Every day there are new voices calling for better ways for our economy to operate. The winner-take-all mindset and laws have seen fear replace hope in many people’s lives, and poverty replace prosperity.

In their book, The Gardens of Democracy, authors Nick Hanauer and Eric Liu present a compelling and clear-headed plan for our economy.

Hanauer and Liu view a new democracy not as an-feeling, antisocial machine, but as a garden: tended and existing within a healthy, people-focused ecosystem.

They base their vision on ideas that speak truth for people, but run counter to the punishing version of capitalism we currently have:

True self interest is mutual interest. Society is an ecosystem that is healthiest when we take care of the whole.

How we behave affects others. Living as positive members of society and the economy encourages others.

The economy is not an efficient machine, as we’re often told. Instead, it can be seen as an effective garden that need tending and participation.

Government should be about the big what and the little how: establishing a people-centric framework and then letting the people find the solutions for how to make it happen.

Freedom is about responsibility, not a greed-rich libertarianism. When there is an active cooperation by the whole society good things happen for more people.

The Gardens of Democracy is an optimistic, provocative, and timely call for each of us to improve our role as citizens in a democratic society, and to speak out in favour of positive, people-focused changes to our economy.