Living in a money free world
by maclondon on Jun 29, 2009
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slides form my talk at reboot 11 - looking at options other than money for trade and life.
slides form my talk at reboot 11 - looking at options other than money for trade and life.
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Hello
I’m mac morrison, I’m a creative director until last week at team spirit digital, an agency specializing in financial services. I’m not an economist, and i don’t have in depth knowledge of the stock markets or political ideologies.
I am however a citizen and member of my local and other communities. And I’ve seen money and financial services as a broken model and i’m optimistic that we can find other ways to make the world fairer and nicer.
Money has no specific value, but basically its just a promise to pay the bearer. Its an abstract representation of value.
Most money is based on the fiat money system, where money declared by a government to be legal tender.[1] The term derives from the Latin fiat, meaning
"let it be done".
Fiat money achieves value because a government accepts it in payment of taxes and says it can be used within the country as a "tender" (offering) to pay all debts.
so if your planning on bringing down the us by bombing fort knox, like gold-finger, post 1972 its a bit pointless.
Claimed cases include:
monetary system
the value of a nation's money in a fiat system
civil society
the "rule of law"[1]
deities
current situation iceland us uk, stock crash causes shareholders to demand action, jobs lost etc.
but the companies are doing the same business they always were.
theres alot of independent banks in the us and this works well as a bank is basically permission to lend money. Credit is what the banking system is built on. Co-operative and building societies have given way in the 80s and 90s to shareholder pleasing operations.
and ex-disney store door staff.
With no builders' wages, and the wood being free, He aimed to build the house, complete with sun- and wind-powered electricity, for just £25,000.
but that doesn’t scale up.
people often fear a moneyless society - stating its just communism. well extremes of capitalism and Communism offer up pretty much the same results for the mass population.
goldcorp inc were struggling.
took all there geological data back to 1948 and made it public domain
launched a competition with $575K prize money to find new gold location
over 1000 people from 55 countries crunched teh data
not from industry students, mathematicians, military officers
applied physics intelligent systems cgi and organic solution
110 locations were found - 50% were new to the company
80% yielded gold - 8 million ounces
went form a $100million to a $9billion company
money is of our making, we can change things, it prevents more than it allows.
Web 2.0 companies are producing one after another amazing product.. The trouble is its not cheap being at the cutting edge, staff cost money, servers etc. they are dropping costs but still costs.
Theres the constant urge to MONITIZE. twitters second biggest criticism (after the pointless i don’t want to know what X had for breakfast) is where the money coming from.
Assume that a Martian lands in Denver on the wrong side of the
tracks. He ends up in one of the ghettos and finds that the houses
are run down, the kids not taken care of, the elderly in trouble, and
the trees dying. He sees all these things, and discovers that there
are people and organizations absolutely equipped and ready to solve
every one of those problems. So this Martian asks, "What are you
waiting for?" The answer: "We're waiting for money." "What is money?"
the Martian inquires. "It's an agreement in a community to use
something as a medium of exchange." Don't you think he may leave the
planet believing there is no intelligent life here?
These frustrations are the things that can be changed by mass shifts of attitudes and actions.
one project I’ve worked on is called 60 days. It’s been kicking around for a couple of years and is currently in development as an android and iPhone app. The idea is too have a diet on your wallet for 60 days of the year. This financial fast then gives you a nice surplus bit of cash. just by stopping some of the little luxuries for a couple of months.
Starbucks coffee every day? thats £120 saved
Newspaper? another £50
make your own lunch £100
stay in one night you would normally go out £200
quickly you can save alot from your normal disposable income
and then use it to buy a luxury high ticket item - without the need for credit.
Post scarcity economy is one where all the things we need are freely and abundantly available, now this is a bit of an oxymoron as some things will always be scarce and desirable, front row tickets at a concert, a great flat, time spent with friends etc. All the things that cant be owned by everyone. contextual, physical and location based experience.
Now this sort of example from cory features a reputation currency, called whuffie - its a constantly updating digital ‘score’ based on your deeds, think of it as a value representation of you karma. Enabled by microchips in our heads - and a central database - and presumably armies of helpful robots doing menial tasks.
of course private deeds may not be as rewarding as public shows of charitable behaviors.
and theres various subcategorys of reputation.
(information - what price knowledge - well around £15 for a text book)
The Setting of disney land is equally compelling as this disney land was originally devised as a model for the way we live in the future. Its a melting pot of world cultures sanitized and easily consumed.
This is exactly the social environment where people co-exist yet remain private.
like our cities - we treasure our anonymous privacy - reputation currency makes us drop that guard - and in a post
scarcity economy thats fine - we dont have work time and work colleges. so we can help and know neighbours physically or internet communities
Now any merit system should rewards the mundane - serveing in a bar should earn you as well as being a doctor.
the whuffies constant score makes it feel like some experience level in a video game,
there are many reputation / experience based gaming currencies.
If you create a currency - people will trade it
THis is quite interesting as its basically fraud. I’m paying to improve reputation, this is different from getting plastic surgery to improve your physical appearance, as you are changing your experience, with out earning it.
dangerous power in untrained hands. while it seems trivial in this context - its something to be wary of in real reputation currency.
these reputation currencies may seem far fetched, but they existing in a slightly intangible form already. its just not clearly scored.
If you take a picture on your camera phone and only you look at it - theres little value.
put it on the wall and people will see it
put it on the internet 1000s will see it and comment and find ti positive or negative.
These transactions have value based on scarcity and desirability, a story told twice has a negative value the second time, unless its a shared collective retelling, and sending on a link that someone has received three times already has little or negative value.
