Which brings us back to sustainable capital. Stewarding capital sustainably includes giving some of it away; structurally, consistently, like a farmer plowing his wheat back into the ground every Fall. We don’t need to wait until we collect excess wealth to begin to donate. We can start now, by giving small donations with each purchase, from thousands of people daily, while recognizing the merchants who give back by making a point to shop with them and help grow their businesses.

Now more than ever, Capital needs to flow into our cultural institutions, but not only by stewards with excess wealth who allow some dollars to “trickle down,” or by relying solely on forcible redistribution by the government. Capital needs to be given daily in small doses every time a dollar changes hands, freely and intentionally, by large numbers of people from the ground up and straight from the heart. That is Sustainable Capital.

It’s your community; you co-create it and live within it everyday. What are you doing with your dollars to make your community more sustainable?

William Underwood, co-founder of Locals Care, has BA in Economics from UC Berkeley. He is a student of Dr. Rudolf Steiner’s Associative Economic Principles. email: william@locals-care.com