Introducing Opportunity Economics: How to Make Capitalism Work for Everyone

Implementation details:

Github

Something fundamental has broken in American capitalism—or rather, it’s working exactly as designed, just not for you.

We’re told the economy is growing, but you struggle to build wealth despite doing everything right. You work hard, save money, and buy a home, yet somehow you’re falling behind. Your smartphone dies after three years, your washing machine fails right after the warranty expires, your car needs expensive repairs at 80,000 miles. Each time you’re forced to replace something, you get poorer while wealth flows to corporate executives and shareholders.

This isn’t market failure—it’s market design. The current system reflects deliberate political choices made over decades to benefit corporate interests at your expense. But economic arrangements change throughout history, and what people with power designed to serve themselves, we can redesign to serve everyone.

Opportunity Economics is the framework for creating an economy where everyone has genuine opportunities to build wealth and control their economic lives.

The Core Idea

Use federal resources to help working people, small businesses, and communities build wealth—rather than letting corporate interests extract it. Instead of waiting for capitalism to collapse or accepting rigged markets, we organize our economy around creating opportunities for everyone, regardless of political beliefs or cultural values.

This means guaranteeing basic dignity and security for all, which actually frees people to pursue prosperity and innovation. It’s about dismantling hierarchies that exclude people from economic power and building a coalition of everyone who wants fair competition and genuine choice.

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Why We Can’t Retreat from National Politics

Many people frustrated with the current system retreat into “political bypass”—avoiding national policy engagement by waiting for systemic collapse or focusing only on local solutions. This retreat has a fatal flaw.

While you avoid “dirty” politics, a powerful coalition of authoritarian, fascist, religious nationalist, oligarch, and bigoted elements actively organizes to control national policy. They understand that real power comes from controlling federal resources, monetary policy, and regulatory frameworks. This isn’t just about policy preferences—it’s about the fundamental structure of power in America. While progressives debate ideological purity and retreat to local solutions, authoritarians understand that controlling national economic policy means controlling who gets opportunities and who doesn’t.

Meanwhile, working people suffer through the dysfunction you’re avoiding. They lose wealth to predatory healthcare pricing, financial speculation that drives up housing costs, and products designed for rapid replacement rather than durability.

We need an equally powerful coalition around policies that make capitalism work for working people rather than corporate interests. Opportunity Economics provides this framework: economic policies that appeal across political lines because they create genuine opportunities for everyone. This isn’t about compromising values—it’s about recognizing that the choice between ideological purity and effective power often means choosing between feeling right and actually helping people.

Building a Coalition Beyond Left vs. Right

Opportunity Economics transcends political divisions because it addresses what people actually experience: an economy rigged against anyone who works for a living.

Both major parties operate within a framework that serves corporate interests. Republican “free market” rhetoric masks corporate welfare and monopoly protection. Democratic “progressive” policies get watered down by corporate donors and lobbyists.

But Opportunity Economics unites people across party lines around shared economic interests:

• A Republican small business owner struggling against corporate monopolies

• A Democratic suburban parent losing wealth to products designed to break

• An independent rural resident worried about economic security

• An urban worker wanting genuine opportunities

All benefit from the same systematic changes that create fair competition and genuine choice, regardless of cultural values or political identity.

The Four Pillars of Opportunity Economics

Pillar 1: Deploy Our Full Economic Capacity

The Problem: Politicians claim there’s “no money” for community development, infrastructure, or job training, while trillions flow to Wall Street bailouts and corporate subsidies.

The Reality: Since 1971, money functions as a tool we create to coordinate economic activity, not a scarce resource that limits what’s possible. The federal government creates money for spending—just as it does for military budgets and corporate subsidies.

Understanding this distinction is crucial: your household budget works differently than the federal government’s budget. You and your community are currency users—you must earn or borrow dollars before you can spend them. The federal government is the currency issuer—it creates dollars through spending. When politicians compare the federal budget to a household budget, they’re either confused about basic monetary operations or deliberately misleading you.

The real constraints are workers, materials, and organizational capacity, not government bank balances. We have millions wanting to work, unused materials, and wasted organizational capacity while communities struggle with inadequate resources. Current economic policy deliberately maintains what economists call an “employment buffer stock”—keeping willing workers unemployed to discipline wages and maintain corporate profits. This isn’t natural market outcomes; it’s a policy choice serving existing power structures.

The Solution: Federal job guarantee programs creating opportunities in infrastructure, environmental restoration, community development, and care work. Rather than maintaining unemployment to discipline workers and suppress wages, we use our full productive capacity for meaningful work serving community needs. Economic development based on what we can actually build, not artificial financial constraints designed to maintain existing power structures.

Pillar 2: Give Working People the Same Advantages as Businesses

The Problem: Working people lose wealth to predatory systems while businesses get systematic advantages.

When a corporation buys $100,000 equipment, they deduct its depreciation from taxes, potentially saving tens of thousands. When your household spends $30,000 on a car that loses half its value in three years, you get nothing while manufacturers and lenders profit from financing your next vehicle.

