Forward Economics
Chapter 8
The Elephant in the Room
“The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.”
— Michelangelo
If removing the obligation to pay back investors makes a company vastly more competitive, a question naturally arises:
Who will fund it?
After all, investors are accustomed to being rewarded in one way — by taking money out. Why would they ever fund a system that doesn’t pay them back?
The answer lies in understanding that not all investors seek the same kind of return — and that some of the most important returns in life are not financial.
The Legacy Investors
For most of human history, wealth has been passed down through inheritance — a mechanism to preserve privilege rather than advance progress. But increasingly, we are seeing new kind of investor emerge: one who wants to leave a legacy, not a ledger.
These are people who recognize that the world they’ve built — for all its success — is unsustainable. They’ve seen the damage done by extraction and understand that redemption lies not in accumulation, but regeneration.
Think of people like Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, or MacKenzie Scott, who have signed on to the Giving Pledge. Near the end of their careers, they begin to measure value not in dollars earned, but in lives improved. They’re already directing much of their wealth to philanthropy. The forward enterprise offers them something even greater: a way to institutionalize virtue through the market itself — to ensure that good continues compounding long after they’re gone. And they share this belief system with millions of Americans who would readily do the same thing but at a smaller level of contribution.
Together, people who believe in leaving the planet better than they found it for future generations are the seed funders of the forward economy.
How It Works
It all starts with a Forward Fund.
The Forward Fund is the engine that powers this new economy — a professionally managed pool of capital dedicated to launching and sustaining forward enterprises. Unlike traditional investment funds, which aim to extract profits for private gain, the Forward Fund exists to keep prosperity in motion and the nation strong.
Managed by experienced investors, it raises capital from individuals, families, and institutions who want to forge a better future for future generations. That capital is then used to acquire or launch forward enterprises governed by new rules (see Chapter 4).
When these businesses profit, the money flows in four directions:
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Workers, who share directly in the success;
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Management, whose incentives are aligned with the workforce;
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Noble causes, chosen by employees; and
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The Forward Fund itself, which reinvests its share into launching more forward enterprises.
It’s a regenerative loop — a self-replicating ecosystem of prosperity. Ten forward companies become twenty, then forty, then hundreds. Once a certain size is reached, it splits in two, to manage the concentration of power.
At a national scale, the forward economy becomes an economic flywheel of virtue — powered not by extraction, but by American ingenuity and a continuous reinvestment and prosperity.
Why It Will Happen
Early investors in the forward economy will be driven by meaning as much as by math. But the math, too, is compelling: forward enterprises are more competitive. They’ll grow faster, retain talent longer, and capture market share from backward firms.
As evidence of their superiority accumulates, the rationale for funding them will become inescapable. The results will be too visible to ignore.
Eventually, capital will flow toward the forward model not despite its virtue — but because of it.
A New Kind of Return
The Forward Fund offers a return unlike any other: the satisfaction of knowing that your capital doesn’t die with you. It keeps working — feeding families, curing diseases, restoring ecosystems, uplifting communities — in perpetuity.
It’s not charity.
It’s a legacy designed to serve humanity for generations and generations to come.
Figure 8.1 — The Forward Fund in Action
