What is the gift economy?

The gift economy is an idea that's time has come.

We are beginning to see through the empty promises of consumerism, and are slowly leaving shopping centres in search of something more. We know that the financial system is unsustainable and the gap between rich and poor is growing in a giant feedback loop, where exploitation makes the rich richer at the expense of people, animals, and the environment. We desperately wish to mend our abusive relationship with nature.

Many people who care deeply about the planet and our fellow beings are realising, that making some adjustments around the edges is not enough. The change we need is structural. It's cultural. It's about where we place our value. We have all been deeply entrenched in consumerism, the dominant culture of the western world. This makes it very difficult to think differently about the value of all things.

While we put monetary value on milled wood and not on living trees, on dead fish and not on healthy oceans, on processed foods but not the bees that pollinate, how can we look after the natural world that is a gift to us all? Changing our economy is not going to happen overnight. Although we can start to change our own minds.

By making a gift with no expectation of return, we are moving away from the transactional economy which says "if I give you this, then you have to give me that". This experimentation with the gift economy is about creating a culture of contribution and generosity. Of finding our roles and being part of something bigger than ourselves. It starts from the inherent understanding that all people have a universal need to contribute.

Let us be genuinely curious with the results of our experiment and look at how this leap of trust makes us feel. It's time to start trusting that other people will be there to support what is needed. This is community, we can't do it alone. Capitalism has instilled the mindset of scarcity and yet this is a mindset that is holding us back from the abundance that we can find through re-organising all forms of energy - re-organising our economy. If you don't know what this all means, that's ok. We are experimenting with new forms of economy, and we don't fully know what that means either.

Be curious and join the experiment.

For more information about the gift economy, read Charles Eisenstein's book "Sacred Economics" (also available as an audiobook).