The rules any digital community who wants to be a part of the new social economy has to follow, including a 50% customer voted in board, strong privacy protections, open source, the allowance for exchange in order for the markets to function
Extremely tough on spam
rules for the market
how the social sites and others peel apart
Social Capital is how much society values you (reputation), and thus is the perfect currency to pay for services with. Unlike most money, social capital does not exhaust itself with use, and is self-replenishing. Before money, this is how the world worked: If you were well-liked and had no money, you would always find food- but if you were hated and rich your safety could never be guaranteed. Think "Whuffie".
We need seperate currencies for goods and services, because while goods are scarce and limited, services are limited only by human imagination.
-------------------
The future of social networking is very.. small. Instead of the behemoth corporations we have today, the social networks of tomorrow might function far more like real communities, and have thousands, instead of millions of members. Instead of being large, centralized "stacks", they will be run as independent nodes, each maybe focusing on doing one thing really well. We see this today with stand-alone apps like snapchat and kik, that are simple to use and intuitive.
Connectivity between social networks is provided by a universal messaging system- the backbone of the network (not unlike email), and it's provided in the standards set. there is a universal message inbox, in it you can choose to see messages from just this website or all your messages at once, and the universal message system always tells you where the message is coming from and what your account name is there, of course you can choose to connect as many accounts as you want, although one account, your "money" account, will be used to earn social capital and linked to your real identity- all accounts linked to this account will be shown on your reputation page. You can create throwaway accounts to say things you don't want to attach your real name to, this is critical to freedom.
Tribes directly run nodes, they can rent this server space or run it themselves but it only makes sense. That is the only way they could gain that much power: They would need to run their own online communities, which they could then use to ban people. Members of tribes have to connect to other nodes via that one account, so it makes sense that they could ban them tbh. The initial signing-up process obviously involves human verification
Nodes will be small, many having under 1 million members
Even the commenting system will be through the universal inbox
A universal feed is also provide, though seldom used
http://readwrite.com/2014/04/18/social-media-future-mobile-tribes
http://www.brandingmagazine.com/2015/02/13/digital-tribalism-is-rising-marketers-beware/
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Our Plan to End Homelessness
Make housing free for everyone.
Actually, we could end homelessness today if we wanted to, without building a single thing. Turns out there are 4 times as many empty houses as homeless people. The only reason why everyone doesn't have a house is because some people can't afford one.
But even if we did need to build more homes, there are several ways to make homebuilding cheaper, faster and more efficient. Check out contour crafting, for instance.
With 3-D printing, you could easily construct a house for under $5000, but that isn't even as cheap as we could go.
If you build homes out of earth and use automated construction methods, houses could be created for free. Rammed earth has been used for thousands of years, and most of the oldest buildings in the world are made of it. It's as solid as a rock because it is a rock.
Currently, building with rammed earth is somewhat expensive because of all the labor involved. But if you scale up the process and prefabricate the panels in a factory, the costs would go down significantly. The same goes for all the other components in the home like plumbing and wiring.
There's a lot of other sustainable and inexpensive building methods besides rammed earth, and this is just one example.
What this article is really about is property ownership, and how it would mesh with the concept of a resource-based economy. As you've read, The Global Assembly manages the means of production and this does include land to an extent. Still, that doesn't mean people can't gain the security of a private home or that everyone would be forced to live in cramped, run-down soviet-style apartments. No way. Not when we can do so much better. Everyone deserves to have a home of their own, and they will. It's not even a luxury.
One of the Global Assembly's main responsibilities is ensuring everyone has an place to stay. During the construction of the new cities, families will be able to individually design their houses and have them built, just for them. Each house will be fully recyclable and is designed to be taken apart at the end of it's lifetime. But a resource-based economy does require a value shift, from ownership to access. Today, everyone has to have "one of everything", even when it doesn't make sense or sits unused 98% of the time. Each house has to have one car, one power saw, one surfboard, one toaster.. We buy so much stuff because we're afraid that when we need it most, it'll be taken away. Then, we end up needing to find new places to store all that junk. In a world like this, it's understandable to worry.
When it comes to home ownership, first you want to ask yourself, "why"? The main answers are "security", "stability", and "investment". We want to know that we're safe and that we always have somewhere to sleep at night. In tough times, homes are usually safe places to store money for the long term. When we want to emphasize how solid something is, we say it's "safe as houses". You won't need to worry about any of those things in a resource-based economy. Since everyone is guaranteed access to a home, there's no reason to worry about losing it or being put out on the street.
There are two types of housing agreements people can sign in order to get a house, roughly equivalent to "renting" and "owning", respectively. If you budget wisely, you won't have to worry about missing a payment since you will always be able to fall back on your basic income.
1) Monthly
For those who aren't going to be in an area for a long period of time, it's best to get a monthly deal. Like a rental, you pay a sum of money each month in order to stay, for as long as you stay. Like a rental, the monthly price adjusts based on supply and demand: If you live in a desirable area, then the monthly rent will rise. On the flipside, if you live in a less desirable area your rent will drop, which wouldn't usually happen in today's economy. What makes renting in a RBE unique is that it builds equity. Housing is free, so when you decide to leave your rental you get all the money back, minus any city residency fees. If you leave a rental for more than a certain period of time, it can be placed back on the market. Cities manage these homes.
2) Yearly/Long-Term
If you want to make a long-term commitment and plan to stay in one place, getting a yearly contract is the best deal. You can own a home for anywhere between 10-100 years, and stipulate that the home be passed on to your children if you die before the time is up. Taking out a long-term contract is a serious deal, because you can't just walk away. Even if you leave the home or move, if you can't find someone willing to buy the rest of the lease the money will still be deducted from your basic income monthly.
There are benefits, though. For one, your monthly rate is locked in for the duration of the term and you can rent the home to someone else if you don't want to live there. At the end of the lease, you have the first chance to extend it by making an offer. Long-term homes build equity too, so that once the lease is up you or your family can withdraw the money you've spent on it over the years.
Land inside cities is owned and managed by the city itself, while agricultural and industrial land beyond it is maintained by the Global Assembly. Individuals cannot "own" land, but they can be granted stewardship of it. Stewardship is just an agreement where you agree to take care of the land and also not to harm or abuse it in any way so that it is left available for future generations. Unless you decide to give it away before then, stewardship always lasts for life. This is a recognition that we are really tourists on this planet. Nobody can truly "own" land. You did nothing to create it. It was here for millions of years before you and will be around for billions after you have gone. All we can do is take care of it.
An example of where stewardship might be useful is for someone who enjoys farming. While most farming will be automated, if someone wants to take stewardship of a small portion of land to start an organic farm or resort they would be able to. There isn't any reason for people to own much besides their homes after all, since the planet and the resources on it belong to all of us.
Notice that I never say the Global Assembly "owns" the means of production or land. It manages and maintains it- big difference. If someone wants to temporarily use an unused plot of land for, say a festival or summer camp, then they can without being charged a fee. As long as you don't make a mess and leave only footprints, you are generally free to do whatever you want. The global assembly must show a compelling interest for denying access to any open spaces. This right is known as the right to roam in common-law countries, and if you believe it has been violated you can sue. Of course, extraction of resources (like hunting or fishing) is different.
Actually, we could end homelessness today if we wanted to, without building a single thing. Turns out there are 4 times as many empty houses as homeless people. The only reason why everyone doesn't have a house is because some people can't afford one.
But even if we did need to build more homes, there are several ways to make homebuilding cheaper, faster and more efficient. Check out contour crafting, for instance.
With 3-D printing, you could easily construct a house for under $5000, but that isn't even as cheap as we could go.
This company 3-D printed 10 houses in a single day.
If you build homes out of earth and use automated construction methods, houses could be created for free. Rammed earth has been used for thousands of years, and most of the oldest buildings in the world are made of it. It's as solid as a rock because it is a rock.
Currently, building with rammed earth is somewhat expensive because of all the labor involved. But if you scale up the process and prefabricate the panels in a factory, the costs would go down significantly. The same goes for all the other components in the home like plumbing and wiring.
There's a lot of other sustainable and inexpensive building methods besides rammed earth, and this is just one example.
What this article is really about is property ownership, and how it would mesh with the concept of a resource-based economy. As you've read, The Global Assembly manages the means of production and this does include land to an extent. Still, that doesn't mean people can't gain the security of a private home or that everyone would be forced to live in cramped, run-down soviet-style apartments. No way. Not when we can do so much better. Everyone deserves to have a home of their own, and they will. It's not even a luxury.
One of the Global Assembly's main responsibilities is ensuring everyone has an place to stay. During the construction of the new cities, families will be able to individually design their houses and have them built, just for them. Each house will be fully recyclable and is designed to be taken apart at the end of it's lifetime. But a resource-based economy does require a value shift, from ownership to access. Today, everyone has to have "one of everything", even when it doesn't make sense or sits unused 98% of the time. Each house has to have one car, one power saw, one surfboard, one toaster.. We buy so much stuff because we're afraid that when we need it most, it'll be taken away. Then, we end up needing to find new places to store all that junk. In a world like this, it's understandable to worry.
When it comes to home ownership, first you want to ask yourself, "why"? The main answers are "security", "stability", and "investment". We want to know that we're safe and that we always have somewhere to sleep at night. In tough times, homes are usually safe places to store money for the long term. When we want to emphasize how solid something is, we say it's "safe as houses". You won't need to worry about any of those things in a resource-based economy. Since everyone is guaranteed access to a home, there's no reason to worry about losing it or being put out on the street.
There are two types of housing agreements people can sign in order to get a house, roughly equivalent to "renting" and "owning", respectively. If you budget wisely, you won't have to worry about missing a payment since you will always be able to fall back on your basic income.
1) Monthly
For those who aren't going to be in an area for a long period of time, it's best to get a monthly deal. Like a rental, you pay a sum of money each month in order to stay, for as long as you stay. Like a rental, the monthly price adjusts based on supply and demand: If you live in a desirable area, then the monthly rent will rise. On the flipside, if you live in a less desirable area your rent will drop, which wouldn't usually happen in today's economy. What makes renting in a RBE unique is that it builds equity. Housing is free, so when you decide to leave your rental you get all the money back, minus any city residency fees. If you leave a rental for more than a certain period of time, it can be placed back on the market. Cities manage these homes.
2) Yearly/Long-Term
If you want to make a long-term commitment and plan to stay in one place, getting a yearly contract is the best deal. You can own a home for anywhere between 10-100 years, and stipulate that the home be passed on to your children if you die before the time is up. Taking out a long-term contract is a serious deal, because you can't just walk away. Even if you leave the home or move, if you can't find someone willing to buy the rest of the lease the money will still be deducted from your basic income monthly.
There are benefits, though. For one, your monthly rate is locked in for the duration of the term and you can rent the home to someone else if you don't want to live there. At the end of the lease, you have the first chance to extend it by making an offer. Long-term homes build equity too, so that once the lease is up you or your family can withdraw the money you've spent on it over the years.
Who owns the land?
Land inside cities is owned and managed by the city itself, while agricultural and industrial land beyond it is maintained by the Global Assembly. Individuals cannot "own" land, but they can be granted stewardship of it. Stewardship is just an agreement where you agree to take care of the land and also not to harm or abuse it in any way so that it is left available for future generations. Unless you decide to give it away before then, stewardship always lasts for life. This is a recognition that we are really tourists on this planet. Nobody can truly "own" land. You did nothing to create it. It was here for millions of years before you and will be around for billions after you have gone. All we can do is take care of it.
An example of where stewardship might be useful is for someone who enjoys farming. While most farming will be automated, if someone wants to take stewardship of a small portion of land to start an organic farm or resort they would be able to. There isn't any reason for people to own much besides their homes after all, since the planet and the resources on it belong to all of us.
Notice that I never say the Global Assembly "owns" the means of production or land. It manages and maintains it- big difference. If someone wants to temporarily use an unused plot of land for, say a festival or summer camp, then they can without being charged a fee. As long as you don't make a mess and leave only footprints, you are generally free to do whatever you want. The global assembly must show a compelling interest for denying access to any open spaces. This right is known as the right to roam in common-law countries, and if you believe it has been violated you can sue. Of course, extraction of resources (like hunting or fishing) is different.
Take Action
All good things start small.
But where do we begin? Nothing will ever change if we just sit on the couch. You don't have to protest, you don't have to march on Washington- but local initiatives can make a big difference right here and now.
See this list for a few.
There's a lot you can do to make a Resource-Based-Economy happen, but the best thing you can do today would be spreading the word. The more people that know about RBE, the better- especially people in power such as mayors, city councilmen and academics at the local college. If the concept is explained in a clear and understandable way, they may begin to show more interest.
