Economy & Vision › Understanding Economy · 4 min read
With thanks to Walter Böhny, who provided the inspiration for this entry. Walter is a friend and advisor to Felix Schröder and, through this, also to the work of TEIKEI in the Peloponnese and Switzerland.
Giving to give, rather than giving to take.
This is how the pinu'u vision can be summarized in one sentence. It does not describe a program or a method. It describes an attitude from which people act.
The word pinu'u is attributed to the Hopi. It is said to have two meanings:
The first meaning is reminiscent of the Hebrew name of God, Yahweh, in the Old Testament: "I am who I am."
This interpretation has been passed down orally by someone who lived with the Hopi for two years. It has not been verified against a dictionary of the Hopi language.
Today's global trade follows the opposite attitude: It gives to take.
In the food sector, one word is often used: fair.
The pinu'u vision questions this word. Fair is a concept we humans have created. It gives us the feeling that we are not subjected to injustice. However, nature—including human nature—knows neither justice nor fairness.
In the world we live in, trade can therefore hardly be fair.
Others also use the word with caution. The company gebana no longer describes its products as "fair" and understands fair trade as a process that is never complete: Fair trade is a process (external).
Trade that comes close to what we call fair requires a different foundation:
Today's fixation on the price of goods devalues people. Those who buy cheaply turn people into cheap goods. Where only the price-performance ratio counts, people lose their value.
The diagram contrasts the two attitudes:
On the left (red) is the attitude "Giving to take," on the right (green) the attitude "Giving to give." Each column reads from top to bottom.
Bringing food from producers to those who eat it in a humanly appreciative way only succeeds with great enthusiasm, and even then only partially.
The word enthusiasm contains the Greek theos, God. Enthusiasm means the divine within you.
This also contains a danger. If this divine is used as a showcase, the intention turns into its opposite and becomes worthless. The history of religions knows many examples of this. Capitalism can be understood as the globalized religion of our time.
People who are inspired by a pinu'u vision can contribute much to human well-being in this world.
A vision that others only recognize in actions afterward cannot be proclaimed by anyone for themselves. This also applies to TEIKEI. Those who write a lot about their values run the risk of turning them into a program.
The pinu'u vision is therefore not a goal that TEIKEI claims for itself. It is a benchmark against which one's own actions can be measured:
The pinu'u vision touches on questions that are described elsewhere in the wiki:
The links to these are at the end of this page.
Those who give to give put people at the center, not the price of goods.
Giving to give.
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By Felix Schröder, with support from AI (Claude)
Created on October 10, 2026 · Last updated on October 11, 2026
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