So theres an element of landgrab. sometimes this backfires.
he core idea "that social networks have value.
Just as a screwdriver (physical capital) or a college education (human capital) can increase productivity (both individual and collective), so do social contacts affect the productivity of individuals and groups".
The question is how do these statistics add up to a calucatable value - this become complex. Because whats a 100,000 twitter followers worth, well it depends on who they are and how they were obtained. and what you want to do with them, stephen frys 600K twitter followers have become an unlikey outlet for smart phone communications. so to apple nokia and tv companys they are very valuable, to the RSC? less so.
but these reputation currency values have to have context, and maybe we have multiple authorities overseeings them.
ebay is primarily based on traditional currency and trade, supply/demand and desirability. But it has an underlying reputation currency with its user ratings.. A high positive rating will give you a better chance of completing an auction at a higher price. People will trust you and are always prepared to pay more for peace of mind. If something seems too good to be true - it probably is.
Google page ranking is another closed reputation system - though theres plenty of traders desperately trying to increase the stock value of their web pages.
two very different but very valuable reputation currency that are real and tangible.
one thing thats always present is the need for some sort of authority, big brother or all seeing bean counter to keep some form of tabs on the system whatever it is
even if its just the central database and robots managing their abundance of things we need
fraud will always be part of human nature, and how can a genuine act be distinguished by false platitudes. The fear is that this will just be a replacement system that jsut as bad as what we currently have only different.
while the idea of a purely moneyless society is attractive - after all it is apparently the root of all evil, realistically its going to be around for some time, what will become more prevalent is private or complimentary currencies.
In fact you probably have some in your pocket right now.
Roskilder festival the returned beer cups have a real value, and late into the night people trade on the laziness of most festival goers and return the rubish for kroner.
Sex sells - flirtomatic is a web and mobile social site, it’s free to access but to use it in anger required flirt points - purchased with cash.
I buy my groceries at sainsburys and buy my kids christmas and birthday presents in argos with the nectar points I’ve earned.
even on xbox you use points, currently only as a cash replacement - but theres scope to allow you to earn them though achievements and other off console activities.
there are three main types of complimentary currency:
TImebanks, LETS and script
it has the advantage of keeping trade in a community - offering discount for use
or charitable donations. devaluing to discourage hoarding. But while its an interesting complimentary currency -its a more a purchased substitute not replacement for money - though schemes exist where you are part paid in scrip.
Local people set up an organisation to trade between themselves, keeping their own record of accounts.
A directory of members' offers and requests—goods, services or items for hire, priced in local LETS units—is compiled and circulated.
Members use the directory to contact one another whenever they wish. They pay for any service or goods by writing a LETS cheque or credit note for an agreed amount of LETS units, or by exchanging printed LETS notes.
If applicable, the credit note is sent to the LETS bookkeeper who adjusts both members' accounts accordingly.
Since its commencement over 20 years ago, LETSystems have been highly innovative in adapting to the needs of their local communities in all kinds of ways. For example in Australia, people have built houses using LETS in place of a bank mortgage, freeing the owner from onerous interest payments.[citation needed]
LETS is a fully fledged "monetary system", unlike direct barter, with LETS members able to earn credits from any member and spend them with anyone else on the scheme.
this allows a social need to be filled, if someone needs a plumber to fix their shower he will get a credit of 2 hours. time banks work well in mixed prosperity communities.
one interesting time bank vatiation is ...
Japan to pay for any care for the elderly that isn't covered by the
national health insurance. They are called "fureai kippu" (caring
relationship tickets). Here's how they work: let's say that on my
street lives an elderly gentleman who is handicapped and cannot go
shopping for himself. I do the shopping for him. I help him with food
preparation. I help him with the ritual bath, which is very important
in Japan. For this help, I get credits. I put those credits in a
savings account, and when I'm sick, I can have other people provide
such services for me. Or I can electronically send my credits to my
mother, who lives on the other side of the country, and somebody
takes care of her.
Here is an agreement within a community to use as medium of payment
something other than national currencies, to solve a social problem.
And it makes it possible for hundreds of thousands of people to stay
in their homes much longer than they otherwise could. Otherwise,
you'd have to put most of these people into a home for seniors, which
costs an arm and a leg to society, and they're unhappy there. So
nobody's winning. In contrast, Japan has created a currency for
elderly care.
all Balinese participate in a dual currency system.
The first is the conventional national currency (the Indonesian
Rupiah); the second is a time currency where the unit of account is a
block of time of approximately three hours. This second currency is
created and used within the "banjar." This is a community entity
consisting of between 50 and 500 families.
This is essentially simple, a complimentary currency and occupations. You have lots of micro jobs earning you money. Much as you do in life anyway.
If you are a parent you may be involved in you schools running and activities, you may get involved in after school clubs, teach music to your childrens friends, even car pool the neighbours to scouts. All this little activites are you giving benefit to others. Your reward is karmic, but it could be a complimentary currency, it could be points that go towards your pension.
Of course there probably going to be taxation on this income.
And many people will have a negative balance, we have to be careful that that is not a disabler in society.
Community service is regularly dished out as a ‘bad reputation currency’ I did something wrong, these positive deeds will balance my books.
A moneyless society still needs regulation, policing and authority. Because any alternative will be open to fraud as much as a pile of dollar bills can be stolen.
these currency will vary in scale as well, and need to have local government
be it a village, city district, town, county or country or global currency.
theres a cultural impact in earning and spending these reputation currencies. If you do me a good deed, you may feel embarrassed or uncomfortable with me giving you hard cash, but if i buy you a meal, a bottle or wine or give you a reputation currency - its acceptable. Because it feels good.
and we all like to feel good.