You probably think the way your society is run is the only way to run
a society. But if you could design a society from scratch, how would
you design it?

How would you define and measure prosperity? What would denominate
value? How would people vote? How would they be represented?

In short, what would the rules of the ways people work, live,
and play be?

If you could design a society from scratch, here’s what’s for sure–you
probably wouldn’t choose the institutions you’ve got now. They’re
accidents of history; echoes of the past; leftovers of bygone eras. If you
could design a society from scratch, you’d probably look across the globe
–to the institutional frontier: the cutting edge of institutional innovation.
You’d probably choose a set of institutions that weren’t relics of the past,
but newer creations, fit for future–and tailored to the
challenges of the present.

Yet, everywhere still stand zombie institutions—not quite alive, but very
much undead. We live in a era of titanic institutional breakdown. The
global economy is breaking. The global financial system is buckling.
Across advanced economies and emerging markets, social contracts are
splintering. Here are just some of the consequences. Mass unemployment.
A lost generation. Social upheaval. Spiralling inequality. The risk of
environmental catastrophe. Banking systems in perma-crisis. Middle
classes imploding. A future on the verge of breakdown.

Just as better products are imagined and created, so too are better
institutions. Not all institutions are created equal. Often, we judge the
“success” or “failure” of institutions in terms of whether they’re efficient,
productive, and effective. These are the assembly-line terms of the
industrial age–and today, we’re coming face to face with their
shortcomings. They are hedonic criteria, that elevate product over
people; stuff over society; output over outcomes.

Hence, if you were going to design a society from scratch, you’d
probably choose to design it for eudaimonia–lives meaningfully well
lived. And you’d probably want institutions that were capable not just of
maximizing industrial output–but optimizing better human outcomes;
that were built for seeding, nurturing, and cultivating lives well-lived in
human terms. You’d probably choose to aim your society–and it’s
fundamental building blocks–at real human prosperity.

This is a project to imagine the global institutional architecture of
the 21st century. We believe that it will take at least a decade to
imagine, design, and build a better global economic architecture,
monetary system, and social contract. Call it Bretton Woods III, the
Great Reboot, or simply the voyage past the edge of impossibility.
The challenge confronting the globe this lost decade is nothing
less than how to fix the world.

We believe humanity's capable of—and deserves better than—
plastic prosperity designed for zombies, robots, and vampires,
not the pursuit of lives meaningfully well lived.
Hence, our agenda:
1. Redesigning democracy to represent people.
2. Reinventing capitalism for real human prosperity.
3. Reimagining society to transform human potential.