[GJM] Is Money Obsolete?

[E. Crockett]

--- Steve Nieman <stevenieman at mac.com> wrote:

> I agree with Dan,
> 
> The root of all evil is NOT money, IF (and this is
> an important  
> word), we properly set up how we administer and
> distribute money and  
> credit.  We being government, because that's one of
> the geniuses of a  
> central government –– it can do what individuals by
> themselves cannot.
> 
> That's why corporations are important.  By coming
> together,  
> individuals can own and benefit from expensive
> productive capital  
> assets that they could not afford to buy on their
> own.  Again, the  
> important matter is to be sure corporate governance
> is set up  
> democratically AND keeping in mind what Dan points
> out –– provisions  
> to counter the bad people, loafers, free-riders, the
> people who want  
> something for nothing.  In a well run corporation,
> everybody  
> connected to it has an important role, and they must
> execute their  
> duty properly.
> 
> At Downwind Corp, the entity that I set up with a
> few other people ––  
> we are trying some things that have been discussed
> in various Global  
> Justice Movement arenas, on this discussion board as
> well as on the  
> numerous COG boards at Kent State.  Such as,
> offering our  
> stakeholders transactional cost interest to become
> owners of our  
> assets over time.  Aiming for break even even though
> we are a for- 
> profit S corp; in other words, offering access to
> our assets by labor  
> and what we produce by our customers at cost.  Why
> the need to  
> generate a *profit*?  As long as we can pay our
> expenses, we're a  
> going concern.  Growth?  We borrow money for that
> (we're trying to  
> set up innovative ways to do that too).
> 
> Not having to generate an additional 5-10% on our
> *capital* is huge.   
> Our company has a profit sharing program that pays
> to our  
> *workcustmers* (which is what we have dubbed our
> stakeholders, a  
> combining of worker and customer roles, which
> recognizes their  
> interdependency), but why not produce and consume at
> cost?   
> Generating all that additional profit money and
> paying it back, we  
> figure, is a wasted step.  Plus people can use that
> money NOW to live  
> their lives.
> 
> The tools are all here.  We don't have to reinvent
> the wheel.  Many  
> of our ancestors were righteous, and tried to set up
> things as best  
> they knew how.  It's just that we've gotten off
> track here in the  
> last 50 years or so.
> 
> Evil people don't necessarily work harder.  My wife
> says they just  
> take short cuts that people who try to do things
> justly don't.  So  
> it's easier for them to have more of an affect.  The
> good people have  
> to hang in there and not back down when confronted
> by evil.  Evil  
> people, I've learned, are more scared that most
> people realize.
> 
> Regards,
> Steve Nieman,
> Interim CEO, Downwind Corp
> 
> p.s.  You could *invest* in the Downwind Corp –– but
> you can't.  Only  
> people actively working our assets and consuming our
> production are  
> allowed to be its stockholders.  And we don't sell
> our shares –– we  
> give them to them.  Afterall, it's their wealth
> creating that makes  
> our little company go...
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> On Mar 12, 2007, at 11:20 AM, Dan Parker wrote:
> 
> > Thanks for the great poem Richard. For money,
> > experiments in Russia on a large scale and Israeli
> (kibbutzim)
> > on a small scale, show that it is too early to
> eliminate
> > the accounting of money from a sociological
> perspective.
> >
> > Kibbutzim members would leave their air
> conditioners
> > going all day, waste tons of food etc. because
> they were
> > not held personally responsible (until reforms
> fixed this).
> >
> > Remember, all it takes is one to ruin things, even
> if the
> > great majority are inwardly driven to do the right
> thing.
> > That one person leads to the old 80/20 split,
> where 20%
> > of the people end up doing 80% of the work.
> >
> > This could well be a reminder that accounting (and
> the
> > symbol of money) will always be necessary from
> > an environmental perspective (basic 'tragedy of
> the
> > commons' stuff).
> >
> > Regards
> > Dan
> 
> 
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