Explore the building blocks of a better economy
Here you’ll find the essential tools, visuals, and policy briefs that explain how The Prosperity Loop works—and how it can work for you.
The Prosperity Loop is more than a theory—it’s a practical framework for economic renewal grounded in fairness, sustainability, and shared growth. Whether you're a policymaker, journalist, educator, or engaged citizen, this page offers a gateway into the core principles and actionable solutions behind our model.
Visualizing the Loop: How Prosperity Circulates
Sometimes the clearest way to understand a complex system is to see it. These downloadable infographics break down the central components of The Prosperity Loop—how wealth flows, how balance is maintained, and how everyday people benefit.
The Prosperity Loop Diagram
An elegant overview of our economic model showing how the four Structural Loops—Free Market Engine, Environmental Resource Fees, National Wealth Fund, and Freedom Dividend—reinforce each other in a cycle of growth and equity.
Extractive vs. Regenerative Economy
Compare traditional economic systems that extract and discard with a toroidal system that recycles wealth, resources, and opportunity.
Where the Money Comes From—and Where It Goes
An elegant overview of our economic model showing how the four Structural Loops—Free Market Engine, Environmental Resource Fees, National Wealth Fund, and Freedom Dividend—reinforce each other in a cycle of growth and equity.
Policy Briefs & White Papers
Here you’ll find downloadable documents that explain the nuts and bolts of The Prosperity Loop’s policy design. These are written to bridge the gap between rigorous economics and common-sense clarity—for voters, lawmakers, and journalists alike.
The Prosperity Loop: A New Framework for Economic Circulation (White Paper)
A 10-page overview of the full model, showing how our four Structural Loops work together to create systemic balance, shared wealth, and long-term stability.
Turning the DOGE Check into a National Wealth Fund (Policy Memo)
A concise 2-page proposal aligning short-term stimulus with long-term dividends, modeled on successful programs in Alaska and Norway.
What Is a Freedom Dividend? (Explainer Brief)
A plain-language introduction to the concept of a universal basic income funded through resource revenues and shared ownership of national assets.
Glossary of Terms
Policy language can sometimes feel like a foreign tongue. Our glossary provides plain-English definitions for the key terms and concepts that shape The Prosperity Loop. This is economics—translated.
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Definition: A systems-based approach to economics in which value—whether in the form of money, energy, or opportunity—is continuously cycled back into the community and environment, rather than being extracted and concentrated.
Relation to the Prosperity Loop: This concept underlies the entire structure of the Prosperity Loop. Each of the four Structural Loops (Free Market Engine, Environmental Resource Fees, National Wealth Fund, Freedom Dividend) represents a stage in a circular flow—value is generated, channeled, grown, shared, and regenerated.
Examples:
Carbon fee revenue returned to citizens as dividends
Public investment returns funding a basic income
Community wealth funds reinvesting in local ecosystems
Intellectual Lineage: Draws from systems thinking (Donella Meadows), circular economy models (Ellen MacArthur Foundation), and doughnut economics (Kate Raworth).
Key Characteristics:
Feedback loops
Resource reuse and reinvestment
Avoidance of linear extraction-growth-waste cycles
Tagline: From growth to regeneration—value that comes full circle.
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Definition: Charges applied to activities that deplete or pollute shared environmental systems, designed to correct market failures and internalize ecological costs.
Relation to the Prosperity Loop: This loop functions as the outer boundary of the Prosperity Loop model, enforcing ecological ceilings while generating revenue for redistribution or investment.
Examples:
Carbon taxes with per-capita rebates
Pollution permit auctions in cap-and-trade programs
Fees on deforestation or groundwater extraction
Intellectual Lineage: Nicholas Stern (climate as market failure), Arthur Pigou (externalities), and Raworth’s ecological ceiling in Doughnut Economics.
Key Characteristics:
Polluter-pays principle
Revenue-neutral or dividend-supported models
Drives clean energy transitions and ecological resilience
Tagline: Pricing pollution to protect the future.