Localize Manufacturing
The next most important thing is to support and create makerspaces. Self-Sufficient, local manufacturing is critical to a resource-based economy. Aim to keep as many resources in your community as possible. In the beginning you will not be able to make that much stuff- and that's okay. Over time, as technology develops your production capability will grow.
Get a large group of people to recycle their paper, plastic and metals- then pool your resources to purchase a 3-d printer. As more people join, you may be able to purchase more expensive machinery such as a CNC machine, an induction furnace and a bioreactor to turn compost and organic waste into fuel. Instead of taking the material you recycle to your local dump or recycling drop-off, take it to your 3-d printer. You can use this waste plastic and other materials to create new objects.
If you have the technical know-how, create a wood gasifier to run your vehicle. It's clean, it's easy and it's far cheaper than using gasoline. Even better, it passes most state emissions tests with flying colors. Biomass is the ultimate renewable, solar energy source.
Minimize the use of money in your life
Cut back and encourage others to do the same. Consider using JOATU as a way to share currently unneeded belongings, such as power tools or surfboards. Jack of all trades universe is a resource-sharing app, not unlike Airbnb or Uber. The only difference is that you can share nearly anything with it.
Approach and Educate Local Businesses
See if any local businesses would be willing to contribute their waste products to your compost/recycling program, and use the opportunity to educate them about a resource-based economy. The more people that know of an alternative to today's failing systems, the better.
Don't wait for the collapse
Got a way to bring RBE closer to reality? Just do it. The truth is, we will all be dead when the "collapse" happens- because it never will. It's the nature of the current system not to collapse in one big step, but to gradually get worse over time. It isn't that much different from a frog in a boiling pot, with the heat slowly rising higher. By the time the "collapse" happens, it will be too late to do anything. That's why the change has to start today.
Now that you've read what you can do today, let's take a look at what you can do tomorrow. Read the transition plan here.
But where do we begin? Nothing will ever change if we just sit on the couch. You don't have to protest, you don't have to march on Washington- but local initiatives can make a big difference right here and now.
See this list for a few.
There's a lot you can do to make a Resource-Based-Economy happen, but the best thing you can do today would be spreading the word. The more people that know about RBE, the better- especially people in power such as mayors, city councilmen and academics at the local college. If the concept is explained in a clear and understandable way, they may begin to show more interest.
Localize Manufacturing
The next most important thing is to support and create makerspaces. Self-Sufficient, local manufacturing is critical to a resource-based economy. Aim to keep as many resources in your community as possible. In the beginning you will not be able to make that much stuff- and that's okay. Over time, as technology develops your production capability will grow.
Get a large group of people to recycle their paper, plastic and metals- then pool your resources to purchase a 3-d printer. As more people join, you may be able to purchase more expensive machinery such as a CNC machine, an induction furnace and a bioreactor to turn compost and organic waste into fuel. Instead of taking the material you recycle to your local dump or recycling drop-off, take it to your 3-d printer. You can use this waste plastic and other materials to create new objects.
If you have the technical know-how, create a wood gasifier to run your vehicle. It's clean, it's easy and it's far cheaper than using gasoline. Even better, it passes most state emissions tests with flying colors. Biomass is the ultimate renewable, solar energy source.
Minimize the use of money in your life
Cut back and encourage others to do the same. Consider using JOATU as a way to share currently unneeded belongings, such as power tools or surfboards. Jack of all trades universe is a resource-sharing app, not unlike Airbnb or Uber. The only difference is that you can share nearly anything with it.
Approach and Educate Local Businesses
See if any local businesses would be willing to contribute their waste products to your compost/recycling program, and use the opportunity to educate them about a resource-based economy. The more people that know of an alternative to today's failing systems, the better.
Don't wait for the collapse
Got a way to bring RBE closer to reality? Just do it. The truth is, we will all be dead when the "collapse" happens- because it never will. It's the nature of the current system not to collapse in one big step, but to gradually get worse over time. It isn't that much different from a frog in a boiling pot, with the heat slowly rising higher. By the time the "collapse" happens, it will be too late to do anything. That's why the change has to start today.
Now that you've read what you can do today, let's take a look at what you can do tomorrow. Read the transition plan here.
Technology
In the future, technology will be used to improve people's lives- making the world into healthier, happier and safer place. The great thing about most of this technology is that it already exists or is being worked on today, just not for the purpose of a resource-based economy. Imagine what could happen if these advancements were brought together into one system!
Let's list all of them here, and create links to each technology page explaining them in detail.
CDS collaborative Design system Will allow people to collaboratively design and create things from all over the world, intellectual property is built-in
Payband- This little bracelet will allow you to pay for things with the flick of a wrist, while monitoring your health to keep you in top condition http://fueledbyfriendship.blogspot.com/2015/02/new-technology-payband.html
D-Machine Open Source democracy machine and handheld/smartohone
Social Networks
Reputation accounts
Earthbag Construction/soilcrete
Automated systems, construction
Sharing Economy
Hovercrafts
Nanomorph robot Companion
Let's list all of them here, and create links to each technology page explaining them in detail.
CDS collaborative Design system Will allow people to collaboratively design and create things from all over the world, intellectual property is built-in
Payband- This little bracelet will allow you to pay for things with the flick of a wrist, while monitoring your health to keep you in top condition http://fueledbyfriendship.blogspot.com/2015/02/new-technology-payband.html
D-Machine Open Source democracy machine and handheld/smartohone
Social Networks
Reputation accounts
Earthbag Construction/soilcrete
Automated systems, construction
Sharing Economy
Hovercrafts
Nanomorph robot Companion
Politics & Government
Look at the world from outer space, and you'll find a distinct lack of the security walls, border fences or artificial lines that divide us. As hard as it is to tell from down here, a quick look at earth will tell you that our planet is a single system we all share- and a problem in one country almost never stays in one country. For most of human history, that's the way it's been: Humans were nomadic, free to go wherever they pleased. Only at the start of the industrial revolution did nation-states become so firmly established. Sociocapitalism wants to bring back the freedom to move- a freedom that all humans have an inherent right to.
No more passports, no more immigration papers- just get up and go. With free transportation, it will be easy to explore the world. Or stay at home- the choice is yours.
In the 21st century, Large Nation-States as we know them today are totally obsolete. With today's technology, the idea that millions of people should elect a small group of 500 to represent their unique interests is completely absurd. Government, by definition, is a pyramid scheme- one that transfers power from the bottom to the top. We can make voting open and safe for anyone- and give power back to the people. As explained in the technology (link) section, everyone will receive a small, secure voting device which allows them to vote or propose legislation using bitcongress.
Why are we still running the world off of a 17th-century operating system?
Government is supposed to serve the needs of the people first, everyone else second. Today's system of competing governments constantly fighting over land and resources holds us back from reaching our full potential as a species. I'm not proposing a one-world-government, as you will see in a moment.
Countries are really only good for doing two things: Fighting wars, and managing international trade. Because everyone's needs are met in a resource-based-economy, there will be no more large-scale wars. "International trade" today isn't even managed by countries- it's managed by a complex network of treaties, agreements and bodies such as the EU and WTO. In a resource-based-economy, "international trade" becomes much easier to handle because almost all production and recycling are done locally or regionally. The entire idea of "mass production", with it's waste and emissions will become a thing of the past. If you want a new pair of shoes, they will be created for you a few streets away, on demand. No more shipping things halfway across the world from China.
The only thing that will be "shipped" across oceans are raw materials (iron ore, copper, plastics, bulk wheat)- and these take up a lot less space than finished products. With production as localized and on-demand as possible, it simply doesn't make sense to have large, irregularly-shaped governments telling cities what to do- and there's your problem:
Beyond a certain size, democracy simply cannot function. Democracy happens best on a small, local scale- where people are more likely to know each other and understand the daily problems citizens face. All politics are local after all- and cities are the smallest, most cohesive unit of human settlement. Cities are able to innovate and respond to a changing world much faster than central governments can. They're more willing to try new ideas too. For this reason, it makes sense to give cities the authority and freedom to make their own decisions. Still, cities won't be able to do everything on their own- and for regional projects like dams, bridges and electrical infrastructure, voluntary confederations of cities will form to discuss the issues, plan and develop solutions. Confederations could also be created around big topics like agriculture, health, education etc. Cities will be able to join and leave confederations at any time.
Cities won't have much more of a responsibility than to provide security, local planning, basic laws that apply equally to everyone, along with services like trash pickup and courts- everything else will be handled by tribes.
In a resource-based-economy, it's tribes (confederations of individuals) who hold the real power.
Tribes exist to act as a check on the power of cities and large organizations. They are as close to "voluntary governments" (governments you choose to be a part of) as you can get in real life- except they only control the economic and digital sector of life. They provide protection, recreation, culture and a sense of belonging- and like city confederations, one can join or leave a tribe at any time. But unlike city confederations, you can create a new tribe at any time too- if you get enough people to join you. Tribes are global societies that transcend space and time. There's too much to go into here, but if you'd like to take a closer look at tribes, click this:
Groups of tribes organize themselves into a UN-like body, and this body oversees the resource-based-economy, world trade and peacekeeping missions if the need arises. Because people are free to enter or leave them at any time, tribes are more democratic than countries- and it shows. A tribe that put in place unpopular economic restrictions or laws would quickly find itself without any members, money or voting power. Thus, tribes compete and only the ones that serve the people best will survive.
----
Politics
Ultimately, it's today's system of representative democracy that leads to so many problems- the idea of electing people to fixed terms, not being able to recall them, the idea that a few can represent the will of the many- it makes no sense. Even worse, only candidates with the backing of powerful, vested interests get anywhere close to winning elections. On a local scale, it would be a much better choice to replace representative democracy with delegative.
Delegative democracy allows you to choose a delegate who represents you best- and "give" your vote to them. They can then either vote for you, or they can give their collected votes to a third delegate. Votes are individual- so if a delegate wants to split their collected votes between other delegates, they can. The main advantage of this system is that you can take back your vote at any time. If you want to vote directly on a law, you can. If you think that your delegate has not been serving your interests, take back your vote! Try doing this with a parliamentarian and see what happens. The top ten delegates in an area (the ones with the most voting power) could then be selected to run a city council, and the position of "mayor" rotated between them. In effect this is similar to a parliamentary system on a local scale.
When you can take back your vote from a politician at any time, politicians suddenly become much more accountable.
You can read more about elections and democracy in the "Government 2.0" blogpost here
No more passports, no more immigration papers- just get up and go. With free transportation, it will be easy to explore the world. Or stay at home- the choice is yours.
In the 21st century, Large Nation-States as we know them today are totally obsolete. With today's technology, the idea that millions of people should elect a small group of 500 to represent their unique interests is completely absurd. Government, by definition, is a pyramid scheme- one that transfers power from the bottom to the top. We can make voting open and safe for anyone- and give power back to the people. As explained in the technology (link) section, everyone will receive a small, secure voting device which allows them to vote or propose legislation using bitcongress.
Why are we still running the world off of a 17th-century operating system?
Government is supposed to serve the needs of the people first, everyone else second. Today's system of competing governments constantly fighting over land and resources holds us back from reaching our full potential as a species. I'm not proposing a one-world-government, as you will see in a moment.
Countries are really only good for doing two things: Fighting wars, and managing international trade. Because everyone's needs are met in a resource-based-economy, there will be no more large-scale wars. "International trade" today isn't even managed by countries- it's managed by a complex network of treaties, agreements and bodies such as the EU and WTO. In a resource-based-economy, "international trade" becomes much easier to handle because almost all production and recycling are done locally or regionally. The entire idea of "mass production", with it's waste and emissions will become a thing of the past. If you want a new pair of shoes, they will be created for you a few streets away, on demand. No more shipping things halfway across the world from China.
The only thing that will be "shipped" across oceans are raw materials (iron ore, copper, plastics, bulk wheat)- and these take up a lot less space than finished products. With production as localized and on-demand as possible, it simply doesn't make sense to have large, irregularly-shaped governments telling cities what to do- and there's your problem:
Beyond a certain size, democracy simply cannot function. Democracy happens best on a small, local scale- where people are more likely to know each other and understand the daily problems citizens face. All politics are local after all- and cities are the smallest, most cohesive unit of human settlement. Cities are able to innovate and respond to a changing world much faster than central governments can. They're more willing to try new ideas too. For this reason, it makes sense to give cities the authority and freedom to make their own decisions. Still, cities won't be able to do everything on their own- and for regional projects like dams, bridges and electrical infrastructure, voluntary confederations of cities will form to discuss the issues, plan and develop solutions. Confederations could also be created around big topics like agriculture, health, education etc. Cities will be able to join and leave confederations at any time.
