By the time steam engines hissed and factory chimneys began their long exhale over 19th-century Europe, something profound was shifting in the world’s balance of power. The old aristocracy—those with family crests and ancestral lands—was slowly giving way to a new class of power brokers: the capitalists. But this wasn’t…
Category: Making Money
Interesting ways to make money
The Mythology of the Economy and the Enslavement of the Soul
There is a strange piety that governs the modern world, a religion that no one names but that commands greater obedience than any god ever known to antiquity. It is the mythology of the economy. Its rituals are daily performed, not in temples, but in offices, factories, fields, and screens….
The End of Passive Economics: Building a Stakeholder Society
In today’s economy, most people are locked into one role: consumer. We buy what’s offered, work in jobs where decisions are made elsewhere, and live in a world shaped by forces beyond our control. The people who make the rules—the ones who decide what gets built, who benefits, and who…
“The Well-Connected Community” by Alison Gilchrist: Why Networks Matter More Than Plans
If you’ve ever been involved in community work—whether organizing a neighborhood event, running a local nonprofit, or just trying to get people to care about something beyond their own front doors—you’ve probably noticed a hard truth: good intentions aren’t enough. Some communities flourish, while others, despite funding and well-meaning policies,…
The Democratic Market: Balancing Freedom, Fairness, and Power
A truly democratic free-market society would not be a contradiction in terms but a balance of forces—economic power held in check by democratic accountability, individual liberty safeguarded by collective responsibility. It would be a society where markets serve people, not the other way around, and where democracy is not merely…
“The World Until Yesterday” by Jared Diamond – a review
There once was a world where disputes are settled with bows and arrows, not courtrooms. Where a child roamed freely, unburdened by the paranoia of “stranger danger.” Where food was neither purchased nor grown but hunted with patience and eaten with gratitude. This isn’t some utopian fantasy—it’s the way humanity…
Labor Aristocracy: Servitude Disguised as Prosperity?
Perhaps the illusion of the middle class was never an accident at all. Maybe it was a calculation, precise and cold, a grand maneuver in the service of a deeper order. That one might wake in a house they call their own – or the mortgage company’s, drive a car…
Creation and Production: The Dividing Line of Meaning
In the modern world, we have exchanged the act of creation for the mechanics of production. This transition has reshaped not only our material environment but also the very core of our inner lives. To create is to give of oneself, to engage in a process that bears the imprint…
The Post-Knowledge Economy; Your Quick Guide
As artificial intelligence increasingly dominates the knowledge-based economy—handling information processing, decision-making, and even creativity at unprecedented levels—humanity must redefine its economic role to adapt to this new world. This shift necessitates a post-knowledge economy, where value is no longer primarily derived from knowledge work but from human-centric activities that AI…
The New Digital Lords: How Feudalism Keeps Reinventing Itself
For most of human history, the powerful have found new ways to stay powerful. Feudalism, as a system, never really ended—it just changed costumes. The medieval model of landowners controlling serfs gave way to industrial magnates overseeing factory workers. Now, we find ourselves in a new iteration: a digital aristocracy,…