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Definition: A regular, unconditional cash payment to all individuals, designed to provide a secure financial floor that guarantees basic economic dignity and freedom.
Relation to the Prosperity Loop: This is the social foundation of the Prosperity Loop—ensuring that no one falls below a minimum threshold of well-being regardless of their market position.
Examples:
Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend (though smaller)
Finland's UBI pilot
Emergency stimulus checks during COVID-19 (temporary examples)
Intellectual Lineage: Thomas Paine’s “citizen’s dividend,” Martin Luther King Jr.’s call for a guaranteed income, and the modern work of Philippe Van Parijs and Guy Standing.
Key Characteristics:
Universal and unconditional
Simple to administer
Reduces poverty, improves well-being, supports freedom of choice
Tagline: A secure foundation. A springboard to thrive.
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Definition: A multidimensional indicator of well-being that evaluates national progress through health, equity, sustainability, and life satisfaction rather than output alone.
Relation to the Prosperity Loop: GNH complements GDP as a core metric. It aligns Prosperity Loop outcomes with human flourishing rather than just financial growth.
Examples:
Bhutan’s national development strategy
OECD’s Better Life Index
UN’s World Happiness Report
Intellectual Lineage: Pioneered by Bhutan; influenced by Amartya Sen’s capability approach and well-being economics.
Key Characteristics:
Holistic and multidimensional
Tracks mental health, education, trust, and environmental quality
Policy-guiding rather than merely descriptive
Tagline: Measuring what truly matters.
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Definition: A publicly owned investment vehicle that holds financial and real assets for the benefit of all citizens, distributing returns through dividends or public services.
Relation to the Prosperity Loop: This loop captures and grows long-term value from commons revenues and market surplus, anchoring intergenerational equity.
Examples:
Alaska Permanent Fund
Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global
Singapore’s Temasek Holdings
Intellectual Lineage: Thomas Paine, Peter Barnes, and the People’s Policy Project. Influenced by modern sovereign wealth fund models.
Key Characteristics:
Collective ownership of productive assets
Professional fund governance
Redistributes returns to reduce inequality and support public goods
Tagline: Turning public assets into shared prosperity.
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Definition: An economic system that restores, renews, and revitalizes its own sources of capital—natural, social, and financial—rather than depleting them.
Relation to the Prosperity Loop: The Prosperity Loop is designed as a regenerative model—aligning economic flows with ecological cycles and social renewal.
Examples:
Locally-owned food systems that replenish soil and community wealth
Public investment in green infrastructure that also provides jobs
Policies that reduce emissions while growing community equity
Intellectual Lineage: John Fullerton (Capital Institute), ecological economics (Herman Daly), Indigenous knowledge systems, and regenerative finance movements.
Key Characteristics:
Systems-thinking and place-based design
Circular material and financial flows
Emphasis on long-term well-being and balance
Tagline: An economy that heals what it uses and grows what it shares.
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Definition: A holistic economic framework shaped by the geometry of the torus—a circulating ring—where flows of wealth are designed to stay within ecological boundaries and lift all members of society.
Relation to the Prosperity Loop: Toroidal Economics is the theoretical foundation of the Prosperity Loop. It transforms abstract systems theory into actionable public policy.
Examples:
The four-loop model (market → commons fee → shared fund → universal dividend)
Feedback-based fiscal mechanisms like dividend-capped SWFs
Budget-neutral climate policy that recirculates revenue
Intellectual Lineage: Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Economics, systems theory (Donella Meadows), and post-Keynesian policy modeling.
Key Characteristics:
Interconnected loops instead of linear growth
Embedded social and ecological thresholds
Self-reinforcing feedback between innovation, equity, and sustainability
Tagline: An economy that flows—balanced, regenerative, and inclusive.
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Definition: Policy tools that collect public value from the use of shared natural or digital resources, including carbon pricing, spectrum auctions, resource extraction fees, and financial transaction levies.
Relation to the Prosperity Loop: These instruments are foundational to the Environmental Resource Fees loop. They ensure that private use of public goods yields public benefit, helping fund the National Wealth Fund and Freedom Dividend.