Cities won't have much more of a responsibility than to provide security, local planning, basic laws that apply equally to everyone, along with services like trash pickup and courts- everything else will be handled by tribes.
In a resource-based-economy, it's tribes (confederations of individuals) who hold the real power.
Tribes exist to act as a check on the power of cities and large organizations. They are as close to "voluntary governments" (governments you choose to be a part of) as you can get in real life- except they only control the economic and digital sector of life. They provide protection, recreation, culture and a sense of belonging- and like city confederations, one can join or leave a tribe at any time. But unlike city confederations, you can create a new tribe at any time too- if you get enough people to join you. Tribes are global societies that transcend space and time. There's too much to go into here, but if you'd like to take a closer look at tribes, click this:
Groups of tribes organize themselves into a UN-like body, and this body oversees the resource-based-economy, world trade and peacekeeping missions if the need arises. Because people are free to enter or leave them at any time, tribes are more democratic than countries- and it shows. A tribe that put in place unpopular economic restrictions or laws would quickly find itself without any members, money or voting power. Thus, tribes compete and only the ones that serve the people best will survive.
----
Politics
Ultimately, it's today's system of representative democracy that leads to so many problems- the idea of electing people to fixed terms, not being able to recall them, the idea that a few can represent the will of the many- it makes no sense. Even worse, only candidates with the backing of powerful, vested interests get anywhere close to winning elections. On a local scale, it would be a much better choice to replace representative democracy with delegative.
Delegative democracy allows you to choose a delegate who represents you best- and "give" your vote to them. They can then either vote for you, or they can give their collected votes to a third delegate. Votes are individual- so if a delegate wants to split their collected votes between other delegates, they can. The main advantage of this system is that you can take back your vote at any time. If you want to vote directly on a law, you can. If you think that your delegate has not been serving your interests, take back your vote! Try doing this with a parliamentarian and see what happens. The top ten delegates in an area (the ones with the most voting power) could then be selected to run a city council, and the position of "mayor" rotated between them. In effect this is similar to a parliamentary system on a local scale.
When you can take back your vote from a politician at any time, politicians suddenly become much more accountable.
You can read more about elections and democracy in the "Government 2.0" blogpost here
Let's Kill Capitalism, Together.
This article is about transition.
We all want a better future, preferably in our lifetimes. But a change as big as this can seem impossible at first, utopian even.
The secret is we already have the ability to create everything proposed here. The biggest changes won't happen out there, they'll happen inside. Really, the most important transition takes place in your mind, once you open your eyes and see the world as it really is. After you've been enlightened you can't go back. It's our job to share this light with others.
This is how.
What does Sociocapitalism require?
It requires that we recognize a truth that's been lost to the ages: We are the people. We are the government. It's time to take back what is ours. Money doesn't exist. Countries don't exist. Everything that you think stands in the way only stands there because we, the people say it does.
The Declaration of Independence already gives we the people an unlimited right to "Alter or Abolish" government whenever it becomes destructive to our personal freedom, liberty or happiness.
This right is further enshrined in several state constitutions, and since nearly all other liberal democracies uphold popular sovereignty, it can be inferred that they would accept this too.
Popular sovereignty is the cornerstone of every western democracy. The idea is that governments are formed by the consent of the governed, and no one else. So how do we move something so big, so powerful?
One: Remove your consent. Stop voting in elections above the local level, and be loud about it. Tell other people to do the same and why you're doing it. The second part is critical: If you stop voting silently and don't explain why, then it won't do any good. If everyone stops voting at the state and national levels and recognizes the new governments then they no longer have democratic or political legitimacy. Already, the president is elected by a distinct minority of citizens. We just need to push the needle a little bit further.
Keep paying Uncle Sam and render unto Caesar's what is Caesars: Don't resent paying your taxes because those dollar bills will be worthless soon. And you can get more done out of prison than in it. Take an attitude towards money that doesn't see it as the be all- end all of life. Try to put people first whenever possible.
Two: Transfer your consent. A new constitution will be created, to be ratified directly by the people via social media. All someone needs to do in order to ratify it is to take a picture of themselves with a sign saying that they support it. A link to this picture will be placed underneath or nearby the constitution. It will fully detail and explain the operation, purpose and limits of the new government, along with transferring governing authority back to cities and the people along with the institutions described. Getting more people to ratify and vote in our elections will grant them untouchable democratic legitimacy.
Being open with our purposes and goals will help a lot too. From the beginning, we will state that we are working towards a world without poverty, war or money and invite everyone who wants to help to join. We will make clear that this isn't a utopian dream for the future, but something we can do right now with a focus on real, clear and tangible results. Once people can see the change the avalanche will accelerate. Getting celebrity or past politicians' support would be a major boost and is very important.
Three: Hack the political system at the local level: Set up an online voting platform. (There are already several good, open-source ones like DemocracyOS or Helios.) Register people to vote with their verified government ID. Then, create a new party that pledges to vote directly as the people do. Watch it sweep the offices at the local level, which is really the only one we need to worry about. Once there, we can easily implement these reforms.
Before anyone has even been elected, though, we can give a simple monthly basic income to anyone who ratifies the constitution. This basic income will consist of a digital currency, a little like bitcoin. As our economy grows you will be able to buy more and more with it.
This will be a massive volunteer effort, on the scale of the rebuilding after World War II. Even then, after millions of people lay dead and entire cities were in ruins, average, everyday people like you and me banded together to rebuild, brick by brick. Don't think that you won't find volunteers. Ohh, you will find plenty of volunteers. Thousands volunteer for habitat for humanity each year, and even more donate millions worth of building materials. Part of the innovation is that we are building less expensive homes that require less materials. Using dry-stacked earthen blocks (made out of dirt so they're free), low-cost solar panels and composting toilets, these houses will cost under $5000 each but be big enough for two. Labor is provided by whoever wants to live in the house along with some volunteers.
You'll find plenty of people eager to live a debt-free, money-free existence. We really don't need so much space and the homes won't be tiny. They will be around 600 square feet in size and densely placed.
Money is just an agreement between two people. It can be anything. We know this because in the past people have used anything from salt to gold to cows. Whenever two people agree to exchange something using an intermediary, money happens. Only direct exchange avoids this.
But just building houses isn't enough, and everyone knows it. In order to work, a Resource-Based Economy requires all resources to be managed and held as the common heritage of the earth's people. In this system, the global assembly plays the role of manager and steward. The problem is that currently, many of the resources we need are held privately. The solution is to give people vouchers for shares in tribes in exchange for their resources. The larger their total percentage- contribution (monetary or otherwise), the larger the amount of vouchers (and votes) they get. In the new cities, votes in the upper assembly are also based off of how much someone contributed to the construction of the city. This includes building materials, time, labor or pretty much anything else.
Tribes are the banks of an RBE and once they grow large enough they can make their owners fabulously wealthy. It's not a handout, it's an investment in the future. Owning a share of a tribe is owning a share of the entire economy. The only difference is that their newfound wealth will no longer impoverish everyone else.
I think the Midwest is a good place to start, but since this is a global movement the transition should be happening all across the world*. You don't need to build physical buildings in order to create a resource-based economy, although they are useful. It begins with a value shift, from generating the most capital to generating the most social capital.
Why the Midwest? Mostly because there's a lot of opportunity and infrastructure there. In rust-belt cities like Detroit, Cleveland and Gary there are many abandoned lots and, unfortunately, abandoned people. This would be the best place to put in a little bit of effort and create a huge difference.
Not only that,
a) Revitalizing a small portion of one of these cities will generate a huge amount of media attention and place an international spotlight on the concept of a resource-based economy.
That's the most important. If we can get the tech industry to take notice of the concept then it's over.
b) Detroit is a city that's full of dreamers, artists, and people ready for a change. They are far more open to unorthodox concepts you couldn't really try anywhere else.
c) The midwest's flat grid system and climate are perfect for the development of large, sustainably integrated urban/rural cities as called for here. (In other words, we get a lot of rain)
d) Close to major east coast population centers.
In Detroit and Gary, it would start with a single block, then grow to cover a square mile of the original city. This would serve as a demonstration. Each house would only take a few days to complete, and training programs/workshops would teach people how to safely wire or plumb homes.
In the rest of the country, the new cities would be built just outside existing ones, in currently rural or unincorporated areas. A large number of projects could be started simultaneously, on donated land or land sold for share vouchers. Some other candidate areas:
Madison, WI
Milwaukee, WI
Champaign/Urbana IL
Peoria, IL
Davenport, IA
East St. Louis, MO
Ft. Wayne, IN
Grand Rapids, MI
Youngstown, OH
Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN
* The transition is expected to mainly take place in the Western Hemisphere and Europe at first. It will take longer to spread to the rest of the world.
Explain the transition in more detail, please.
Gladly. There's a lot more that Sociocapitalism requires outside of the political strategy. Let's start with the basics.
First, all essential items are made freely available by one simple tweak: People work in order to earn tokens that can be redeemed for luxury products only. Eventually even this won't be necessary as production continues to be automated, but for now we still need to motivate people to work.
All non-luxury items will be able to be bought with the basic income we provide, the tokens, or earned social capital. The goal is to remove the barrier between supply and demand. Read more here.
Since the basics of life are now free, people don't have to worry about getting enough to eat.
As described here, Inventions and products are given value not based on how much money they make, but on how many people use them. Thus, the goal is to maximize access to the goods and services people need instead of hoard knowledge. Products are literally worthless if nobody can use or afford them. Intellectual property has held back innovation, but until now we haven't had a way of rewarding artists without it. Now we do.
The CDS (Collaborative Design System) is critical to the creation of a fully-functional resource based economy. Acting as an online suite of design software, people will be able to work together to design or create almost anything, from products to buildings to movies. The Collaborative Design System keeps track of who's contributed to each project and how much they've contributed, rewarding them accordingly.
Social networks are necessary so that people can earn social capital based off of their online influence and prominence.
Any society needs a manufacturing base. This is where most communes and intentional communities fail because acquiring them is capital-intensive and nobody wants to farm all day. We need to work our way up instead, from a "food first" perspective. That means that we focus on creating or acquiring means of production that fulfill our basic needs first (like food, housing materials or cotton fields), before going after higher-value targets. This is also the order in which automation should occur. First automate food production, then construction, then production etc.
Productive Ecosystems are groups of products that work together to produce a final, more useful product. Why build a button factory if you can't make any clothes? This involves the creation of microfactories. When we try to involve manufacturers and businesses we need to make sure we're creating integrated systems, not just random products.
Society made a mistake when it chose to only punish bad behavior but not to reward good. You need both in order to create a productive and peaceful populace. We won't make the same mistake. The Global Assembly, through it's Generousity Program, will create a large network of positive police: Plainclothes individuals who watch and reward people for doing good things. Each member will have a certain allowance of tokens to give away weekly, and for larger payouts multiple members can get together. Generousity also provides life and event planning, counselling and aims to know as much as possible to make citizens as happy as possible. Like Santa Claus, they leave people random gifts from a wishlist at least once a year. Generousity should comprise around 5% of the population, and people can recommend or report others they think have done something good. This would be one of the easiest things to set up in the beginning of transition.
Tribes are a lot like groups on Facebook- just created on The Global Assembly's platform instead. They function as economic portals and mutual benefit societies for their members. In order for new tribes to be created, a platform must be designed which allows them to a) sign up and import new members, and b) manage the money they earn.
Keep in mind that none of this will require government intervention. We'll just do it.
If you haven't yet, please read the technology section of this blog in order to get a feel for just how little technological advancement this plan would require.
Step Zero: Education and Planning
This is where we are today. We need to get out of this stage as soon as possible. This stage is important, but not as important as actually getting out there and making it happen. If they say a picture is worth a thousand words, then real life is worth a million. Talk to people, talk to your city council, talk to local businesses and charities. Spread the word and attempt to get a feel for what people might do with their lives if work was no longer necessary. If you can find people willing to donate their land to the project, then that's even better. We don't have to convince anyone. We can't convince everyone. We just have to convince enough people, and in some cases one person is "enough". Consolidate or create a mailing list for those who want to learn more, and have your educational materials at the ready. Register people to vote online and gather signatures for the constitution. Even if people don't believe these things will work, they will get people thinking about ways life could be better.
