A World of Three Zeros: The New Economics of Zero Poverty, Zero Unemployment, and Zero Net Carbon Emissions

Muhammad Yunus, who created microcredit, invented social business, and earned a Nobel Peace Prize for his work in alleviating poverty, is one of today’s most trenchant social critics. Now he declares it’s time to admit that the capitalist engine is broken—that in its current form it inevitably leads to rampant inequality, massive unemployment, and environmental destruction. We need a new economic system that unleashes altruism as a creative force just as powerful as self-interest. Is this a pipe dream? Not at all. In the last decade, thousands of people and organizations have already embraced Yunus’s vision of a new form of capitalism, launching innovative social businesses designed to serve human needs rather than accumulate wealth. They are bringing solar energy to millions of homes in Bangladesh; turning thousands of unemployed young people into entrepreneurs through equity investments; financing female-owned businesses in cities across the United States; bringing mobility, shelter, and other services to the rural poor in France; and creating a global support network to help young entrepreneurs launch their start-ups. In A World of Three Zeros, Yunus describes the new civilization emerging from the economic experiments his work has helped inspire. He explains how global companies like McCain, Renault, Essilor, and Danone got involved with this new economic model through their own social action groups, describes the ingenious new financial tools now funding social businesses, and sketches the legal and regulatory changes needed to jump-start the next wave of socially driven innovations. And he invites young people, business and political leaders, and ordinary citizens to join the movement and help create the better world we all dream of. MUHAMMAD YUNUS, a native of Bangladesh, was educated at Dhaka University and was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study economics at Vanderbilt University. In 1972, he became head of the economics department at Chittagong University. He is the founder of Grameen Bank and the father of microcredit, an economic movement that has helped lift millions of families around the world out of poverty. He is also the creator of social business. Yunus and Grameen Bank are winners of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, and Yunus won the Presidential Medal of Freedom, 2009, and the Congressional Gold Medal, 2013. CONTENTS PART ONETHE CHALLENGE 1 The Failures of Capitalism 2 Creating a New Civilization: The Countereconomics of Social Business PART TWOTHE THREE ZEROS 3 Zero Poverty: Bringing an End to Income Inequality 4 Zero Unemployment: We Are Not Job Seekers, We Are Job Creators 5 Zero Net Carbon: Creating an Economics of Sustainability 6 A Road Map to a Better Future PART THREEMEGAPOWERS FOR TRANSFORMING THE WORLD 7 Youth: Energizing and Empowering the Young People of the World 8 Technology: Unleashing the Power of Technology to Liberate All People 9 Good Governance and Human Rights: Keys to Building a Society That Works for All PART FOURSTEPPING STONES TO THE FUTURE 10 The Legal and Financial Infrastructure We Need 11 Redesigning the World of Tomorrow Notes Index