Economic Democracy

It’s time to
align the economy.

AI will supercharge whatever economy we put it in. Economic democracy puts people in charge of what the economy rewards, and gives everyone a say in setting the rules.

Read the op-ed

The Alignment Problem

Even if AI does what we ask,
what will we ask it to do?

One Project builds the infrastructure for economic alignment — the technology to run it, the capital behind it, and the proof that it works.

Whatever the economy rewards

You get what you pay for. Our economy rewards what’s profitable, not necessarily what’s good for us, so we get feeds built to keep us scrolling, food that’s cheap but makes us sick, and healthcare that treats disease instead of preventing it. Point AI at that economy, and it works relentlessly toward the same rewards, faster and at a scale we’ve never seen.

The fix: align the economy

Change what the economy rewards, and you change what everyone, and everything, works toward. That’s economic alignment: rewarding more of what we want, and less of what we don’t. The people who should decide what we want are the ones who live with the results. That’s economic democracy: everyday people, deciding how resources are used in the places they live.

This isn’t a theory. It’s happening now.

11,000+

communities already making shared decisions about how resources get used

$400M+

invested by residents through participatory budgeting across 40+ US cities

10M+

Americans working at companies they co-own

AI could deepen extraction,
or help people decide together.

The same AI that could concentrate power and speed up extraction could instead help millions of people find common ground and shape an economy around what they value. We build the tools, the evidence, and the capital to make that path real.

Common

The infrastructure for economic democracy. Common lets communities deliberate, find agreement, decide together, and track what’s working, built to scale from a single city budget to a national initiative.

Explore Common

Our research

We study how economic democracy actually plays out in communities around the world, so the case rests on evidence from the ground rather than hypotheticals.

Read our research

The Common Action Fund

Ideas and evidence aren’t enough. The Common Action Fund moves resources to the people and organizations building this economy, putting capital where it’s needed for communities to flourish.

About the Fund

Let’s keep the conversation going.

Economic alignment isn’t a left or right issue. It’s a human one.
Follow along as we build the case, and the economy, for putting this choice back in people’s hands.