Step One: Close the Loop
Where the rubber meets the road. This stage is called "closing the loop" because it's about efficiency in product design and manufacturing: Ideally, we want the loop to be closed so that all resources used to make a product can be reused and recycled. In this stage we create localized manufacturing, makerspaces and recycling chains. Crowdfund the purchase of milling and tooling machinery and acquire small means of production. Begin to solicit investment. We must create ecosystems of products that work together so that our communities can be as self-sufficient as possible.
We should recycle everything we buy, but not with the city. Place it into our system and use it as a resource. Waste plastic bottles can make excellent 3-D printer filament. Aluminum cans can be melted down and used for CNC milling. Wood and organic matter can be used as compost. Create a local currency to facilitate easier transfer of resources between people.
A secondary part of this might be physically building small demonstration communities, but that's less important than the manufacturing side of things.
Closing the loop in your everyday life also means cutting back whenever possible. Downsize if you can and save money.
Step Three: Bring Democracy Back
Create and encourage people to vote for liquid democracy parties in their city and state. This is absolutely critical, and will place government control back in the hands of it's citizens.
Step Three: Building Institutions and Technology
The amount of people interested in an RBE should be swelling by now. Build the institutions (tribes, global assembly etc), and call for a meeting to further flesh things out. Hundreds of thousands have ratified the constitution and are receiving basic income at this point. Several fully-functioning communities have been set up, and the collaborative design system allows all people to work together to design products which can be manufactured locally.
Step Four: Crystallize Support and Momentum
Cross the point of no return. Attract even greater attention and gain support from celebrities and the rich/powerful. Wealthy individuals begin to donate to further expand and develop the technology needed for a RBE. We should have the ability to manufacture nearly everything we need at this point and can begin to approach bigger fish. By this time we are highly visible and you can already see on-the-ground results.
Step Six: Rollout and Restoration
Automation is complete, and for all intensive purposes the monetary system is over for everyone who's participated in the project. The new cities have been built, and work begins to restore the environment and construct megaprojects to further increase quality of life.
-----
You probably noticed that the paragraphs become a lot shorter towards the end. It's hard to predict that far into the future, and any transition plan that claims to be "set in stone" should be looked at with extreme skepticism. I've also covered a lot in other articles on this website. Still, with strong on-the-ground effort and press coverage, you might be surprised at how quickly social change can occur. We just need to get the ball rolling. If we work hard, all six of these stages can be complete within 5-10 years.
We all want a better future, preferably in our lifetimes. But a change as big as this can seem impossible at first, utopian even.
The secret is we already have the ability to create everything proposed here. The biggest changes won't happen out there, they'll happen inside. Really, the most important transition takes place in your mind, once you open your eyes and see the world as it really is. After you've been enlightened you can't go back. It's our job to share this light with others.
This is how.
What does Sociocapitalism require?
It requires that we recognize a truth that's been lost to the ages: We are the people. We are the government. It's time to take back what is ours. Money doesn't exist. Countries don't exist. Everything that you think stands in the way only stands there because we, the people say it does.
The Declaration of Independence already gives we the people an unlimited right to "Alter or Abolish" government whenever it becomes destructive to our personal freedom, liberty or happiness.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. "
This right is further enshrined in several state constitutions, and since nearly all other liberal democracies uphold popular sovereignty, it can be inferred that they would accept this too.
Popular sovereignty is the cornerstone of every western democracy. The idea is that governments are formed by the consent of the governed, and no one else. So how do we move something so big, so powerful?
One: Remove your consent. Stop voting in elections above the local level, and be loud about it. Tell other people to do the same and why you're doing it. The second part is critical: If you stop voting silently and don't explain why, then it won't do any good. If everyone stops voting at the state and national levels and recognizes the new governments then they no longer have democratic or political legitimacy. Already, the president is elected by a distinct minority of citizens. We just need to push the needle a little bit further.
Keep paying Uncle Sam and render unto Caesar's what is Caesars: Don't resent paying your taxes because those dollar bills will be worthless soon. And you can get more done out of prison than in it. Take an attitude towards money that doesn't see it as the be all- end all of life. Try to put people first whenever possible.
Two: Transfer your consent. A new constitution will be created, to be ratified directly by the people via social media. All someone needs to do in order to ratify it is to take a picture of themselves with a sign saying that they support it. A link to this picture will be placed underneath or nearby the constitution. It will fully detail and explain the operation, purpose and limits of the new government, along with transferring governing authority back to cities and the people along with the institutions described. Getting more people to ratify and vote in our elections will grant them untouchable democratic legitimacy.
Being open with our purposes and goals will help a lot too. From the beginning, we will state that we are working towards a world without poverty, war or money and invite everyone who wants to help to join. We will make clear that this isn't a utopian dream for the future, but something we can do right now with a focus on real, clear and tangible results. Once people can see the change the avalanche will accelerate. Getting celebrity or past politicians' support would be a major boost and is very important.
Three: Hack the political system at the local level: Set up an online voting platform. (There are already several good, open-source ones like DemocracyOS or Helios.) Register people to vote with their verified government ID. Then, create a new party that pledges to vote directly as the people do. Watch it sweep the offices at the local level, which is really the only one we need to worry about. Once there, we can easily implement these reforms.
Before anyone has even been elected, though, we can give a simple monthly basic income to anyone who ratifies the constitution. This basic income will consist of a digital currency, a little like bitcoin. As our economy grows you will be able to buy more and more with it.
How will we get the capital we need to construct the cities?
This will be a massive volunteer effort, on the scale of the rebuilding after World War II. Even then, after millions of people lay dead and entire cities were in ruins, average, everyday people like you and me banded together to rebuild, brick by brick. Don't think that you won't find volunteers. Ohh, you will find plenty of volunteers. Thousands volunteer for habitat for humanity each year, and even more donate millions worth of building materials. Part of the innovation is that we are building less expensive homes that require less materials. Using dry-stacked earthen blocks (made out of dirt so they're free), low-cost solar panels and composting toilets, these houses will cost under $5000 each but be big enough for two. Labor is provided by whoever wants to live in the house along with some volunteers.
You'll find plenty of people eager to live a debt-free, money-free existence. We really don't need so much space and the homes won't be tiny. They will be around 600 square feet in size and densely placed.
Money is just an agreement between two people. It can be anything. We know this because in the past people have used anything from salt to gold to cows. Whenever two people agree to exchange something using an intermediary, money happens. Only direct exchange avoids this.
But just building houses isn't enough, and everyone knows it. In order to work, a Resource-Based Economy requires all resources to be managed and held as the common heritage of the earth's people. In this system, the global assembly plays the role of manager and steward. The problem is that currently, many of the resources we need are held privately. The solution is to give people vouchers for shares in tribes in exchange for their resources. The larger their total percentage- contribution (monetary or otherwise), the larger the amount of vouchers (and votes) they get. In the new cities, votes in the upper assembly are also based off of how much someone contributed to the construction of the city. This includes building materials, time, labor or pretty much anything else.
Tribes are the banks of an RBE and once they grow large enough they can make their owners fabulously wealthy. It's not a handout, it's an investment in the future. Owning a share of a tribe is owning a share of the entire economy. The only difference is that their newfound wealth will no longer impoverish everyone else.
Where might this be located?
I think the Midwest is a good place to start, but since this is a global movement the transition should be happening all across the world*. You don't need to build physical buildings in order to create a resource-based economy, although they are useful. It begins with a value shift, from generating the most capital to generating the most social capital.
Why the Midwest? Mostly because there's a lot of opportunity and infrastructure there. In rust-belt cities like Detroit, Cleveland and Gary there are many abandoned lots and, unfortunately, abandoned people. This would be the best place to put in a little bit of effort and create a huge difference.
Not only that,
a) Revitalizing a small portion of one of these cities will generate a huge amount of media attention and place an international spotlight on the concept of a resource-based economy.
That's the most important. If we can get the tech industry to take notice of the concept then it's over.
b) Detroit is a city that's full of dreamers, artists, and people ready for a change. They are far more open to unorthodox concepts you couldn't really try anywhere else.
c) The midwest's flat grid system and climate are perfect for the development of large, sustainably integrated urban/rural cities as called for here. (In other words, we get a lot of rain)
d) Close to major east coast population centers.
In Detroit and Gary, it would start with a single block, then grow to cover a square mile of the original city. This would serve as a demonstration. Each house would only take a few days to complete, and training programs/workshops would teach people how to safely wire or plumb homes.
In the rest of the country, the new cities would be built just outside existing ones, in currently rural or unincorporated areas. A large number of projects could be started simultaneously, on donated land or land sold for share vouchers. Some other candidate areas:
Madison, WI
Milwaukee, WI
Champaign/Urbana IL
Peoria, IL
Davenport, IA
East St. Louis, MO
Ft. Wayne, IN
Grand Rapids, MI
Youngstown, OH
Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN
* The transition is expected to mainly take place in the Western Hemisphere and Europe at first. It will take longer to spread to the rest of the world.
Explain the transition in more detail, please.
Gladly. There's a lot more that Sociocapitalism requires outside of the political strategy. Let's start with the basics.
Change what money can buy.
First, all essential items are made freely available by one simple tweak: People work in order to earn tokens that can be redeemed for luxury products only. Eventually even this won't be necessary as production continues to be automated, but for now we still need to motivate people to work.
All non-luxury items will be able to be bought with the basic income we provide, the tokens, or earned social capital. The goal is to remove the barrier between supply and demand. Read more here.
Since the basics of life are now free, people don't have to worry about getting enough to eat.
The end of intellectual property.
As described here, Inventions and products are given value not based on how much money they make, but on how many people use them. Thus, the goal is to maximize access to the goods and services people need instead of hoard knowledge. Products are literally worthless if nobody can use or afford them. Intellectual property has held back innovation, but until now we haven't had a way of rewarding artists without it. Now we do.
The Creation of a Collaborative Design System
The CDS (Collaborative Design System) is critical to the creation of a fully-functional resource based economy. Acting as an online suite of design software, people will be able to work together to design or create almost anything, from products to buildings to movies. The Collaborative Design System keeps track of who's contributed to each project and how much they've contributed, rewarding them accordingly.
The Creation of New Social Networks
Currently-existing social networks like Twitter and Facebook are not designed with the principles of social capital in mind. They lack several important features, such as a direct messaging and user ownership of data, are more like walled gardens than parts of a single, larger organism. For this reason, new social networks need to be generated, governed by the bill of digital rights and managed as a virtual commons by The Global Assembly.Social networks are necessary so that people can earn social capital based off of their online influence and prominence.
The Creation and Acquisition of "Productive Ecosystems"
Any society needs a manufacturing base. This is where most communes and intentional communities fail because acquiring them is capital-intensive and nobody wants to farm all day. We need to work our way up instead, from a "food first" perspective. That means that we focus on creating or acquiring means of production that fulfill our basic needs first (like food, housing materials or cotton fields), before going after higher-value targets. This is also the order in which automation should occur. First automate food production, then construction, then production etc.
Productive Ecosystems are groups of products that work together to produce a final, more useful product. Why build a button factory if you can't make any clothes? This involves the creation of microfactories. When we try to involve manufacturers and businesses we need to make sure we're creating integrated systems, not just random products.
Positive Policing
Society made a mistake when it chose to only punish bad behavior but not to reward good. You need both in order to create a productive and peaceful populace. We won't make the same mistake. The Global Assembly, through it's Generousity Program, will create a large network of positive police: Plainclothes individuals who watch and reward people for doing good things. Each member will have a certain allowance of tokens to give away weekly, and for larger payouts multiple members can get together. Generousity also provides life and event planning, counselling and aims to know as much as possible to make citizens as happy as possible. Like Santa Claus, they leave people random gifts from a wishlist at least once a year. Generousity should comprise around 5% of the population, and people can recommend or report others they think have done something good. This would be one of the easiest things to set up in the beginning of transition.
Basic Income
Consider the basic income a reward for being a good citizen and fulfilling your civic duties. It can be reduced or taken away if someone gets into trouble. It's self-explanatory, but every adult gets a certain amount of money monthly to buy things. Since this is digital, we won't have to "raise enough money" to provide it. Banks create money out of thin air, so why don't we?Creation of the Global assembly and "Immigration"
This is probably the most important thing we need to do, and it's also one of the more difficult ones: The creation of the Global Assembly, and it's growth or expansion over time. I tried to simplify it as much as possible.
It starts with a group of 100 self-selected people. These are the judges, the ones who interview and evaluate applicants who want to receive our digital basic income, grant them identification and give them access to the online voting system. Technically this is the seed that acts as a proto-global assembly that bootstraps and gives birth to the official one once enough people have joined.
