We are in urgent need to completely transform global consumption in a very short time frame if we want to combat climate change. When it comes to over-consumption, one of the key challenges we face is that of HUMAN BEHAVIOR. 

Capitalism has groomed us into constantly wanting more and more stuff, and throwing out what we don’t want anymore. I think it’s fair to say that what we really need is a change of mindset. We need to transform ourselves from the inside out. Our capitalist system is built on a constant focus on growth, and advertising convinces us that we need to buy more and more to fuel it. This status-quo keeps consumers in a state of overwhelm and encourages us to believe that we are never good enough in order to keep us consuming. How can we leave this constant focus on lack behind? If you look at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, we would need more people to move to a level of self-actualization. An experience of lasting abundance on a mass scale.

What is the gift economy?

The gift economy is a mode of exchange where valuables are not sold, but rather given without an explicit agreement for immediate or future rewards. Gifts are not given in an explicit exchange of goods or services for money, or some other commodity or service. Instead, the giver fosters social status within the gifting community by raising their social profile or community role. 

This contrasts with a barter economy or a market economy, where goods and services are explicitly exchanged for money or other goods. Instead of redistributing monetary wealth, gift economies build community and foster lasting relationships between people. Depending on the gifting culture and social norms of the community, people give what they are willing to part with, and the gifts are received by whoever will get the highest benefit.

Gift economies keep this gifting and receiving cycle going, driven by the human desire for reciprocity. Real-life examples of gifting economies in our current society are, for example, platforms like Couchsurfing or Burning Man. In these examples, you can see that in a gift economy, the more you give, the richer you are. 

This is the opposite of money culture. Ownership becomes a community-based concept, where people can trust that whatever they need will be provided for. Those who give the most are most celebrated by the community, and will receive the most in return. I believe that harnessing the gift economy is a way to supercharge millions of people on the path to living in a loving, reciprocal relationship with each other, their environment, and the planet. 

The gift economy can be seen as an extension of the sharing economy, it allows people to not only share commodities but pass them on without any direct conditions, which results in the best possible usage and allocation of goods globally.

The new consumption equation becomes this: the person who has the highest benefit of any item will own and use it, and then pass it on as soon as someone else can make more use of it. This allows goods to move more FREELY and be shared with a larger community, hence the the usage of goods goes up (no more things sitting in the back of a closet doing nothing), and fewer new goods are produced.

At the same time, people experience a state of ABUNDANCE instead of a lack, which addresses human needs such as security, love, and belonging. This will accelerate the mental transformation we require to live in harmony with the planet and our environment. It has the potential to transform people’s mindset from “what can I get?” to “what can I give?” as people earn social status and get their needs for social connection met.

The establishment of gift economies is easy. Gifting is an inherently human behavior that exists in every culture and can be instantly accessed. It doesn’t need to be learned. All we need to do is create the consumer infrastructure to engage in gifting relationships on a large scale.

Humans have good and bad qualities, but I firmly believe that the majority of people want to do good. What we need to do is create systems in which people’s needs are met, we feel safe, and where we are “enough”. If we can create such safe environments for millions of people through gifting economies, I think we will be able to move into a new era of our species, in which we will show ourselves that we are capable of living in loving connection with each other, our environment, and the planet.

 The gift economy helps to build a bridge between our current global capitalist system, and the future post-capitalist sustainable system we need to be moving towards. There’s no more time to waste, let’s get started today!