Consider healthcare: a diabetic person spends $3,000 annually on insulin that costs $10 to produce, with the difference flowing to pharmaceutical shareholders. That’s $3,000 less for building wealth, investing in education, or starting a business. Meanwhile, those same companies receive massive tax breaks for “research and development.”

Or housing: while homeowners pay property taxes and maintenance that drain wealth, real estate investment companies buy neighborhoods, extract rent, and depreciate properties on their taxes while the buildings actually appreciate.

The Solution: Systematic wealth-building support that mirrors business advantages. Healthcare cost offsets preventing medical debt from destroying wealth accumulation. Community-controlled banking serving local wealth building rather than Wall Street speculation. Market incentives rewarding durability over designed failure. Universal basic assets ensuring everyone has access to productive tools and ownership stakes.

Pillar 3: Enable Community-Controlled Economic Development

The Problem: Corporate interests control economic development while communities have no real say in how their economies develop.

Most people don’t understand the fundamental constraint of purely local solutions: they’re limited by local income. A community can only support as many cooperatives or local enterprises as local wealth allows. Meanwhile, corporate interests freely access national-scale resources through tax deductions, subsidies, and favorable regulations.

The Solution: Democratic institutions coordinating economic development based on community needs, powered by federal resources. Communities decide how resources are used, but aren’t artificially limited to existing local wealth.

Community development banks prioritize local prosperity over profit extraction, like credit unions serving members rather than distant shareholders. Worker ownership and local enterprise receive systematic federal support—imagine every community having access to startup funding and business development resources currently concentrated in Silicon Valley. Democratic oversight ensures economic development serves communities rather than extracting from them.

Key insight: Competition Cures All. When markets function competitively rather than being rigged by monopolies, they serve communities instead of extracting from them.

Pillar 4: Economic Security That Enables Achievement

The Problem: Economic insecurity forces people to accept bad deals and prevents them from pursuing opportunities, starting businesses, or building community wealth.

The Solution: Economic security and political inclusion as the foundation for genuine achievement and democratic participation.

Economic security isn’t the enemy of opportunity—it’s the foundation that makes real opportunity possible. Consider how the National Debt actually functions: rather than being a burden, it serves as a stable foundation for the entire credit system that enables investors to take calculated risks and create value.

The same logic applies to providing economic security for people. When we guarantee foundational supports—healthcare, education, housing stability, baseline income—we don’t suppress ambition, we empower it. People are freed to take meaningful risks: start businesses, pursue education, build community, or live with quiet dignity. Stability isn’t stagnation—it’s the precondition for motion.

Think how much more entrepreneurial risk people could take if healthcare was secure regardless of business outcomes. Economic security combined with political inclusion creates the conditions where both markets and democracy work better for everyone.

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What This Means for You

If you’re struggling to build wealth: You’d receive systematic advantages that mirror what businesses get, potentially putting thousands back in your pocket annually while creating market incentives that prevent wealth extraction.

If you own a small business: You’d gain access to community development banking, systematic entrepreneurship support, and protection from monopolistic competition.

If you’re worried about economic security: Basic guarantees for healthcare, education, and housing would free you to take calculated risks, start businesses, or pursue education without fear of catastrophic loss.

If you’re frustrated with politics: Democratic economic planning at the community level would give you real input into resource allocation in your area, while federal support ensures adequate resources for local priorities.

If you want your community to prosper: Systematic federal support for local economic development would enable your community to build wealth according to your values, not distant corporate interests.

Your Next Steps

Opportunity Economics offers practical steps that create immediate benefits while building toward comprehensive change:

Start Now

• Learn the policies affecting you: Understand how current tax policy favors capital owners over working people

• Connect locally: Find people in your community who share these economic frustrations, regardless of party

• Engage existing programs: Many communities have development grants and small business support that could be enhanced

Build Momentum (6-12 Months)

• Advocate for pilots: Push for working people wealth-building credits, community banking pilots, enhanced small business support

• Support aligned candidates: Back local and state candidates who understand these mechanisms and support community-controlled development

• Create coalitions: Build local groups transcending political divisions around shared economic interests

Scale Up (Long-term)

• Full opportunity infrastructure: Comprehensive systems making community-controlled prosperity normal rather than exceptional

• National policy change: Federal job guarantees, systematic entrepreneurship programs, democratic economic planning

Each step creates immediate benefits while building systematic progress toward an economy that works for everyone willing to contribute.

Common Objections Answered

“This sounds like socialism!” Opportunity Economics is fundamentally capitalist—it makes capitalism work for wealth creation across all levels of society, not just concentration at the top. We’re not eliminating private property, market competition, or profit. We’re ending the rigged game where only existing wealth and political connections can build more wealth.

This requires learning how capitalism actually works and championing detailed policies that make it work for regular people. The tax code directly impacts your wealth-building ability. When businesses get deductions for equipment losses while households get nothing for designed-to-break products, when pharmaceutical companies receive R&D credits while people pay thousands for insulin, when investment firms depreciate appreciating properties—these are specific policy choices transferring wealth upward.

