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In the late 1960s, Will Patten was living in Berkeley, California, attending antiwar protests and shaking his fist against capitalism and greedy businessmen.
Today, at the age of 80, Patten is a true believer in capitalism and a successful businessman.
He tells the story of his odyssey in a new book, “Rescuing Capitalism: Vermont Shows the Way.”
Will Patten grew up on a dairy farm in southern Vermont in the 1950s. After receiving a bachelor’s degree from Johns Hopkins University, Patten attended UC Berkeley to get a doctorate in history. But after participating in the Summer of Love in 1967, he dropped out of grad school and headed back to Vermont to “keep the revolution alive.” He opened a natural foods café in Rutland to serve as a gathering place for like-minded radicals.
“In other words,” he writes, “I became the enemy: a businessman.” But Patten believed in a different kind of business, one that sought to bring about positive social change.
A few years later, Patten met Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, who wanted to use their ice cream as a vehicle for social change. Patten saw that they were kindred spirits. He opened one of the first Ben & Jerry’s scoop shops, and soon became director of retail operations overseeing more than 500 scoop shops in a dozen countries. He retired from Ben & Jerry’s in 2007, but quickly unretired to lead Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility. In 2012, he unretired again to open the Hinesburg Public House, a community-supported restaurant.
Patten now believes that capitalism has been hijacked by corporate profiteers. What can save it, and us? He insists that democratic capitalism, as he calls it, is the way forward, and Vermont has shown the way.
“(President) Ronald Reagan hijacked capitalism when he proclaimed that government was the problem, and that started a 44 year experiment in letting corporations pursue profits without caring about the earth or its inhabitants. So supply side economics is what hijacked capitalism, and it’s been a disaster,” said Patten.
Unchecked capitalism has led to “the collapse of our environment, a very hostile climate, and the unraveling of our social fabric. We are in a severe existential crisis, and the time to fix that is getting closer and closer. We’re running out of time.”
Why does he think that the solution to runaway capitalism is capitalism?
“Capitalism is the only functioning institution there is,” said Patten. “Small business is the most respected institution in the country today. I’m not saying that capitalism is going to pull us out of the ditch, but I think — and there are signs that it’s beginning — that it is in their own interest to do so.”
Patten argues that Vermont’s socially responsible businesses, including Ben & Jerry’s, Gardeners Supply, and Green Mountain Power, offer a model of how business can support positive change. “The businesses that we have have always revered the environment and the and the communities and the people as much as they’ve revered profits.”
Businesses can do good not just because “it’s a moral imperative, but it’s also an economic imperative. They’re making money finding solutions to the crises we face.”
What would Patten tell the ’60s radical version of himself?
“I would probably tell him to do what I did, which was to get into the belly of the beast and change it from the inside.”
Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont Conversation: Can capitalism save us? Will Patten believes Vermont shows us how.