Professor of Sociology at Boston College, Bruyn's interest in economic alternatives grew out of his search for a consistency between religious testimony and the patterns of everyday life. This interest became a major concern as a result of visits to developing countries, where he found people following oppressive practices of welfare capitalism and state socialism. In the present pamphlet he describes how Friends have sought a "third way" which seems more compatible with religious principles.

Active in the New England region of AFSC, especially in the Economic Alternatives Committee, Bruyn's work was focused on offering assistance to employees of firms about to be shut down, or to executives who wish to transform their companies into common ownership. The Committee aids workers who wish to purchase viable plants closed by their owners and then to organize them on the basis of common ownership.

"A major task of our time is to help create a new economic order. Friends' principles in the past have given a social direction to economic development, a direction encouraging people to govern their own lives independently in the context of the larger community. These principles can be applied today to the bureaucracies of big corporations and the military state."

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