The Toolbox

Markets

“Man Controlling Trade,” a statue outside of the headquarters of the Federal Trade Commission in Washington, DC

Photo by Tom Shearer

The visible hand

Markets organize much of human exchange. There are those who proclaim that markets are the engine of prosperity, a magical machine of exchange and growth. Other counter that markets are an amoral fount of inequality and environmental destruction.

The evidence would suggest that both are correct. Over the past century, billions of people have emerged from extreme poverty thanks—in large part—to the market. Over the same period, we have devastated our biosphere thanks—in large part—to the market.

Like it or not, we exist within markets. We have to understand them if we wish to be effective in building a better world. And, of course, money is essential for our organizations, whether for‐profit, nonprofit, or government—as GuideStar founder Buzz Schmidt put it, “Financial capital is the universally necessary ingredient for the care and feeding of all enterprises.”¹

In this chapter, we will look at how market mechanisms can be tuned for good and how social change agents can tap into that power. And, importantly, we’ll explore how markets can fail us and how much of the work of social change is cleaning up the messes left ...