In order to gain access to the basic income, one has to "immigrate" into our virtual society. The entire process, including the interview takes place online. Send us a photo of a valid government ID (both sides), a few photos of yourself in front and profile view, choose a new name or nickname and schedule a live virtual meetup on Google hangouts. This immediately weeds out many would-be scammers who wouldn't last through a live interview.
A randomly-selected group of 10 judges from the initial pool write the interview questions, and one judge actually does the interview. These interview questions can be random, but shouldn't be inappropriate or personal. The interviewing judge has the ability to prescreen the questions and ask for revisions before the interview. The standard questions are "How did you find out about this" "How old are you", "What would you do if you no longer had to work" "What is your passion" "What is your favorite color" and "How do you feel about the concept of a RBE". The total interview should take less than 5 minutes. The subject may be asked to turn completely around and wave their hands.
This interview is then sent to ten other randomly-selected judges, who vote on whether or not to accept the individual and grant them basic income. They are supposed to look at the evidence and run a facial recognition/ID check to make sure someone is not trying to exploit the system. Someone is in once 7/10 judges vote to to accept them.
Once accepted, a member will need to complete a simple monthly test to continue receive basic income. This test is sent to the email address they used when they signed up. The test is short, but designed so that only humans may complete it and involves mostly spatial recognition and image problems. Members also have the right to vote for new judges so that the system can handle more applications and grow at an accelerated rate.
When the total number of people signed up for the basic income and registered to vote reaches 20,000, the first two tribes are born: Red and Blue. The platform for citizens to create new tribes opens and begins taking applications.
Once the population of the entire system reaches around 100,000 people, the first representatives for the global assembly can be elected. Each "house" will start off with 100 people and grow as more sign up. The final size and form of the global assembly is to be fixed by law, but half of each house must be tribes or cities that are randomly selected.
Once accepted, a member will need to complete a simple monthly test to continue receive basic income. This test is sent to the email address they used when they signed up. The test is short, but designed so that only humans may complete it and involves mostly spatial recognition and image problems. Members also have the right to vote for new judges so that the system can handle more applications and grow at an accelerated rate.
When the total number of people signed up for the basic income and registered to vote reaches 20,000, the first two tribes are born: Red and Blue. The platform for citizens to create new tribes opens and begins taking applications.
Once the population of the entire system reaches around 100,000 people, the first representatives for the global assembly can be elected. Each "house" will start off with 100 people and grow as more sign up. The final size and form of the global assembly is to be fixed by law, but half of each house must be tribes or cities that are randomly selected.
Creation of the "Tribes" platform
Tribes are a lot like groups on Facebook- just created on The Global Assembly's platform instead. They function as economic portals and mutual benefit societies for their members. In order for new tribes to be created, a platform must be designed which allows them to a) sign up and import new members, and b) manage the money they earn.
Keep in mind that none of this will require government intervention. We'll just do it.
If you haven't yet, please read the technology section of this blog in order to get a feel for just how little technological advancement this plan would require.
The Six Stages of Success
Step Zero: Education and Planning
This is where we are today. We need to get out of this stage as soon as possible. This stage is important, but not as important as actually getting out there and making it happen. If they say a picture is worth a thousand words, then real life is worth a million. Talk to people, talk to your city council, talk to local businesses and charities. Spread the word and attempt to get a feel for what people might do with their lives if work was no longer necessary. If you can find people willing to donate their land to the project, then that's even better. We don't have to convince anyone. We can't convince everyone. We just have to convince enough people, and in some cases one person is "enough". Consolidate or create a mailing list for those who want to learn more, and have your educational materials at the ready. Register people to vote online and gather signatures for the constitution. Even if people don't believe these things will work, they will get people thinking about ways life could be better.
Step One: Close the Loop
Where the rubber meets the road. This stage is called "closing the loop" because it's about efficiency in product design and manufacturing: Ideally, we want the loop to be closed so that all resources used to make a product can be reused and recycled. In this stage we create localized manufacturing, makerspaces and recycling chains. Crowdfund the purchase of milling and tooling machinery and acquire small means of production. Begin to solicit investment. We must create ecosystems of products that work together so that our communities can be as self-sufficient as possible.
We should recycle everything we buy, but not with the city. Place it into our system and use it as a resource. Waste plastic bottles can make excellent 3-D printer filament. Aluminum cans can be melted down and used for CNC milling. Wood and organic matter can be used as compost. Create a local currency to facilitate easier transfer of resources between people.
A secondary part of this might be physically building small demonstration communities, but that's less important than the manufacturing side of things.
Closing the loop in your everyday life also means cutting back whenever possible. Downsize if you can and save money.
Step Three: Bring Democracy Back
Create and encourage people to vote for liquid democracy parties in their city and state. This is absolutely critical, and will place government control back in the hands of it's citizens.
Step Three: Building Institutions and Technology
The amount of people interested in an RBE should be swelling by now. Build the institutions (tribes, global assembly etc), and call for a meeting to further flesh things out. Hundreds of thousands have ratified the constitution and are receiving basic income at this point. Several fully-functioning communities have been set up, and the collaborative design system allows all people to work together to design products which can be manufactured locally.
Step Four: Crystallize Support and Momentum
Cross the point of no return. Attract even greater attention and gain support from celebrities and the rich/powerful. Wealthy individuals begin to donate to further expand and develop the technology needed for a RBE. We should have the ability to manufacture nearly everything we need at this point and can begin to approach bigger fish. By this time we are highly visible and you can already see on-the-ground results.
Step Six: Rollout and Restoration
Automation is complete, and for all intensive purposes the monetary system is over for everyone who's participated in the project. The new cities have been built, and work begins to restore the environment and construct megaprojects to further increase quality of life.
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You probably noticed that the paragraphs become a lot shorter towards the end. It's hard to predict that far into the future, and any transition plan that claims to be "set in stone" should be looked at with extreme skepticism. I've also covered a lot in other articles on this website. Still, with strong on-the-ground effort and press coverage, you might be surprised at how quickly social change can occur. We just need to get the ball rolling. If we work hard, all six of these stages can be complete within 5-10 years.
Money & Economics
In five years, we can change the world.
In five years, we can wipe out poverty, hunger, homelessness and 95% of crime. We can build brand-new cities for billions of people and create a future that will let everyone live the life they've always dreamed of. For free. It's a simple vision, but it's a powerful one: Use technology to make life better for all people, not just a select few.
Our old systems are failing us. All around the world, people can tell something's wrong, but they don't know what it is or how to fix it. All you have to do is turn on the TV and look at the news. A wise man once said "You can't solve a problem using the same thinking you did when you created it." His name was Albert Einstein.
Throwing more money into welfare programs isn't the answer. More foreign aid isn't the answer. Socialism isn't the answer. Even charity isn't the answer. The problem is fundamental to our economic system: It was designed to fail. Capitalism is broken, but it's okay. We can fix it. We have the technology.
It's the way money works. It's endlessly printed without any regard to the limited amount of natural resources we have.
Banks literally press a button to make more out of thin air, whenever and wherever they want. It causes people to hoard far more than they need, instead of sharing the abundance that already exists. Wealth infinitely flows to the top, by design. Money enslaves us. It forces us to do jobs we don't want to do and live lives we don't want to live. You do it because you have to- if you don't, you will starve. And until now, it's always been that way. But it gets worse. Money destroys the most valuable resource we have: Human Creativity.
Think of all the amazing projects that have been cancelled because there wasn't enough "money" to complete them. The countless inventions, cures or ideas that couldn't get funded. The stories that never were told. All the movies never made because they ran out of money to produce them. The question wasn't "could we do it"? or "do we have enough resources?", but "do we have enough paper?" It's tragic when we let something we created hold us back. No other animal in the world has to pay for the right to exist, yet we do. Why? When we have the technology to eliminate most of humanity's biggest issues (and we do), but we don't use it because it isn't profitable, there's a problem.
On a more personal level, how many artists and engineers have we lost because they've been told "you have to get a job to survive". It doesn't matter if it's a job you like or even want to do, all that matters is that it pays the bills. Money isn't just worthless, it actively impedes our progress as a species. It takes some time to realize how damaging money really is, but once you do it will change everything.
Well there's some good news, and some bad news. The good news is that money doesn't exist. It only has value because we, the people, say it does. The bad news is that in order for anything to change, everyone else has to realize it.
If what we have right now is so bad, then why does nearly every country on earth use it?
Motivation.
How do you get people to do things they wouldn't normally want to do? Offer them cool stuff in return! Sure, you could threaten to kill them, but positive reinforcement usually works better. ;)
If capitalism is a game, then money is the reward for a job well done. And what a reward it is! Even with all it's problems, money motivates us to do plenty of things we wouldn't otherwise do.. Like clean toilets or flip burgers. If you really want to get crazy, then you could think of money as magic. What else can turn into pretty much anything you want? Status, power, influence. All the things money can buy. But there are still some things even money can't do like give you true friendship, peace or love.
When you think of how money motivates us to do things we wouldn't otherwise do, you instantly realize there's a dark side. Ask yourself, if it's a job someone wouldn't do for free, is it a job anyone should really be doing in the first place?
Even in a resource-based economy, we are always going to need people around to do certain things, and they are always going to need to get paid. What if we could take this power of motivation, and use it exclusively for good? Think of it like a rewards program. If you work in any of those "dirty jobs" only humans can do, you earn points that could go towards a special category of luxury goods, and only people who work would be allowed to buy them. Fancy cars, expensive rings, designer clothes.. Status symbols are a powerful thing. To prevent corruption, these points can only be used by the people that have earned them. There will be a lot more on luxuries later.
As a side note on motivation, money really only motivates us when the task is manual or grinding. Even better than positive reinforcement is self-motivation.
Here's a pretty cool talk about what really drives us from RSA.
Innovation.
People design new products and bring them to market in hopes of getting rich. The only problem is that most times, they don't get as rich as they want to and are forced to stop. Competition also acts as a great incentive to produce the best products at the lowest prices. Okay, best is the wrong word. Try "acceptable". For the most part, "best" usually means more expensive, and consumers don't like that. In this role, capitalism actually does a decent job- when let loose. Government restrictions such as patents and copyrights stifle innovation and create perverse incentives, meaning the free market can't do it's job properly. In a RBE, creators are automatically credited every time their idea is used, so it actually does a better job of encouraging creativity while remaining open-source.
Signals and Incentives
This one isn't so much capitalism as a fundamental law of nature: Supply and Demand. When prices go higher, producers make more of something because they want to earn more money. In the same way, when prices go lower, producers make less and consumers buy more. As MrUniverity likes to say, "A price is a signal wrapped up in an incentive". All of this means markets tend to balance themselves out.
Or they would, if there wasn't the huge problem of money in the way.
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There isn't any doubt that capitalism has led to big increases in wealth for a large percentage of the world's population, and it's far better at generating wealth than socialism. It's just that it's also created equally huge relative decreases for the rest of us. In order for all of this wealth to be "created", it has to first be extracted from somewhere else. You saw it with the slave trade, where countries stole millions of people in order to enrich themselves, while impoverishing others. You see it today, where sweatshops use cheap labor in developing nations to create products their employees wouldn't even buy.
If you look just around the corner and peel back the curtain, you'll find that the shiny facade of free-market capitalism has lead to huge imbalances. Thousands of other people have already explained this far better than I ever could, but all their explanations could be summed up in a single sentence:
People can't get the things they want and need if they can't pay for them.
That's it. This explains everything, from the reason there are more houses than homeless people, to why we let people starve and go without healthcare in the world's richest countries. If you can't afford it, then you don't deserve to live.
Put another way, money artificially distorts supply and demand by putting a barrier between them. In a true economy, one designed to give as many people access to the goods and services they need as possible, we would try to maximize production and reward producers based off of how often their product is used. Instead, we actually limit production of many items to keep prices high.
Capitalism fails to satisfy true demand.
True demand, unlike market demand isn't only what people can afford: It's what people would get if money were no object. It's said that resources are scarce and demands are unlimited. This is true. But that still doesn't mean you can't find a better way to distribute them and reward the people who produce them.
So if you want to fix capitalism, you have to make one really simple tweak: Remove the barrier between supply and demand!
But how? Isn't it true that if everything were free, people would take far more than they need? Wouldn't we run out of stuff? The shelves would be empty! If you said any of these things, you would be absolutely right. But we still have an ace in the hole, a way to produce far more abundance than anyone alive 50 years ago or even today could possibly imagine.
Robots.
Automation and technology are fast killing jobs. And unlike last time, they won't be replaced. That's a good thing.
