The commons – those creations of nature and society we inherit together and must preserve for our children-is under siege. Our current version of capitalism-the corporate, global-ized version 2.0-is rapidly squandering this shared heritage. Now, Peter Barnes offers a solution: protect the commons by giving it property rights and strong institutional man-agers.
Barnes shows how capitalism-like a comput-er-is run by an operating system. Our cur-rent operating system gives too much power to profit-maximizing corporations that devour the commons and distribute most of their profits to a sliver of the population. And gov-ernment-which in theory should defend the commons-is all too foten a tool of those very corporations.

Barnes proposes a revised operating system-Capitalism 3.0-that protects the commons while preserving the mony strengths of capi-talism as we know it. His major innovation is the commons trust, a market-vased legal entity with the power to limit use of scarce com-mons, charge rent, and pay dividends-in both cash and services-to everyone.

In Barnes' vision, an array of commons trusts would institutionalize our obligations to future generations, fellow citizens, and nature. Once established, they'd use markets and property rights to create a better world for all.

Capitalism 3.0 offers a practical alternative to our current flawed economic system. It points the way to a future in which we can retain cap-italism's virtues while mitigating its vices.

Peter Barnes is cofounder and former pres-ident of Working Assets Long Distance. In 1995 he was named Socially Responsible Entrepreneur of the Year for Northern California . He is the author of Who Owns the Sky? And Pawns: The plight of the citizen-soldier, and has written for Newsweek, the New Republic , the New York Times, and many other publications.