Economically we analyzed what could be grown, made, or provided here rather than bought elsewhere, and provided incentives, training and investment capital to seed that transformation. We created a lot of small, light manufacturing and production jobs and service businesses. The guiding principle was "Keep the Dollars Going Round - Not Out". Once we recognized the investment wealth of new arriving local retirees, financial instruments were created to encourage that wealth to be invested locally at high rates of return - fueling local productivity. A wonderful side effect was that those retiring elders, after investing their money locally, began using their considerable business and technical skills to help the community, thus insuring their investment success, and providing the coast with a new brain trust to call on.

While other communities strangled themselves by desperately trying to “attract new business to town”, we quietly set about reducing importation which had accounted for most of our goods and many of our services. As we learned to provide for ourselves, we created jobs and businesses that kept dollars circulating here at home instead of exporting money to absentee owners. We bought and sold the same stuff, but ended up with four to eight times as much real wealth as the money went “round and round”. We reinvested at home rather than in the global investment markets. When we exported, we sold value added products, never just raw materials. This revitalized both our forest and marine based resources. We grew productively in education, food production, small fabrication and manufacturing, tourism, retail, and the arts.