Economic Resilience
what can be done, or is being done, to develop economic resilience -- particularly within grassroots communities
Introduction
About “Economic Resilience” When it comes to change-making, I tend to be the person you’ll find wielding a shovel, either literally or figuratively. Although I spend plenty of time talking in meetings, I feel happiest when I’m out there getting…
Like what we do?
Don’t let it stop here. In keeping with Charles Eisenstein’s gift culture, versions of this booklet are being offered to the public free of charge.Eisenstein reminds us “a gift transaction is open-ended, creating an ongoing tie between the participants.”We have…
Investing for Retirement
Conventional investments: Virtually all conventional investments (money market, 401K, stocks, etc.) are tied to the dependent-upon-growth mainstream economy and are thus fully embroiled in the issues discussed in Part I of this document. The idea of an investment-cash-funded retirement came…
8. Redefine “Success”
In the past, “success” has been defined by things we can count: our bank accounts, accumulated possessions, number of offspring, the square footage of our houses. It has been defined by fame, power, busy-ness and packed calendars. Our conventional economic…
What does this have to do with economics?
Over the past few decades, our society has become experts at specialization. We have sorted life out into distinct categories. Think of the disciplines at school: science, history, math — at first blush they seem quite independent of one another.…
Hartmann’s Older Culture view
Thom Hartmann, in The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight, gives us an idea of the magnitude of change that will be required. He reminds us of the Older Culture view, the tribal culture, of which Native Americans are an example.…
Beyond Emergency Care
Once our “trauma center” is up and running, we can turn to Holmgren’s Permaculture Principles: “Observe and interact.” We must learn how to observe, and what to observe. We must retrain our powers of observation for the new economy —…
Social Enterprise
The concept of “social enterprise” has been gathering traction in the U.S. It’s kind of like a hybrid of the business world and the nonprofit world. In its most basic form, there’s the example of a gift store within a…
6. Community-based investment
The shift from a growth economy to economic contraction has turned our concepts of “profit” and “income” upside down. The idea of “investment” has similarly been radically altered. In the old paradigm, when we thought about “investments,” it meant turning…
5. A Multiplicity of Financial Vehicles
At the beginning of Part III we reminded each other than the economy is basically the sum total of transactions between people. At that same basic level, “money” is simply the markers we use to record those transactions. There is…