When we let robots do all the work, humans can be free to do what matters to them. No more toiling away at bullshit jobs just to earn a paycheck. No more living in a tiny apartment when you deserve a mansion. You can travel the world, open up a restaurant or make movies for the rest of your life. You can spend more time with your children. Just do whatever you want! It's almost like you're on permanent vacation. Without the stress of the daily grind and constantly trying to make ends meet, people will live happier and more productive lives. When goods are freely accessible to all, there's no reason to steal. Suddenly your crime rate goes to near-zero. This is a future that we should work together to make happen, as soon as possible. If we do, we can get it done in about five years.
The question isn't "do we have the money". It's "do we have the resources". Do we want it? It's strange that we only think that way in life or death situations. America only had 600 planes at the beginning of World War two. Within a few months they were making 90,000 each year. After the war, with hundreds of thousands dead and millions homeless, average people stood together to rebuild. Brick by brick. Almost everything was destroyed, yet through the tireless efforts of everyday people just like you and me, things were relatively back to normal within a few years. There's no reason why it should take a war or a revolution for us to stand up and demand a better life. We can do it together, voluntarily. We can live to see this change.
So what will it take?
Not much. When I first designed Sociocapitalism, I wanted to create a system that would make life better for rich and poor alike. There's no way any kind of social change will be able to happen without their help, and there's no point to antagonizing or alienating any potential allies. Any type of plan that included redistributing wealth without compensation was immediately off of the table.
So instead, just give them votes equal to whatever they've contributed.
While that explains how we would compensate the wealthy for their resources, that still doesn't explain how the economic system itself will operate. What is it? Who decides who gets what? Who owns the land? These are all important questions that need to be answered. When it comes to sociocapitalism, it's about taking the best and leaving the rest.
A good way to illustrate the difference between sociocapitalism and other economic systems is like this: In socialism, the means of production are owned by the workers. In capitalism, they're owned by the wealthy. In sociocapitalism, the means of production are owned by everyone.
Let's say you wanted to create a new product. Today you couldn't just go into a factory and order them to produce something for you. You would have to get it prototyped, build supply chains, hire workers and get loans.. All in all, you would be out millions of dollars just to bring a single new product to market. Here, all you need to do is upload a design file to the web. Now anyone can use it for free, and you will get paid each time your idea is used. The use of your idea is actually what creates money in the first place. Because production and distribution are fully automated, labor isn't an issue. Effectively, the item costs nothing. In one swoop, we eliminate the problems with copyrights and patents and gain the benefits of an open ecosystem while allowing creators to be fairly compensated.
Money is primarily used as a tool to promote and reward desirable behavior. It could be working to maintain the automated factories, helping out your town or even just being a good citizen. There are multiple types of money that are used for different purposes. The biggest difference between money in a Resource-Based-Economy and money today is a) how it's created and b) who gets it. Instead of being created as an instrument of debt, "money" in a RBE is created and distributed automatically whenever someone uses a product or service. Everyone is given enough money monthly to live a reasonably well-off life, and as usual food, housing and transportation are free.
Oh, and one more thing:
Money is weird when you think about it. Unlike almost everything else, it doesn't decay or lose value over time (forget about inflation for a second). You have an expiration date. Cars stop working, food spoils and homes need repair- yet money doesn't.
This leads to all kinds of problems, namely the unjustified hoarding of wealth. Imagine what would happen if the wealthy knew that their billions wouldn't last forever. They would spend it or give it away instead of clinging to it with their last breath. All this added spending would lead to a major boost in the economy. I know what you're thinking: Who would take money that's just about to expire? The government of course. Since the bills are legal tender, as far as The Global Assembly is concerned, your old money has the same purchasing power as newly-printed currency. So just before your currency is about to expire, you might go on a online shopping spree. You can choose how long your money will last when you receive it, but the maximum length is 10 years.
1) Basic Income
Basic Income is the money that every person receives each month just for being alive, no matter how rich or poor. This is the our version of the "safety net", so that if you don't earn enough of the other types of money listed below you will still be financially secure. It's denominated in "credits.", the amount of which will be determined by The Global Assembly. Unlike all other types of money that came before it, credits are a physical quantity that represents the amount of matter and energy that went into producing and transporting a product. A single credit is worth 1000 kilogram-joules. Basic income will cover most of your average expenses and then some, but it's important to note that basic income cannot be transferred directly between people or saved for the next month unless converted into..
2) T- Notes (Tribal Notes)
Only tribes have the power to hold and transfer basic income credits between people or hold them for periods longer than a month. Tribes can hold saved money for up to ten years and are created whenever enough people get together and decide to start one. In a resource-based economy, tribes function a lot like banks do today. When you deposit your unused (or any) basic income into a tribe, the tribe gives you a note that promises to pay whoever owns it a certain amount of social capital some time in the future. It's like a certificate of deposit. You can then use and spend this note as if it were cash. They're a great tool if you want to keep social capital for a long period of time, and they are safe investments because the owners of a tribe are legally liable if they can't give you the money you deposited.
T-Notes don't hold value forever. They come in "denominations" of 1,2,5 and 10 years, and the longer you want to hold the money the more it costs. At the end of the note's life, the money saved inside is given to whoever owns it at the time and is good to use for 1 month. You cannot purchase another tribal note with this cash. Here's an example pricing schedule for a tribe:
1 year- 2% of the initial deposit
2 years- 5% of the initial deposit
5 years- 10% of the initial deposit
10 years- 20% of initial deposit
If you bought a 2 year-tribal note with $100, in 2 years you or whoever you've given it to would be able to cash it in for $95. The other $5 is given to the tribe as a fee for holding the money.
3) Social Capital
The namesake of the entire economic system, social capital is the most important type of money and the most relevant. The mechanics of exactly how social capital works is explained here, but basically it measures your "net worth", or total contribution to society. This measurement includes your influence, prominence on social media and how often your ideas have been used by others. Social capital must be earned and accumulates over time, with the total amount you've ever earned visible on your reputation account. Social capital can be directly transferred between people, although most will convert it into T-notes first since they last longer. Like Basic Income, to prevent inflation unused social capital can't be rolled over to the next month unless converted.
Social capital can be earned by designing new products or creating new things that people enjoy. Every time someone decides to use a product you helped design, you earn social capital. It doesn't even have to be anything fancy- here, "product" means anything a human creates that has value. So online, making funny videos that go viral or just uploading selfies will earn social capital too, albeit a smaller amount. You can use social capital to buy goods and services exactly as you would use your basic income credits.
4) Tokens
Tokens are a special type of social capital that functions more like an award than money. People earn tokens for helping out their community, as a reward for good behavior, being a civil servant or doing important work that cannot be automated (for now). Tokens are also shown on your reputation account and act as a badge of honor. People strive to earn tokens because certain desirable luxury items can only be bought with them. If you want fancy cars, penthouses or designer clothes, you have to have tokens. Even today, the power of luxury items to motivate can't be denied. Take a $5 dollar pair of sneakers made in China, slap a Nike symbol on it, and suddenly they're worth $200. Take a $80 dollar phone, put an apple on the back it and now it's worth $500. We always want the latest and greatest, bigger and better. It didn't always use to be this way, but now that it is we could it to our advantage.
Tokens are dispensed by The Global Assembly through it's Generousity Program. Because tokens are a direct reward for a job-well done, only the person who has earned them can redeem them- period. To make up for this, they don't expire. Once you get them, they're yours and nobody can ever take them away. Not even the government. Tokens are equal in value to a Basic Income credit, and can be used to buy "normal" items too if you wish. The designers of luxury items get half of whatever it sells for while the other half is removed from circulation.
Even though it can be hard to imagine using multiple types of money, it would be helpful to remember that we already have several kinds in circulation today. There's hard cash, digital money, traveler's checks, money orders, stocks etc. Not to mention the hundreds of different national currencies across the world. In a resource-based economy, these four would be all you'd need no matter where you go.
There are hard-coded limits to how much money can be created monthly, and each type has a limit of it's own. The value of all social capital earned each month is limited to twice the value of all basic income distributed. The value of all tokens given away is equal to the value of all basic income, so the money supply at any one time looks a bit like this:
25% Basic Income
50% Social Capital
25% Tokens
All types of money except for tribal notes are directly managed by The Global Assembly through an elected committee of delegates from various tribes. You earn social capital on networks managed by The Global Assembly, and they also distribute basic income too. If it needs to increase the money supply, the committee will raise the amount of basic income given or buy Tribal Notes. If it needs to lower the money supply it can increase taxes on tribes or sell T-notes. Prices are always shown in both credits and social capital.
So back to this. The biggest objection to all of this is the idea that somehow, someway, people will take more than they need. "If everything is free", they say, "what's to stop me from taking everything in the store"?
Ah. They don't understand that while everything is free, you couldn't afford to buy everything in the store at once. That's right. While all goods are free, you still have to pay for them.
The secret to preventing overconsumption is really just a rebate: Pay for something now, and when you're finished, return it to the store for a full refund. That's it. This is the way paying for anything The Global Assembly provides will work. Of course, it's a little more complicated than that: Once you return something to the store, all of the money doesn't just flood back into your account at once. It trickles back over time, and the time depends on how long it takes to produce another one. For organic items that are fully consumed (things like food, for instance), this doesn't hold and the money is consumed with the item.
This has two amazing effects. The first is obvious- it encourages recycling! When you can get a full refund for returning an empty container of something, who in their right mind would throw anything away? Of course, the container has to be clean, but this is easily handled by robots. The second effect is that, as long as your'e frugal you will never run out of money. It limits overconsumption because everyone has a limited amount of money, but over time everything really is free.
If you want to buy something on credit, you can get a loan from your tribe and the amount will just be deducted from your basic income each month.
This relationship extends to housing too, which is discussed further in this article. Like today, you pay a certain amount of money monthly to stay in the home, but this money doesn't disappear. Instead, it's held as equity that you withdraw once you leave to go elsewhere. It doesn't matter if the property is rented or owned. This equity can be built up over generations, making homes a rock-solid investment.
Supply and Demand. Just like in today's economy, when supply is high and demand is low, prices should drop. When demand exceeds supply, prices should rise. These signals are then transmitted through the entire value chain and consumers make purchasing decisions based on them. In a resource-based economy, supply is actually based on the physical quantity of resources available.
A more technical definition of "supply" is the "Amount of any material already realized, produced and available (critical). When we say amount "realized", we mean the amount of the material that already exists and is ready-to-go. Not projections, not estimates, but the real amount of any resource sitting in a storage facility. For simplicity, supply of all resources (gas, liquid or solid) will be measured in kilograms. Barrel of oil already refined and in a storage tank? That's supply. Barrel underground? Not supply. Wood already produced and milled into 2x4's? That's supply. A stand of timber? Not. Also included is supply returning to the system via recycling.
That's only half the story. In order to calculate the price of any good, we also need to know how much energy it took to produce and transport it. This is easily measurable in Joules. Once we know these two quantities, multiply them by each other to get the initial price. Then, multiply the initial price by two to get your final price. Multiplying the price gives it room to "breathe" and shift due to changing demand. For natural products that grow on trees, the energy needed to produce them is ignored because it comes from the sun.
A single basic income credit is defined as 1000 Kilogram-Joules. This is equivalent to a product that weighs 1 kg and took 1000 Joules to produce and transport, or one that weighs 0.1 kg and required 10,000 Joules.
In a perfect world, demand would always be constant and so would prices. As we know, this isn't the case. If we want to have an economy that works, then prices need to change with changing demand. Demand is relatively easy to calculate. All you have to do is determine the total amount of a resource requested from all sources, and compare it with the total amount produced. This calculation will happen every day. If more of a resource is requested than available, prices for the resource will go up and products that use that resource will become more expensive. If less, prices will go down. This function is constantly in play for every resource imaginable- corn, soybeans, iron, coal, oil etc
Economic freedom is the name of the game. Citizens will be able to design and customize products that exactly fit their needs. There's no room for a one-size fits all economic policy in sociocapitalism.
Even though production is highly automated, someone still has to maintain the factories and act as a safeguard to ensure nobody vandalizes or misuses them. If you want to ask "who will fix the robots", ask "who will fix the sewers"? The means of production are locally managed and owned as a public utility, under the oversight of The Global Assembly.
Most goods are produced locally, while only raw materials are transported great distances. When it makes sense to do high-volume production (for small, delicate things like semiconductors), then the finished product will be shipped instead. This is rare. The article "microfactories" goes into more detail on how small, modular mobile factories will be shipped around the world to produce a wide variety of products. Each individual city will not have it's own factory, but each metropolitan area or region would have an industrial district.
