Table of Contents
Introduction xi
Part I The Economics Of Separation 1
Chapter 1 The Gift World 3
Chapter 2 The Illusion of Scarcity 19
Chapter 3 Money and the Mind 33
Chapter 4 The Trouble with Property 49
Chapter 5 The Corpse of the Commons 69
Cultural and Spiritual Capital 70
The Strip-Mining of Community 75
The Creation of Needs 79
The Money Power 88
Chapter 6 The Economics of Usury 93
An Economic Parable 95
The Growth Imperative 100
The Concentration of Wealth 104
Wealth Redistribution and Class War 111
Inflation 117
More for You Is Less for Me 121
Chapter 7 The Crisis of Civilization 125
Chapter 8 The Turning of the Age 141
Money: Story and Magic 141
Humanity's Coming-of-Age Ordeal 148
Part II The Economics Of Reunion 157
Chapter 9 The Story of Value 159
Chapter 10 The Law of Return 173
Chapter 11 Currencies of the Commons 185
Chapter 12 Negative-Interest Economics 203
History and Background 206
Modern Application and Theory 214
The Debt Crisis: Opportunity for Transition 228
Thinking for the Future 231
More for Me Is More for You 242
Chapter 13 Steady-State and Degrowth Economics 249
Sustainability Reconsidered 249
Transition to Steady-State: Bump or Crash? 252
Shrinking Money, Growing Wealth 258
Disintermediation and the P2P Revolution 262
Chapter 14 The Social Dividend 267
The Paradox of Leisure 267
The Obsolescence of "Jobs" 272
The Will to Work 277
Who Shall Remove the Garbage? 283
Chapter 15 Local and Complementary Currency 291
The Catch-22 of Local Currency 294
Experiments in Local Money 303
Reclaiming the Credit Commons 308
Chapter 16 Transition to Gift Economy 317
Chapter 17 Summary and Roadmap 331
1 Negative-Interest Currency 332
2 Elimination of Economic Rents, and Compensation for Depletion of the Commons 334
3 Internalization of Social and Environmental Costs 336
4 Economic and Monetary Localization 338
5 The Social Dividend 340
6 Economic Degrowth 342
7 Gift Culture and P2P Economics 344
Part III Living The New Economy 347
Chapter 18 Relearning Gift Culture 349
Chapter 19 Nonaccurnulation 365
Chapter 20 Right Livelihood and Sacred Investing 379
The Dharma of Wealth 379
Robbing Peter to Pay Paul 382
Old Accumulations to New Purposes 390
Right Livelihood 396
Chapter 21 Working in the Gift 401
Trusting Gratitude 401
Business in the Gift 406
The Sacred Professions 412
Chapter 22 Community and the Unquantifiable 419
Chapter 23 A New Materialism 427
Conclusion: The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Tell Us Is Possible 437
Appendix: Quantum Money and the Reserve Question 447
Bibliography 459
Index 465
