
communities are taking to protect land and hold it in tenure
for the benefit of all. Large presents an expansive account of
the Community Land Trust (CLT) model, which holds land
in trust on behalf of the community and separates the value
of land from the housing or other structures built on it, basing
the value of the latter on their replacement costs (labor
and materials) rather than on the fictitious values of the speculative
market. He also explains the function of a Land Value
Tax as a means of securing and protecting land for housing
and productive purposes. Though these models vary among
countries and even states or municipalities because of legal
and community contexts, Large offers important universal
foundations on the land issue, including suggestions for how
CLTs can best acquire land and explorations of other innovative
types of housing, from cooperatives to cohousing initiatives.
With respect to the commodification of human labor,
Large advocates a Citizen’s Income (often called Basic Income)
as a measure for social inclusion and more equitable
wealth distribution. The Citizen’s Income would grant every
national citizen an unconditional basic income, and support
for such a measure has grown significantly in the past few
years, especially in Europe. The book’s short overview of a
Citizen’s Income is particularly worth reading because it
doesn’t shy away from tough questions regarding its ethical
rationale, implementation, or the common criticism that it
might provide a disincentive to work and shrink the labor
supply.