Dear David,

“Living Economies for a Living Planet” inspires hope. 

It also made me nostalgic because I grew up in a community, which had a local economy and was self-sufficient in important ways.  Cooperation and generosity outweighed competition and greed.  People looked out for each other.  Cars were not necessities.  Ruby Tewksbury, the town drunk, didn’t have a car and […]

The draft essay “Living Economies for a Living Planet” stimulated a lively exchange with a number of colleagues. The following are selected excerpts that bring new insights and highlight a variety of issues for further examination. 

Betty Quick. Recalls how the local living economy of the community in which she lived as a child provided […]

Creating “Living Economies” that mimic the structure and dynamics of healthy living systems has been a defining theme of my work for many years. These are some highlights of that portion of my journey.

In October 1992, shortly after Fran and I moved to New York City  from Asia, I was privileged to participate in a […]

A Work in Progress

I’ve done my share of book learning, but experience has been my most important teacher and most of the ideas presented on this website reflect a combination of insights from my formal education and my subsequent life experience. A colleague once suggested to me that sharing the back stories may help others […]

A Perspective from the Outside the Corporation

Ethix Bulletin Interview 

David W. Gill: How did you-a Stanford “Young Republican” earning an MBA and Ph.D. in business, an Air Force Captain during Vietnam, and a Harvard business school professor-end up as an anti-corporate, anti-globalization prophet out here in “ecotopia” on Bainbridge Island, so far from […]

What’s an Economy For?

Change starts with another basic question. Is the purpose of the economy to expand the power and privilege of a ruling elite? Or is it to secure and enhance the well-being of all the people who depend on it for their livelihood? Our institutional design choices follow logically from the answer to this […]

We humans face an epic choice between the certain outcome of continuing business as usual and the possible future it is within our means to create through conscious collective action.

The transition to a living Earth economy presents a daunting challenge. Because everything must change, there are many essential points of policy intervention that powerful institutions […]