Access to the means of production is guaranteed to everyone in the constitution, which means everyone "owns" it, in a sense. Anyone can design a product online and offer it for sale using the Collaborative Design System. People can constantly improve on the designs of others and import parts directly into their product. Once someone purchases it, the product will be produced and those who worked on it paid in social capital. Note that the good credits used to buy a product don't go to the producers, they are held as a safety deposit until the product is returned.
In the automated factories of the future, people will be able to work from home to remotely operate machines and drive trucks, (until self-driving vehicles take over.)
This doesn't imply that everything will be automated, just the production of most goods. In the service sector, there will always be room for artisans and makers who create products not because they have to, but because they want to and that's what they enjoy doing. In cases like these, whatever they get paid they get to keep. Expect to see an explosion of handmade arts and crafts, sweaters and homeware once people have the time to make it. Food too- even though there will be automated restaurants, a lot of people will still want to eat food made by real chefs and be willing to pay a premium for it.
Buying and selling in a resource-based economy largely happens over the web, with people browsing through a catalog and selecting the products they want. The products can then be customized and are automatically delivered to their home. Physical stores will still exist, but they are more expensive since they have to be staffed.
If you want to start a business, you first need to register with your tribe in order to create a business account and complete any forms or permits your city requires. By starting a business account, you are creating a separate entity that allows you to get the cash-back benefits while not having to return money to the customer when they are finished with an item. Next, you have to purchase whatever you need to create your product and hire employees, If you were opening a restaurant, you might need plates, food and refrigerators. When you are done with each of these products (except the food), you can return them for a refund.
Tribes are very important because they play the role of banks: Lending money to people who need it, and saving money for people who can't afford to lose it. They charter corporations and create businesses, and help cities grow.
Cities manage local aspects of production and help provide a safe space for new businesses to grow. They also inspect businesses to make sure they're safe.
So what's the point of all this? It may look a little complicated, but the goal is simple:
Create an economy where people aren't only free to be themselves, but where they're rewarded for it. In a resource-based economy, money is retooled to work better for everyone and maximize creativity. By breaking down the barrier between supply and demand families won't have to worry about whether or not they can afford anything anymore. They'll just get it. No more choosing between gas or food when you really need both! When human knowledge is freed and money isn't an object, social progress will advance at an exponential rate. Don't be surprised if we actually have flying cars or cures for debilitating diseases in a few years.
It's not about creating a utopia, or a world where everyone can just relax all day and do nothing. If you ask me, that would be a nightmare! Instead, Sociocapitalism is about redesigning society so that everyone has the freedom to do what makes them happy, as long as it doesn't harm anyone else. It's a world where people come first, and need is placed before greed. It's unlike anything else we've ever tried before. Communism and capitalism combined couldn't even come close. In an economy that's fueled by friendship, you don't work long hours trying to make ends meet, you work to build and maintain social relationships that add value to society. In other worlds, your social capital.
Read More:
In five years, we can wipe out poverty, hunger, homelessness and 95% of crime. We can build brand-new cities for billions of people and create a future that will let everyone live the life they've always dreamed of. For free. It's a simple vision, but it's a powerful one: Use technology to make life better for all people, not just a select few.
Our old systems are failing us. All around the world, people can tell something's wrong, but they don't know what it is or how to fix it. All you have to do is turn on the TV and look at the news. A wise man once said "You can't solve a problem using the same thinking you did when you created it." His name was Albert Einstein.
Throwing more money into welfare programs isn't the answer. More foreign aid isn't the answer. Socialism isn't the answer. Even charity isn't the answer. The problem is fundamental to our economic system: It was designed to fail. Capitalism is broken, but it's okay. We can fix it. We have the technology.
It's the way money works. It's endlessly printed without any regard to the limited amount of natural resources we have.
Banks literally press a button to make more out of thin air, whenever and wherever they want. It causes people to hoard far more than they need, instead of sharing the abundance that already exists. Wealth infinitely flows to the top, by design. Money enslaves us. It forces us to do jobs we don't want to do and live lives we don't want to live. You do it because you have to- if you don't, you will starve. And until now, it's always been that way. But it gets worse. Money destroys the most valuable resource we have: Human Creativity.
Think of all the amazing projects that have been cancelled because there wasn't enough "money" to complete them. The countless inventions, cures or ideas that couldn't get funded. The stories that never were told. All the movies never made because they ran out of money to produce them. The question wasn't "could we do it"? or "do we have enough resources?", but "do we have enough paper?" It's tragic when we let something we created hold us back. No other animal in the world has to pay for the right to exist, yet we do. Why? When we have the technology to eliminate most of humanity's biggest issues (and we do), but we don't use it because it isn't profitable, there's a problem.
On a more personal level, how many artists and engineers have we lost because they've been told "you have to get a job to survive". It doesn't matter if it's a job you like or even want to do, all that matters is that it pays the bills. Money isn't just worthless, it actively impedes our progress as a species. It takes some time to realize how damaging money really is, but once you do it will change everything.
Well there's some good news, and some bad news. The good news is that money doesn't exist. It only has value because we, the people, say it does. The bad news is that in order for anything to change, everyone else has to realize it.
Breaking Down Capitalism
If what we have right now is so bad, then why does nearly every country on earth use it?
Motivation.
How do you get people to do things they wouldn't normally want to do? Offer them cool stuff in return! Sure, you could threaten to kill them, but positive reinforcement usually works better. ;)
If capitalism is a game, then money is the reward for a job well done. And what a reward it is! Even with all it's problems, money motivates us to do plenty of things we wouldn't otherwise do.. Like clean toilets or flip burgers. If you really want to get crazy, then you could think of money as magic. What else can turn into pretty much anything you want? Status, power, influence. All the things money can buy. But there are still some things even money can't do like give you true friendship, peace or love.
When you think of how money motivates us to do things we wouldn't otherwise do, you instantly realize there's a dark side. Ask yourself, if it's a job someone wouldn't do for free, is it a job anyone should really be doing in the first place?
Even in a resource-based economy, we are always going to need people around to do certain things, and they are always going to need to get paid. What if we could take this power of motivation, and use it exclusively for good? Think of it like a rewards program. If you work in any of those "dirty jobs" only humans can do, you earn points that could go towards a special category of luxury goods, and only people who work would be allowed to buy them. Fancy cars, expensive rings, designer clothes.. Status symbols are a powerful thing. To prevent corruption, these points can only be used by the people that have earned them. There will be a lot more on luxuries later.
As a side note on motivation, money really only motivates us when the task is manual or grinding. Even better than positive reinforcement is self-motivation.
Here's a pretty cool talk about what really drives us from RSA.
Innovation.
People design new products and bring them to market in hopes of getting rich. The only problem is that most times, they don't get as rich as they want to and are forced to stop. Competition also acts as a great incentive to produce the best products at the lowest prices. Okay, best is the wrong word. Try "acceptable". For the most part, "best" usually means more expensive, and consumers don't like that. In this role, capitalism actually does a decent job- when let loose. Government restrictions such as patents and copyrights stifle innovation and create perverse incentives, meaning the free market can't do it's job properly. In a RBE, creators are automatically credited every time their idea is used, so it actually does a better job of encouraging creativity while remaining open-source.
Signals and Incentives
This one isn't so much capitalism as a fundamental law of nature: Supply and Demand. When prices go higher, producers make more of something because they want to earn more money. In the same way, when prices go lower, producers make less and consumers buy more. As MrUniverity likes to say, "A price is a signal wrapped up in an incentive". All of this means markets tend to balance themselves out.
Or they would, if there wasn't the huge problem of money in the way.
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Capitalism's Biggest Failure
There isn't any doubt that capitalism has led to big increases in wealth for a large percentage of the world's population, and it's far better at generating wealth than socialism. It's just that it's also created equally huge relative decreases for the rest of us. In order for all of this wealth to be "created", it has to first be extracted from somewhere else. You saw it with the slave trade, where countries stole millions of people in order to enrich themselves, while impoverishing others. You see it today, where sweatshops use cheap labor in developing nations to create products their employees wouldn't even buy.
If you look just around the corner and peel back the curtain, you'll find that the shiny facade of free-market capitalism has lead to huge imbalances. Thousands of other people have already explained this far better than I ever could, but all their explanations could be summed up in a single sentence:
People can't get the things they want and need if they can't pay for them.
That's it. This explains everything, from the reason there are more houses than homeless people, to why we let people starve and go without healthcare in the world's richest countries. If you can't afford it, then you don't deserve to live.
Put another way, money artificially distorts supply and demand by putting a barrier between them. In a true economy, one designed to give as many people access to the goods and services they need as possible, we would try to maximize production and reward producers based off of how often their product is used. Instead, we actually limit production of many items to keep prices high.
Capitalism fails to satisfy true demand.
True demand, unlike market demand isn't only what people can afford: It's what people would get if money were no object. It's said that resources are scarce and demands are unlimited. This is true. But that still doesn't mean you can't find a better way to distribute them and reward the people who produce them.
So if you want to fix capitalism, you have to make one really simple tweak: Remove the barrier between supply and demand!
But how? Isn't it true that if everything were free, people would take far more than they need? Wouldn't we run out of stuff? The shelves would be empty! If you said any of these things, you would be absolutely right. But we still have an ace in the hole, a way to produce far more abundance than anyone alive 50 years ago or even today could possibly imagine.
Robots.
Automation and technology are fast killing jobs. And unlike last time, they won't be replaced. That's a good thing.
When we let robots do all the work, humans can be free to do what matters to them. No more toiling away at bullshit jobs just to earn a paycheck. No more living in a tiny apartment when you deserve a mansion. You can travel the world, open up a restaurant or make movies for the rest of your life. You can spend more time with your children. Just do whatever you want! It's almost like you're on permanent vacation. Without the stress of the daily grind and constantly trying to make ends meet, people will live happier and more productive lives. When goods are freely accessible to all, there's no reason to steal. Suddenly your crime rate goes to near-zero. This is a future that we should work together to make happen, as soon as possible. If we do, we can get it done in about five years.
The question isn't "do we have the money". It's "do we have the resources". Do we want it? It's strange that we only think that way in life or death situations. America only had 600 planes at the beginning of World War two. Within a few months they were making 90,000 each year. After the war, with hundreds of thousands dead and millions homeless, average people stood together to rebuild. Brick by brick. Almost everything was destroyed, yet through the tireless efforts of everyday people just like you and me, things were relatively back to normal within a few years. There's no reason why it should take a war or a revolution for us to stand up and demand a better life. We can do it together, voluntarily. We can live to see this change.
So what will it take?
Not much. When I first designed Sociocapitalism, I wanted to create a system that would make life better for rich and poor alike. There's no way any kind of social change will be able to happen without their help, and there's no point to antagonizing or alienating any potential allies. Any type of plan that included redistributing wealth without compensation was immediately off of the table.
So instead, just give them votes equal to whatever they've contributed.
While that explains how we would compensate the wealthy for their resources, that still doesn't explain how the economic system itself will operate. What is it? Who decides who gets what? Who owns the land? These are all important questions that need to be answered. When it comes to sociocapitalism, it's about taking the best and leaving the rest.
A good way to illustrate the difference between sociocapitalism and other economic systems is like this: In socialism, the means of production are owned by the workers. In capitalism, they're owned by the wealthy. In sociocapitalism, the means of production are owned by everyone.
Let's say you wanted to create a new product. Today you couldn't just go into a factory and order them to produce something for you. You would have to get it prototyped, build supply chains, hire workers and get loans.. All in all, you would be out millions of dollars just to bring a single new product to market. Here, all you need to do is upload a design file to the web. Now anyone can use it for free, and you will get paid each time your idea is used. The use of your idea is actually what creates money in the first place. Because production and distribution are fully automated, labor isn't an issue. Effectively, the item costs nothing. In one swoop, we eliminate the problems with copyrights and patents and gain the benefits of an open ecosystem while allowing creators to be fairly compensated.
How money works in a Resource-Based Economy
Money is primarily used as a tool to promote and reward desirable behavior. It could be working to maintain the automated factories, helping out your town or even just being a good citizen. There are multiple types of money that are used for different purposes. The biggest difference between money in a Resource-Based-Economy and money today is a) how it's created and b) who gets it. Instead of being created as an instrument of debt, "money" in a RBE is created and distributed automatically whenever someone uses a product or service. Everyone is given enough money monthly to live a reasonably well-off life, and as usual food, housing and transportation are free.
Oh, and one more thing:
Money has an expiration date.
Money is weird when you think about it. Unlike almost everything else, it doesn't decay or lose value over time (forget about inflation for a second). You have an expiration date. Cars stop working, food spoils and homes need repair- yet money doesn't.