“Where will the money come from?” The same place it comes from for military spending, corporate bailouts, and tax cuts for the wealthy—the federal government creates it. This is how our monetary system has worked since 1971. The government doesn’t need to “find” money in its accounts or “collect taxes first” to spend—it creates money through spending, then uses taxation to manage inflation and resource allocation.

The question isn’t whether we can afford Opportunity Economics, but whether we can afford to keep running an economy designed for wealth extraction. We have unused productive capacity—workers wanting jobs, materials sitting idle, organizational ability going to waste. The constraint isn’t money; it’s political will to deploy our real resources for widespread prosperity instead of concentrated wealth.

“Won’t this cause inflation?” Inflation happens when demand exceeds productive capacity. If 100 people want cars but you can only produce 80, prices rise. But if you train more workers, build better factories, and improve supply chains to produce 120 cars, prices stabilize.

The key insight: inflation comes from resource constraints, not money creation. We create money all the time—for military spending, corporate subsidies, financial bailouts—without automatic inflation. Inflation occurs when we try to purchase more real resources than actually exist, or when supply chains are disrupted.

Opportunity Economics expands productive capacity through job guarantee programs, infrastructure development, and community wealth building. More skilled workers, better infrastructure, and more efficient production increase our ability to produce goods and services, which helps control inflation. The current system of artificial scarcity and designed obsolescence actually drives prices up by limiting supply while forcing constant replacement purchases.

“Why should my tax dollars pay for other people’s opportunities?” This question reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of how federal spending works. Your tax dollars don’t fund federal programs—the federal government creates money for spending first, then uses taxes to manage inflation and resource allocation. Federal taxation serves to create demand for the currency and to remove excess money from circulation when necessary, not to “fund” spending.

More importantly, Opportunity Economics benefits you directly through wealth-building support, better infrastructure, economic security, and communities that prosper rather than extract wealth from working people. When your neighbors have economic security and opportunity, your community becomes more prosperous, your property values are more stable, and local businesses thrive.

“This will never happen—powerful interests won’t allow it.” Every major economic transformation faced this objection. The New Deal, Social Security, Medicare—all were “impossible” until they weren’t. Change happens when enough people understand the current system is a choice, not natural law, and organize to make different choices. Opportunity Economics provides a clear alternative appealing across political lines with immediate benefits building toward systematic change.

America’s Strength Through Diversity

Opportunity Economics recognizes that America’s strength comes from diverse approaches, cultures, and communities. Rather than imposing uniform solutions, this framework provides systematic support enabling different communities to pursue prosperity according to their specific circumstances and values.

Rural communities can focus on environmental restoration and resource development. Urban areas can emphasize innovation and manufacturing. Suburban communities can build around family stability and educational opportunity. This plurality approach builds genuine national strength by enabling diverse communities to contribute their unique strengths.

A Better Path Forward

Opportunity Economics offers a third way: building a broad coalition that breaks free from both neoliberal corporatism and authoritarian populism to reorganize our economy around genuine opportunity creation.

This approach draws from the best of both Republican and Democratic traditions while rejecting their corporate capture. We can appeal to Republican values of entrepreneurship, genuine market competition, and individual freedom while rejecting crony capitalism. We can appeal to Democratic values of economic opportunity, community empowerment, and systematic support for working people while rejecting corporate-captured incrementalism.

This approach strengthens American competitiveness globally. When our people have economic security, entrepreneurs can take real risks, small businesses can compete fairly, and communities can innovate. Countries that provide basic dignity and opportunity for all their citizens consistently outcompete those that force people into economic desperation.

The urgency is clear: we need this coalition to defeat both establishment neoliberalism and rising authoritarianism. While corporate-captured politicians serve their donors and authoritarians use division to consolidate power, we can unite people around economic policies that actually improve their lives across all backgrounds and beliefs. The window for building this coalition is not infinite—authoritarian movements gain strength when people lose faith in democratic institutions’ ability to deliver economic security and opportunity.

Economic systems are human creations that reflect political choices about who gets power and resources. The current system was designed by and for corporate interests, but we can build a coalition powerful enough to make different choices. We can choose abundance over artificial scarcity, opportunity creation over wealth extraction, genuine market competition over monopoly protection, community empowerment over both corporate control and authoritarian rule.

The question isn’t whether we can afford to build Opportunity Economics—it’s whether we can build a coalition strong enough to implement it. We already have the capacity to create widespread prosperity. Opportunity Economics provides the framework for uniting people across the political spectrum around that vision.

The American economy can work for everyone. Opportunity Economics shows us how—now we need to build the coalition to make it happen. If you’re ready to move beyond failed strategies and start building something better, help us define Opportunity Economy initiatives and take action on them on our GitHub repo where you can suggest ideas, review proposals, and help build the detailed framework for systematic opportunity creation.