Sacred Economics

by Eisenstein, Charles

• ISBN13: 9781583943977
• ISBN10: 1583943978
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2011-07-12
• Publisher: North Atlantic Books

Summary

Sacred Economics traces the history of money from ancient gift economies to modern capitalism, revealing how the money system has contributed to alienation, competition, and scarcity, destroyed community, and necessitated endless growth. Today, these trends have reached their extreme-but in the wake of their collapse, we may find great opportunity to transition to a more connected, ecological, and sustainable way of being. This book is about how the money system will have to change-and is already changing-to embody this transition. A broadly integrated synthesis of theory, policy, and practice, Sacred Economics explores avant-garde concepts of the New Economics, including negative-interest currencies, local currencies, resource-based economics, gift economies, and the restoration of the commons. Author Charles Eisenstein also considers the personal dimensions of this transition, speaking to those concerned with "right livelihood" and how to live according to their ideals in a world seemingly ruled by money. Tapping into a rich lineage of conventional and unconventional economic thought, Sacred Economics presents a vision that is original yet commonsense, radical yet gentle, and increasingly relevant as the crises of our civilization deepen.

Author Biography

Charles Eisenstein is a teacher, speaker, and writer focusing on themes of civilization, consciousness, money, and human cultural evolution. His writings on the web magazine Reality Sandwich have generated a vast online following; he speaks frequently at conferences and other events, and gives numerous interviews on radio and podcasts. Writing in Ode magazine's "25 Intelligent Optimists" issue, David Korten (author of When Corporations Rule the World) called Eisenstein "one of the up-and-coming great minds of our time." Eisenstein graduated from Yale University in 1989 with a degree in Mathematics and Philosophy, and spent the next ten years as a Chinese-English translator. He currently lives in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and serves on the faculty of Goddard College.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. xi
The Economics Of Separation	p. 1
The Gift World	p. 3
The Illusion of Scarcity	p. 19
Money and the Mind	p. 33
The Trouble with Property	p. 49
The Corpse of the Commons	p. 69
Cultural and Spiritual Capital	p. 70
The Strip-Mining of Community	p. 75
The Creation of Needs	p. 79
The Money Power	p. 88
The Economics of Usury	p. 93
An Economic Parable	p. 95
The Growth Imperative	p. 100
The Concentration of Wealth	p. 104
Wealth Redistribution and Class War	p. 111
Inflation	p. 117
More for You Is Less for Me	p. 121
The Crisis of Civilization	p. 125
The Turning of the Age	p. 141
Money: Story and Magic	p. 141
Humanity's Coming-of-Age Ordeal	p. 148
The Economics Of Reunion	p. 157
The Story of Value	p. 159
The Law of Return	p. 173
Currencies of the Commons	p. 185
Negative-Interest Economics	p. 203
History and Background	p. 206
Modern Application and Theory	p. 214
The Debt Crisis: Opportunity for Transition	p. 228
Thinking for the Future	p. 231
More for Me Is More for You	p. 242
Steady-State and Degrowth Economics	p. 249
Sustainability Reconsidered	p. 249
Transition to Steady-State: Bump or Crash?	p. 252
Shrinking Money, Growing Wealth	p. 258
Disintermediation and the P2P Revolution	p. 262
The Social Dividend	p. 267
The Paradox of Leisure	p. 267
The Obsolescence of "Jobs"	p. 272
The Will to Work	p. 277
Who Shall Remove the Garbage?	p. 283
Local and Complementary Currency	p. 291
The Catch-22 of Local Currency	p. 294
Experiments in Local Money	p. 303
Reclaiming the Credit Commons	p. 308
Transition to Gift Economy	p. 317
Summary and Roadmap	p. 331
Negative-Interest Currency	p. 332
Elimination of Economic Rents, and Compensation for Depletion of the Commons	p. 334
Internalization of Social and Environmental Costs	p. 336
Economic and Monetary Localization	p. 338
The Social Dividend	p. 340
Economic Degrowth	p. 342
Gift Culture and P2P Economics	p. 344
Living The New Economy	p. 347
Relearning Gift Culture	p. 349
Nonaccurnulation	p. 365
Right Livelihood and Sacred Investing	p. 379
The Dharma of Wealth	p. 379
Robbing Peter to Pay Paul	p. 382
Old Accumulations to New Purposes	p. 390
Right Livelihood	p. 396
Working in the Gift	p. 401
Trusting Gratitude	p. 401
Business in the Gift	p. 406
The Sacred Professions	p. 412
Community and the Unquantifiable	p. 419
A New Materialism	p. 427
Conclusion: The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Tell Us Is Possible	p. 437
Appendix: Quantum Money and the Reserve Question	p. 447
Bibliography	p. 459
Index	p. 465
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