Examples:
A carbon tax per ton of CO₂ emissions
Fees on offshore drilling leases
Auction revenue from 5G spectrum licenses
Intellectual Lineage: Builds on Elinor Ostrom’s work on governing the commons and Thomas Paine’s idea of shared inheritance from natural resources.
Key Characteristics:
Fee-for-use structure
Non-distortive to markets when carefully calibrated
Generates revenue while discouraging harm
Tagline: Earning together from what belongs to us all.
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Definition: a system’s ability to respond to economic downturns by expanding support or stimulus when private sector activity contracts—and then scale back when the economy recovers. It’s a core concept in fiscal and monetary policy design, especially relevant to the resilience of public institutions.
In Context of the Prosperity Loop:
Within the National Wealth Fund pillar, countercyclical capacity means that public dividends and investments funded by the sovereign fund can:
Increase during recessions, when private demand and employment fall—helping stabilize income, consumption, and confidence.
Avoid pro-cyclical cuts (like austerity) because funding is drawn from accumulated assets, not just current tax revenue.
Act as automatic stabilizers, much like unemployment insurance or progressive taxation, but without the administrative lags or political gridlock.
This capacity enhances long-term economic stability. Instead of relying solely on debt-financed stimulus or reactive legislation during crises, a well-capitalized public fund can smooth economic fluctuations proactively—providing liquidity and support when it’s needed most, and preserving fiscal space when it’s not.
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Definition: A system built on secure private property rights, entrepreneurship, and fair competition—generating innovation, jobs, and productivity.
Relation to the Prosperity Loop: This is the engine of value generation in the Prosperity Loop. It ensures that economic activity remains dynamic and decentralized.
Examples:
Small businesses developing new products
Inventors securing patents and licensing them
Property owners investing in energy-efficient upgrades
Intellectual Lineage: Adam Smith (market dynamics), Douglass North (institutional economics), and modern frameworks supporting rule of law and innovation.
Key Characteristics:
Incentives for innovation and efficiency
Secure ownership and contract enforcement
Foundation for inclusive prosperity when paired with redistribution
Tagline: Fueling prosperity through innovation and ownership.
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Public Name: Free Market Engine
Definition: The Institutional Foundations of Market Dynamism refer to the legal, regulatory, and normative systems that enable private enterprise, innovation, and investment to flourish within a competitive and rules-based economy. This includes the protection of private property rights, contract enforcement, fair competition, and entrepreneurial freedom, all of which create the structural conditions for productive economic activity.
Purpose:
To uphold the economic flow of the Prosperity Loop by ensuring that individuals and firms have the secure footing to invest, innovate, and contribute to national prosperity. These foundations act as the engine of value creation in the overall toroidal system.
Key Components Include:
Clear and enforceable private property rights (including for land, labor, and ideas)
Rule of law and independent judiciary
Open markets with anti-monopoly protections
Entrepreneurial access to capital and credit
Institutional support for labor mobility and fair wages
Relation to The Prosperity Loop: This pillar anchors the productive core of the Prosperity Loop. It ensures that economic freedom and individual initiative remain protected while the other structural loops (Commons Fees, National Wealth Fund, and Freedom Dividend) ensure that the wealth generated is distributed fairly and used sustainably.
Intellectual Lineage:
Draws from classical liberal economic theory (Adam Smith), institutional economics (Douglass North), and development economics emphasizing property rights as a driver of long-term growth (Hernando de Soto).
Tagline:
“Freedom to innovate. Security to build. Rules that reward real work.”
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Definition: Pre-distribution is a policy and economic design approach that seeks to prevent inequality at its source by structuring markets, institutions, and ownership systems in ways that produce fairer outcomes before government redistribution (like taxes or welfare) takes place. It emphasizes democratizing access to assets, income, and opportunity through upstream reforms.
Purpose: To create an economy where prosperity is broadly shared not through after-the-fact transfers, but through the way wealth is generated, owned, and distributed in the first place. This helps ensure that economic systems serve the many, not just the few.
