Frugal Economics: the antidote to Trumpian Economics
In October 2024, anticipating Trump’s return to the White House, I chose to launch my new book The Frugal Economy at Sustainable Brands’ flagship annual conference in San Diego.
In a workshop I co-led with Berklee Welsh, sustainability manager at Simple Mills, I explained to sustainability experts how the current mindset in our capitalist economy is based on:
- ruthless competition (zero-sum game)
- centralized production and concentration of power
- unrestrained extraction of natural resources that lead to their depletion.
To build a better economy, we must develop a new mindset that is based on cooperation, distribution, and regeneration — three qualities we find in Nature and would counteract the three flaws of capitalism.
Today, under Trump 2.0, we see the three major flaws of American capitalism — competition, concentration of power, and unbridled extraction of natural resources — amplified and running amok.
The regressive Trumpian Economics hark back to the 19th century dominated by imperial powers.
The good news is that progressive US firms, startups, non-profits are shifting America resolutely into the 21st century by adopting Frugal Economics.
Frugal Economics aim to “do better with less” — that is, deliver greater socio-economic value inclusively while minimizing emissions and use of natural resources.
Forward-thinking US firms like Rheaply, Civica Rx, Vertical Harvest Farms, General Mills, Xometry are upgrading America’s “economic operating system” by adopting 4 frugal strategies:
- Business-to-business Sharing: https://tinyurl.com/m9dy67v4
- Distributed Manufacturing: https://tinyurl.com/m34zxkw7
- Hyper-Local Value Networks: https://tinyurl.com/rjvt3wrv
- Triple Regeneration: https://tinyurl.com/2p9smdkk
My new book The Frugal Economy, published by Wiley and Thinkers50, uses 100 inspiring examples to show how we can reinvent our socio-economic systems to make them inclusive and regenerative.
Read my article on how we can empower all 3,143 counties across America to build frugal economies from the bottom-up to revitalize local communities and fight climate change.
Order my new book now.