This leads to all kinds of problems, namely the unjustified hoarding of wealth. Imagine what would happen if the wealthy knew that their billions wouldn't last forever. They would spend it or give it away instead of clinging to it with their last breath. All this added spending would lead to a major boost in the economy. I know what you're thinking: Who would take money that's just about to expire? The government of course. Since the bills are legal tender, as far as The Global Assembly is concerned, your old money has the same purchasing power as newly-printed currency. So just before your currency is about to expire, you might go on a online shopping spree. You can choose how long your money will last when you receive it, but the maximum length is 10 years.
The four different kinds of money:
1) Basic Income
Basic Income is the money that every person receives each month just for being alive, no matter how rich or poor. This is the our version of the "safety net", so that if you don't earn enough of the other types of money listed below you will still be financially secure. It's denominated in "credits.", the amount of which will be determined by The Global Assembly. Unlike all other types of money that came before it, credits are a physical quantity that represents the amount of matter and energy that went into producing and transporting a product. A single credit is worth 1000 kilogram-joules. Basic income will cover most of your average expenses and then some, but it's important to note that basic income cannot be transferred directly between people or saved for the next month unless converted into..
2) T- Notes (Tribal Notes)
Only tribes have the power to hold and transfer basic income credits between people or hold them for periods longer than a month. Tribes can hold saved money for up to ten years and are created whenever enough people get together and decide to start one. In a resource-based economy, tribes function a lot like banks do today. When you deposit your unused (or any) basic income into a tribe, the tribe gives you a note that promises to pay whoever owns it a certain amount of social capital some time in the future. It's like a certificate of deposit. You can then use and spend this note as if it were cash. They're a great tool if you want to keep social capital for a long period of time, and they are safe investments because the owners of a tribe are legally liable if they can't give you the money you deposited.
T-Notes don't hold value forever. They come in "denominations" of 1,2,5 and 10 years, and the longer you want to hold the money the more it costs. At the end of the note's life, the money saved inside is given to whoever owns it at the time and is good to use for 1 month. You cannot purchase another tribal note with this cash. Here's an example pricing schedule for a tribe:
1 year- 2% of the initial deposit
2 years- 5% of the initial deposit
5 years- 10% of the initial deposit
10 years- 20% of initial deposit
If you bought a 2 year-tribal note with $100, in 2 years you or whoever you've given it to would be able to cash it in for $95. The other $5 is given to the tribe as a fee for holding the money.
3) Social Capital
The namesake of the entire economic system, social capital is the most important type of money and the most relevant. The mechanics of exactly how social capital works is explained here, but basically it measures your "net worth", or total contribution to society. This measurement includes your influence, prominence on social media and how often your ideas have been used by others. Social capital must be earned and accumulates over time, with the total amount you've ever earned visible on your reputation account. Social capital can be directly transferred between people, although most will convert it into T-notes first since they last longer. Like Basic Income, to prevent inflation unused social capital can't be rolled over to the next month unless converted.
Social capital can be earned by designing new products or creating new things that people enjoy. Every time someone decides to use a product you helped design, you earn social capital. It doesn't even have to be anything fancy- here, "product" means anything a human creates that has value. So online, making funny videos that go viral or just uploading selfies will earn social capital too, albeit a smaller amount. You can use social capital to buy goods and services exactly as you would use your basic income credits.
4) Tokens
Tokens are a special type of social capital that functions more like an award than money. People earn tokens for helping out their community, as a reward for good behavior, being a civil servant or doing important work that cannot be automated (for now). Tokens are also shown on your reputation account and act as a badge of honor. People strive to earn tokens because certain desirable luxury items can only be bought with them. If you want fancy cars, penthouses or designer clothes, you have to have tokens. Even today, the power of luxury items to motivate can't be denied. Take a $5 dollar pair of sneakers made in China, slap a Nike symbol on it, and suddenly they're worth $200. Take a $80 dollar phone, put an apple on the back it and now it's worth $500. We always want the latest and greatest, bigger and better. It didn't always use to be this way, but now that it is we could it to our advantage.
Tokens are dispensed by The Global Assembly through it's Generousity Program. Because tokens are a direct reward for a job-well done, only the person who has earned them can redeem them- period. To make up for this, they don't expire. Once you get them, they're yours and nobody can ever take them away. Not even the government. Tokens are equal in value to a Basic Income credit, and can be used to buy "normal" items too if you wish. The designers of luxury items get half of whatever it sells for while the other half is removed from circulation.
Even though it can be hard to imagine using multiple types of money, it would be helpful to remember that we already have several kinds in circulation today. There's hard cash, digital money, traveler's checks, money orders, stocks etc. Not to mention the hundreds of different national currencies across the world. In a resource-based economy, these four would be all you'd need no matter where you go.
The Money Supply
There are hard-coded limits to how much money can be created monthly, and each type has a limit of it's own. The value of all social capital earned each month is limited to twice the value of all basic income distributed. The value of all tokens given away is equal to the value of all basic income, so the money supply at any one time looks a bit like this:
25% Basic Income
50% Social Capital
25% Tokens
All types of money except for tribal notes are directly managed by The Global Assembly through an elected committee of delegates from various tribes. You earn social capital on networks managed by The Global Assembly, and they also distribute basic income too. If it needs to increase the money supply, the committee will raise the amount of basic income given or buy Tribal Notes. If it needs to lower the money supply it can increase taxes on tribes or sell T-notes. Prices are always shown in both credits and social capital.
The Price System and Preventing Overconsumption
So back to this. The biggest objection to all of this is the idea that somehow, someway, people will take more than they need. "If everything is free", they say, "what's to stop me from taking everything in the store"?
Ah. They don't understand that while everything is free, you couldn't afford to buy everything in the store at once. That's right. While all goods are free, you still have to pay for them.
The secret to preventing overconsumption is really just a rebate: Pay for something now, and when you're finished, return it to the store for a full refund. That's it. This is the way paying for anything The Global Assembly provides will work. Of course, it's a little more complicated than that: Once you return something to the store, all of the money doesn't just flood back into your account at once. It trickles back over time, and the time depends on how long it takes to produce another one. For organic items that are fully consumed (things like food, for instance), this doesn't hold and the money is consumed with the item.
This has two amazing effects. The first is obvious- it encourages recycling! When you can get a full refund for returning an empty container of something, who in their right mind would throw anything away? Of course, the container has to be clean, but this is easily handled by robots. The second effect is that, as long as your'e frugal you will never run out of money. It limits overconsumption because everyone has a limited amount of money, but over time everything really is free.
If you want to buy something on credit, you can get a loan from your tribe and the amount will just be deducted from your basic income each month.
This relationship extends to housing too, which is discussed further in this article. Like today, you pay a certain amount of money monthly to stay in the home, but this money doesn't disappear. Instead, it's held as equity that you withdraw once you leave to go elsewhere. It doesn't matter if the property is rented or owned. This equity can be built up over generations, making homes a rock-solid investment.
Prices
Every product in the world requires resources to produce. Cars need rubber, steel and aluminum. Food needs water and good soil. Homes need cement, wood and plastic. But there's something else they need too: Energy. Without energy, nothing could be produced- not just products, but the molecules life needs to survive. How do we determine how much each of these things is worth without money or markets?Supply and Demand. Just like in today's economy, when supply is high and demand is low, prices should drop. When demand exceeds supply, prices should rise. These signals are then transmitted through the entire value chain and consumers make purchasing decisions based on them. In a resource-based economy, supply is actually based on the physical quantity of resources available.
A more technical definition of "supply" is the "Amount of any material already realized, produced and available (critical). When we say amount "realized", we mean the amount of the material that already exists and is ready-to-go. Not projections, not estimates, but the real amount of any resource sitting in a storage facility. For simplicity, supply of all resources (gas, liquid or solid) will be measured in kilograms. Barrel of oil already refined and in a storage tank? That's supply. Barrel underground? Not supply. Wood already produced and milled into 2x4's? That's supply. A stand of timber? Not. Also included is supply returning to the system via recycling.
That's only half the story. In order to calculate the price of any good, we also need to know how much energy it took to produce and transport it. This is easily measurable in Joules. Once we know these two quantities, multiply them by each other to get the initial price. Then, multiply the initial price by two to get your final price. Multiplying the price gives it room to "breathe" and shift due to changing demand. For natural products that grow on trees, the energy needed to produce them is ignored because it comes from the sun.
A single basic income credit is defined as 1000 Kilogram-Joules. This is equivalent to a product that weighs 1 kg and took 1000 Joules to produce and transport, or one that weighs 0.1 kg and required 10,000 Joules.
Demand: Or how prices change.
In a perfect world, demand would always be constant and so would prices. As we know, this isn't the case. If we want to have an economy that works, then prices need to change with changing demand. Demand is relatively easy to calculate. All you have to do is determine the total amount of a resource requested from all sources, and compare it with the total amount produced. This calculation will happen every day. If more of a resource is requested than available, prices for the resource will go up and products that use that resource will become more expensive. If less, prices will go down. This function is constantly in play for every resource imaginable- corn, soybeans, iron, coal, oil etc
Economic Freedom
Economic freedom is the name of the game. Citizens will be able to design and customize products that exactly fit their needs. There's no room for a one-size fits all economic policy in sociocapitalism.
Who owns the factors of production and how are goods produced?
Even though production is highly automated, someone still has to maintain the factories and act as a safeguard to ensure nobody vandalizes or misuses them. If you want to ask "who will fix the robots", ask "who will fix the sewers"? The means of production are locally managed and owned as a public utility, under the oversight of The Global Assembly.
Most goods are produced locally, while only raw materials are transported great distances. When it makes sense to do high-volume production (for small, delicate things like semiconductors), then the finished product will be shipped instead. This is rare. The article "microfactories" goes into more detail on how small, modular mobile factories will be shipped around the world to produce a wide variety of products. Each individual city will not have it's own factory, but each metropolitan area or region would have an industrial district.
Access to the means of production is guaranteed to everyone in the constitution, which means everyone "owns" it, in a sense. Anyone can design a product online and offer it for sale using the Collaborative Design System. People can constantly improve on the designs of others and import parts directly into their product. Once someone purchases it, the product will be produced and those who worked on it paid in social capital. Note that the good credits used to buy a product don't go to the producers, they are held as a safety deposit until the product is returned.
In the automated factories of the future, people will be able to work from home to remotely operate machines and drive trucks, (until self-driving vehicles take over.)
This doesn't imply that everything will be automated, just the production of most goods. In the service sector, there will always be room for artisans and makers who create products not because they have to, but because they want to and that's what they enjoy doing. In cases like these, whatever they get paid they get to keep. Expect to see an explosion of handmade arts and crafts, sweaters and homeware once people have the time to make it. Food too- even though there will be automated restaurants, a lot of people will still want to eat food made by real chefs and be willing to pay a premium for it.
Buying, Selling and Starting a Business.
Buying and selling in a resource-based economy largely happens over the web, with people browsing through a catalog and selecting the products they want. The products can then be customized and are automatically delivered to their home. Physical stores will still exist, but they are more expensive since they have to be staffed.
If you want to start a business, you first need to register with your tribe in order to create a business account and complete any forms or permits your city requires. By starting a business account, you are creating a separate entity that allows you to get the cash-back benefits while not having to return money to the customer when they are finished with an item. Next, you have to purchase whatever you need to create your product and hire employees, If you were opening a restaurant, you might need plates, food and refrigerators. When you are done with each of these products (except the food), you can return them for a refund.
The role of Tribes in the Economy
The role of Cities in the Economy
Cities manage local aspects of production and help provide a safe space for new businesses to grow. They also inspect businesses to make sure they're safe.
Bringing it all together
So what's the point of all this? It may look a little complicated, but the goal is simple:
Create an economy where people aren't only free to be themselves, but where they're rewarded for it. In a resource-based economy, money is retooled to work better for everyone and maximize creativity. By breaking down the barrier between supply and demand families won't have to worry about whether or not they can afford anything anymore. They'll just get it. No more choosing between gas or food when you really need both! When human knowledge is freed and money isn't an object, social progress will advance at an exponential rate. Don't be surprised if we actually have flying cars or cures for debilitating diseases in a few years.
It's not about creating a utopia, or a world where everyone can just relax all day and do nothing. If you ask me, that would be a nightmare! Instead, Sociocapitalism is about redesigning society so that everyone has the freedom to do what makes them happy, as long as it doesn't harm anyone else. It's a world where people come first, and need is placed before greed. It's unlike anything else we've ever tried before. Communism and capitalism combined couldn't even come close. In an economy that's fueled by friendship, you don't work long hours trying to make ends meet, you work to build and maintain social relationships that add value to society. In other worlds, your social capital.
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