George Matafonov

A little of background to give context to my role as founder and executive director of Powered By Trust (PByT).

While the concept of PByT has been simmering for the past 10 years, the genesis can be traced back to the ideas of Karl Polanyi and his book, The Great Transformation, first published in the 1940s. I explored his ideas and concerns in my book entitled: Fire & Water: Market Morality & Civil Society.

The preface to the book provides a broad summary of the key ideas underpinning PByT:

An economic firestorm is sweeping the globe today and establishing the market as the central institution of society. Imbued with god-like authority to rule every aspect of our lives, the market has become the Market.

This book outlines the fascinating history of one of the most profound, yet little heralded changes in the way humans organize society. The attempt to place the market at the centre of society is nothing less than the rejection of potentially thousands of years of thought, philosophy, teaching and tradition. According to the author, this explains why the rise in economic prosperity, rather than translating into an increase in happiness, is resulting in the opposite: greater social division, increased civil unrest and violence, a sense of injustice, erosion of civil liberties, and even contributing to the rise of mental illness.

Whether these are simply teething problems or evidence of a fatal flaw in the ideology remains to be seen. Yet, common sense, which has protected humanity for thousands of years, is warning us once again. Unless we take action now, the morality of the market will become the defacto morality of humanity and society will wither.

While being a critic is easy, finding a solution is hard and putting your money where your mouth is even harder.

So I bit the bullet and embarked on providing a solution which would update the ground-breaking ideas of Karl Polanyi to a new generation, while heeding his concerns and warnings.  

The result is PByT- the means by which the market actually serves the people not rules over them. See Towards a Grand Narrative for the 21st Century for an overview.