[ox-en] Re: [open] The Two Biggest Dogmas
- From: LeranS <LeranS>
- Date: Sun, 8 Feb 2009 22:35:10 -0500
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dear marc,
i see this issue from a different perspective, so my question is:
if you get to do what you want to do (as in, your career, etc..), does
it even matter what option (from the options you give) society adopts ?
economy is not a "zero sum" game. you have to factor in "human
motivation" as a value enhancer.
in other words, doing what you want to do, not what you have to do.
how do you consider the issue of choice in value generation ?
is there a difference between someone doing what the "boss says to
do.." and being the boss? (when it comes to productivity/value
generation)
leran
On Feb 8, 2009, at 10:15 PM, marc fawzi wrote:
Dear All,
In reply to various feedback points on why "free" is not sustainable
and why self-sufficiency does not lead to true autonomy, I've
constructed a separate updated section within the P2P Energy Economy
model to address them in more coherent manner.
This entire exercise is helping me tremendously to understand how to
cope with the existing economy by exposing the various games
embedded within it and allowing me to survive it while working
toward an evolving set of ideas that would ultimately modify it.
I hope you find it useful, too.
Here is the section concerning the two biggest dogmas in current
social theories:
The Two Biggest Dogmas
The two biggest dogmas present in current social theories are:
1. Generalized exchange of goods and services (aka "unconditional
barter" or "gift economy") where those who are naturally inclined to
give more than they take end up supporting those who are naturally
inclined to take more than they give, is a good way to run an economy.
2. Self-sufficiency leads to autonomy.
These two dogmas are countered in the following two sections that
address fair compensation and increased autonomy.
To summarize the sections below, for the first dogma, the following
counter argument is given:
Getting and giving things for free unconditionally (as in a gift
economy) is unsustainable because of the following reasons:
1. If a given good or service can be obtained for free then some
people may want an infinite supply of it. For example, if Internet
bandwidth was abundant and free someone had an insatiable appetite
for digital content then they may want to have an infinite amount of
it, without compensating those who produce the bandwidth for the
cost of producing and delivering that bandwidth, which is an
unsustainable situation.
2. If there are more people who are inclined to take more than they
give then they will have an unfair allocation of the available
resources than people who are inclined to give more than they take,
which causes the latter population to suffer and ultimately shrink
leading to a dominant majority of people who are inclined to take
more than give, which is an unsustainable situation.
And for the second dogma, the following argument is given:
When it comes to the idea that self-sufficiency leads to autonomy,
we can point to the fact that no amount of self-sufficiency can
compete with the autonomy achieved through increased inter-dependence.
For instance, in the case of North Korea, a fully self-sufficient
country that can make nukes from scratch, the fact is that despite
having many educated and capable scientists and engineers, a hard
working population, and many natural resources (including
agricultural resources) they don't have the autonomy (or power) to
achieve the standards of living (including nutrition) that would be
theirs if they were an part of a greater inter-dependent whole.
So if bloggers and youtubers did not produce their own content and
did not re-distribute or remixe content from other bloggers and
youtubers, the Internet (or Web) as a medium would not have had the
autonomy that it has today and the same goes for the bloggers and
youtubers, as they would be dependent on the few producers that
existed before the Web was born, e.g. TV stations, newspapers, etc.
Having said that, inter-dependence can easily turn into dependence
when most producers become consumers, redistributors and remixers of
a few original producers.
This can happen due to two reasons:
1. The majority of producers consume far more than they produce.
2. Certain producers have access to a scarce resource (e.g. insider
news in case of bloggers like TechCrunch and access to huge amounts
of video content in case of youtubers like CBS and other major TV
channels) or a higher place in some established hierarchy (e.g.
Washington Post vs. Joe Blogger) use this unfair advantage to buy
out the most successful of the small producers (Joe Blogger and Joe
Youtuber) in order to reinforce others' dependency on themselves.
The answer to both problems is to assure maximum inter-dependence in
the design of the system.
The way the "maximum inter-dependence" condition is assured in the
P2P Energy Economy is by having producers trade in goods and
services based on the cost in work energy it takes to produce and
deliver the given good or service, so that in order for someone to
consume, redistribute or remix another producer's goods or services
they need to pay for those goods or services in joule tokens at the
same amount in work energy it took to produce and deliver those
goods or services, which means that they have to produce their own
goods and services (or produce surplus energy) that they can trade
with other producers at the cost in work energy it takes to produce
and deliver the given good or service, e.g. by using joule tokens.
Another way the "maximum inter-dependence" condition is assured in
the P2P Energy Economy is by eliminating monopolies.
When it comes to monopolies, they are eliminated in the P2P Energy
Economy by the following conditions:
1. All industries must meet the following conditions for sustainable
abundance:
a. Efficient, On-demand Production (which permits predictive
inventory management so producers don't have to over produce, which
causes waste and inefficiency and is therefore unsustainable, or
under produce which causes shortages and high prices, which is also
unsustainable)
b. Decentralized, Inter-dependent Production (which assures there's
no dependence on a few suppliers)
c. Renewable Production (which assures there's no dependence on
scarce resources)
d. Scalable Production (which assures that volume is not limited by
the production process)
e. Open Source Production (which assures that the good or service
can be produced by anyone, while enforcing social and moral rights
of the originator, not their right to a monopoly.)
f. Non-Scarce Qualities (which assures the absence of any scarce
qualities that would justify paying more than the cost of work
energy it takes to produce and deliver the given good or service)
g. Non-Scarce Dependencies (which assures that there are no
dependencies in the cost-of-work-energy calculation on any goods or
services that do not meet the above conditions.)
h. Fair Compensation (which assures that all producers are paid at
the median cost in work energy that goes into making and delivering
their good or service and based on their efficiency and creativity,
not based on their place in the hierarchy or their access to a
scarce resource.)
i. Open Education (which assures that all peers have access to
education at the cost in work energy it takes to produce and deliver
that education.)
2. Consumers are automatically and anonymously matched to producers
based on the required attributes for the given good or service, the
producer's lender credits (see: Lender and Borrower Credits) and the
affinity between the consumer's and the producer's social,
ecological and environmental values.
3. Producers are required to share their revenue through lending in
order to rank higher as sellers, which assures that in order for a
given producer to empower themselves they have to empower everyone.
Full model available at: http://p2pfoundation.net/P2P_Energy_Economy
Sorry if I can't answer all feedback. I've just started working on a
mobile software project that takes advantage of these ideas and so
my bandwidth is sort of limited.
Marc
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