Hi. I’m Donnie Maclurcan, co-author with Jennifer Hinton of the forthcoming book, How on Earth: Our Future is Not for Profit. Along with our team at the Post Growth Institute, we can’t wait to share this book with you.
Despite our previous projections and hopes, we’re still unable to provide a firm delivery date for your advance copy. But rest assured, we haven’t set this project aside. To the contrary, we’re working every day to bring How on Earth to the world.
One reason it’s taking longer than hoped to finish the writing is because we’re paying particular attention to how we present complex ideas. We’re focused on making How on Earth an enjoyable read with a message that can inspire millions, across the political spectrum. With three chapters needing substantial work, we still deep in editing, but we’ll let you know as soon as we have a clear path to completion.
Here’s a two minute glimpse across the book’s chapters so you can see why we’re so excited about what we’re sharing:
In Chapter One we explode the myth that not-for-profits can’t make money. We show that not-for-profit businesses - businesses without private owners that put purpose ahead of profit - contribute approximately 20 percent to the global GDP. That’s a story that, until now, hasn’t been told. Including consumer cooperatives, credit unions, mutual insurance companies, government enterprises, industrial foundations and nonprofits that generate more than 50 percent of their own revenue, not-for-profit businesses promote individual health, community wealth and a thriving planet.
In Chapter Two we look at the opposite end of the business spectrum. We show how companies that exist “for profit” promote a culture of inequality, discontent and ecological devastation. Importantly, we show how the debt within our economy must always expand in a growing, for-profit system, and that no form of free market capitalism, democratic socialism or even emerging technology can change this flaw in the for-profit approach. By the end of chapter two, it’s clear that we need to move beyond a for-profit system.
In Chapter Three we explore how – despite what the headlines might suggest - a new, Not-for-Profit story is emerging - from shifts in our worldviews, to our changing values, the new ways we’re organizing information and systems, the social structures we’re creating, and how our feelings and behaviors show we’re ready for something better. The missing piece? A realistic economic alternative that brings these shifts together in a coherent post-capitalist system.
In Chapter Four we present our vision for how a market economy can be innovative, viable, and not-for-profit. When businesses aren’t privately owned, money circulates freely, well-being is prioritized, and we paradoxically consume less but feel like we have more. Yet in developing this Not-for-Profit model over the past seven years, we uncovered something even more game-changing. When companies aren’t privately owned and put purpose ahead of profit, things that prove problematic in our for-profit system, such as money, debt, compounding interest, and limited liability for corporations, all become positive forces. This means that the shift to a not-for-profit system isn’t actually that big a shift. It’s more of an evolution, an upgrade to our operating system, in which we retain capitalism’s best components while discarding its worst.
In Chapter Five we show how this shift to an not-for-profit operating system is already underway within the global economy. We contend that not-for-profit forms of business are proving increasingly competitive, with the potential to take further market-share from for profit companies in the coming decades.
In Chapter Six we sketch out how the shifting market might intersect with a major crash and debt restructuring to enable the rebuilding of more localized market activity, based on not-for-profit forms of business.
We conclude in Chapter Seven by showing just how powerful everyone’s contribution can be in accelerating the shift to a just and sustainable world.
Well, that’s it! Thank you so much for your ongoing support of our work. We’re really looking forward to the next phase of this project. With your help, we’re going to introduce the world to a viable alternative beyond capitalism.