My name is Tom Pfotzer. I created RealEconomy.org to help me learn how to fix the planet as I make my living.
I’m in my mid-sixties. During my professional career, I was an engineer and entrepreneur. I did some volunteering in the local civic scene, joining various progressive groups devoted to open space preservation and various forms of environmentalism.
After some years, I noticed that at every level, politics got in the way of getting things done – not just a little, but a lot.
So I de-coupled from the social scene, took out my clipboard, and started to design a household economy that I thought might meet my needs.
I didn’t do all that designing in a vacuum. Of course I spent a lot of time around the internet, reading other people’s work, and discussing the situation with them. I enjoyed it, but something important was missing.
The talk almost never got converted to action. Nobody ever wrote down a work plan, made up a list of sub-assemblies to build, or built a team to divvy up the work and learn from one another. We never seemed to get out of first gear.
So I thought I’d put up a website, write up some designs, and talk about the construction process as I do it. Hopefully, you’ll find it as interesting as I do.