Our Common Wealth

3A New Commons Story

For decades, people have defended the commons and not known it. They’ve battled pollution, development, corporate marketing assaults on their kids, and so many other things it’s hard to keep track. What’s been missing is a story that unifies all these seemingly unrelated battles with the force of a powerful idea.

Think about the market story. A few centuries ago, people looked at economic life and saw many seemingly unrelated things. They saw factories and farms, shipping firms and theaters, and so on. Then, in 1776, Adam Smith came along and said, “These aren’t separate things. They are different aspects of the same thing—the market.”¹ His insight gave mental shape to the whole, and the idea of the market with its beneficent ...