Core Strategies:
Expand ownership of capital through public investment funds or worker co-ops
Enforce fair labor standards and inclusive market access
Set rules on digital, financial, and natural resource use that return value to the public
Limit monopolies and constrain rent-seeking behaviors
Invest in public goods (education, infrastructure, data, energy) that enable economic participation
Relation to The Prosperity Loop: The Prosperity Loop is built on a pre-distributive foundation. Its structural loops—like Commons Fees, the National Wealth Fund, and the Freedom Dividend—reshape who owns the economy and how returns are shared. Rather than taxing inequity after it happens, the system prevents concentrated extraction and ensures that everyone has a rightful share in national prosperity from the start.
Tagline: “Don’t just redistribute. Design it right the first time.”
Key Thinkers: Jacob Hacker, Mariana Mazzucato, Elinor Ostrom, Thomas Piketty, Samuel Bowles, and Peter Barnes.
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Public Name: National Wealth Fund
Definition: A Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) is a publicly owned investment fund that collects and manages national resources—such as taxes, royalties, or asset sales—and invests them in diversified financial assets (e.g., stocks, bonds, real estate) to generate long-term returns. The goal is to build shared national capital that can provide dividends to citizens, stabilize the economy, and finance public priorities across generations.
Purpose: To convert finite or unearned public revenues (e.g., from oil, carbon fees, spectrum auctions) into perpetual, shared wealth. SWFs enable nations to accumulate savings from the commons and distribute the gains to all citizens—either as direct dividends or public services.
Key Characteristics:
Public Ownership: The fund is held collectively by the nation, not by private shareholders.
Professional Management: Operated by public fiduciaries or independent boards to maximize long-term returns.
Revenue Source Diversity: Capitalized from Commons Fees, surplus revenues, royalties, or financial taxes.
Intergenerational Equity: Designed to benefit current and future citizens, smoothing volatility and ensuring sustainability.
Relation to The Prosperity Loop: The National Wealth Fund represents the capital reservoir of the Prosperity Loop. It receives inflows from Commons Revenue Instruments and grows through reinvestment. Its returns are then used to support the Freedom Dividend and other social guarantees. Like Alaska’s Permanent Fund or Norway’s Oil Fund, it embodies the principle that shared assets should yield shared income.
Intellectual Lineage and Precedents:
Thomas Paine’s idea of a “citizen’s dividend” from land rents
Elinor Ostrom’s theory of managing shared resources
Alaska’s Permanent Fund Dividend (1982–present)
Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global
Contemporary proposals such as the American Solidarity Fund (People’s Policy Project)
Tagline: “Shared wealth for a stronger future.”
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Public Name: Freedom Dividend
Definition: Universal Basic Income (UBI) is a recurring, unconditional cash payment provided by the government to all members of a political community—typically citizens—regardless of employment status, income level, or background. It is designed to guarantee a minimum level of economic security and ensure that everyone has the financial means to meet basic needs.
Purpose: To establish a social foundation beneath which no one can fall. UBI provides income stability, reduces poverty, and increases individual freedom by enabling people to make life choices—such as caregiving, education, entrepreneurship, or part-time work—without the constant threat of economic destitution.
Key Characteristics:
Universal: Paid to all citizens, not just those in need.
Unconditional: No work requirements or means testing.
Regular: Paid monthly or quarterly to ensure stability.
Cash-based: Recipients decide how to use it, respecting autonomy.
Relation to The Prosperity Loop: The Freedom Dividend serves as the bottom ring of the Prosperity Loop. It ensures that the benefits of economic and ecological productivity are distributed fairly, so that all individuals have the freedom to thrive. Funded in part by Commons Fees and investment returns from the National Wealth Fund, the Freedom Dividend transforms shared wealth into individual security.
Intellectual Lineage: Philosophers and economists from Thomas Paine to Martin Luther King Jr., Philippe Van Parijs, and Guy Standing have supported UBI as a tool for justice, real freedom, and economic resilience in the face of automation and inequality.
Tagline: “A secure foundation. A springboard to thrive.”