Meet Erik Ellis
Author of Forward Economics: A Pathway to a More Perfect Union
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I’m Erik Ellis, and if you’re anything like me, you want to understand the world we live in and think often about how we can change it for the better.
Unfortunately, there are many people more than willing to exploit our thirst for answers and solutions. This exploitation is just one of many symptoms plaguing our system. But we can step away from the noise and focus on building a lasting solution ... together.
Our real problem is not some innate human defect, but the architecture underpinning our economic system.
Unless we work to change how we do business, from the ground up, our country - and the world - will continue to struggle.
For most of my life, I’ve tried to do my part to make the world a better place. First as an engineer, then as a public educator, and now within the power industry where I currently work to build clean power solutions to help America meet its energy and capacity needs.
While working full time and raising two children with my wife in Phoenix, Arizona has kept me busy, I've always felt compelled to do more—for my family, my fellow citizens, and the world.
It would be easy to be passively cynical, but it’s more productive and meaningful to act, in whatever capacity we're given.
So, about fifteen years ago, I started exploring a thought experiment on what a business would look like if it were organized (by rules) to always reinvest and share the profits. The first surprising conclusion was the result would most likely be a more competitive, more powerful enterprise, not a weaker one.
To explore it more, I started writing, starting with an essay, which led to thinking about it at a fund level. A fund based on similar principles would be more competitive, too, which could lead to multiple funds. As the funds grow and replicate over time, the benefits radiate outwards, and things start to change.
All of this—and a fascination with puzzles—is what ultimately led to this book, Forward Economics. I love puzzles. One of the biggest of them all is how humanity can put a person on the moon and invent an iPhone and nuclear fission yet still fail to share the gains of free enterprise more broadly. How is it that something that requires no new technology or breakthrough can be so hard? Don't we already have the tools at hand?
Surely, we can solve this puzzle. Humanity built the modern electrical grid, after all, and split the atom! But only if we work together.
Hopefully, you'll find the solutions proposed in this book, Forward Economics, exciting enough to explore further. Perhaps you'll buy the book. And, potentially most exciting of all...maybe you'll choose to contribute to a Forward Fund at some point during the hero's journey of your life.
Think, too, about the debt we owe: to past Americans, who died to give us liberty, freedom, and opportunity; to the Earth, from whom which we take so much; and to future generations, who depend on you and me to preserve our incredible democracy and beautiful world we live in.
Finally, if you think you have some suggestions to improve the content, I'd love to hear it! Send me a note at forwardecon@gmail.com