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Sacred Economics

Name: Sacred Economics
ISBN: 978-1-58394-398-4

By Charles Eisenstein

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Book Description

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.

Get print via the Sacred Economics website, or give the author a gift. Translations in français and română are available for download, other languages chapter by chapter on the website.

Table of Contents

Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Author’s Note
Table of Contents
Introduction
Part I: The Economics of Separation
- Chapter 1: The Gift World
- Chapter 2: The Illusion of Scarcity
- Chapter 3: Money and the Mind
- Chapter 4: The Trouble with Property
- Chapter 5: The Corpse of The Commons
  - Cultural and Spiritual Capital
  - The Strip-Mining of Community
  - The Creation of Needs
  - The Money Power
- Chapter 6: The Economics of Usury
  - An Economic Parable
  - The Growth Imperative
  - The Concentration of Wealth
  - Wealth Redistribution and Class War
  - Inflation
  - More for You Is Less for Me
- Chapter 7: The Crisis of Civilization
- Chapter 8: The Turning of the Age
  - Money: Story and Magic
  - Humanity’s Coming-of-Age Ordeal
Part II: The Economics of Reunion
- Chapter 9: The Story of Value
- Chapter 10: The Law of Return
- Chapter 11: Currencies of the Commons
- Chapter 12: Negative-Interest Economics
  - History and Background
  - Modern Application and Theory
  - The Debt Crisis: Opportunity for Transition
  - Thinking for the Future
  - More for Me Is More for You
- Chapter 13: Steady-State and Degrowth Economics
  - Sustainability Reconsidered
  - Transition to Steady-State: Bump or Crash?
  - Shrinking Money, Growing Wealth
  - Disintermediation and the P2P Revolution
- Chapter 14: The Social Dividend
  - The Paradox of Leisure
  - The Obsolescence of “Jobs”
  - The Will to Work
  - Who Shall Remove the Garbage?
- Chapter 15: Local and Complementary Currency
  - The Catch-22 of Local Currency
  - Experiments in Local Money
  - Reclaiming the Credit Commons
- Chapter 16: Transition to Gift Economy
- Chapter 17: Summary and Roadmap
  - 1. Negative-Interest Currency
  - 2. Elimination of Economic Rents, and Compensation for Depletion of the Commons
  - 3. Internalization of Social and Environmental Costs
  - 4. Economic and Monetary Localization
  - 5. The Social Dividend
  - 6. Economic Degrowth
  - 7. Gift Culture and P2P Economics
Part III: Living the New Economy
- Chapter 18: Relearning Gift Culture
- Chapter 19: Nonaccumulation
- Chapter 20: Right Livelihood and Sacred Investing
  - The Dharma of Wealth
  - Robbing Peter to Pay Paul
  - Old Accumulations to New Purposes
  - Right Livelihood
- Chapter 21: Working in the Gift
  - Trusting Gratitude
  - Business in the Gift
  - The Sacred Professions
- Chapter 22: Community and the Unquantifiable
- Chapter 23: A New Materialism
Conclusion: The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Tell Us Is Possible
Appendix: Quantum Money and the Reserve Question
Bibliography
About the Author