alternatives
Alternative Economics
I Agree: Add to my beliefs I'm Curious: Add to my interests I Disagree: Criticize posted by cidviscous Mon, 2007-10-01 21:51 Tags:Economics...
Score Keeping for Real Life
One of the things about money (and its related need/desire in people) is that it can get people to do stuff. But no matter how much money is involved, you can't buy love/loyalty/genuine interest. You can jack up the price enought that people start to care, but they're not really caring about what's being done--just the possibility of money (and power/freedom/choice it represents).
When you get right down to it, money is just an arbitrary system for keeping score. There are other ways of keeping score in the game of life, however--pride and personal satisfaction, the warm feelings provided by generosity, usefulness and popularity, etc.
Other types of Motivation
Now that we've identified that money is not the only motivator in life, we can begin to look at some of the alternatives that are popping up. Alternative Economic systems and Alternative Currencies are beginning to develop as viable supplements and possible alternatives to traditional neo-classical economics.
The class differences these days tend to be much more about money than race or gender or sexual or religious preference. Money is what has been enforcing the strata of our society lately. The rich keep getting richer, the poor keep getting poorer and the so called middle class keeps getting poorer as well.
Democracy and the Free Market are two terms that have been so badly abused as to cause many to lose faith in the system, and many more to believe blindly that everything is all right, so distracted by the shiny trifles and trinkets of our society. They are watching the right hand while the corpolitical left hand picks their collective pocket.
Luckily, not everyone has given up hope, and not everyone has their head so far up their ass so as to not know what's going on. Good ideas are beginning to circulate. It's time to spread the word, foster open dialogue, and try to get some of the best ideas out there as reality.
Time-Based Economics
Some people are forming groups and systems which keep track of time spent working as a unit of trade. If you spend three hours sewing, you might redeem an hour of baking and two hours of baby-sitting, or whatever. People's time is all considered equal.
To prevent someone from running up a big negative-hours debt and then splitting, there are sometimes caps placed on loans, and often these groups tend to be smaller, community controlled systems based on trust.
Altruistic Economics
The people over at Altruists dot org are putting forth some really interesting ideas on way to get things done. If you've ever studied much about game theory, you'll probably understand the concept of a zero-sum game versus a non-zero sum game. They have an insightful article about the incorrect assumptions of the current economic systems, which points out that unlike a player in game theory, people in the real world don't always do what the theory predicts, and in any case, zero-sum systems always leave a loser.
Their idea is a multidemensional monetary system in which value is measured by all the parties involved, thus creating the possibility for win-win situations. It could provide incentive for these win-wins as well, because when value in a given transaction is maximized, everyone involve achieves maximum gain instead of just one party.
Gift Based Economy
The idea of a Gift Economy is one in which goods and services are given away rather than traded for money or other goods and services. Aspects of gift economies can be seen at work in Free Software projects, freely available independent media, philanthropy and charity, and many other facets of our society.
As a central economic system, it would remain open to the possibility of abuse (acceptance of gifts without reciprocation) and would probably rely on having a large enough percentage of society participating complicitly. In other words, it only works so long as everybody (or at least a sufficient majority) is doing their part.
As such, some feel that Gift Based economics serve a much useful purpose as supplement to strengthen, balance and/or complement other types of motivational/economic systems.
Binary Economics
Binary Economics is another alternative to traditional systems. Over time, Binary Economics claims to spread out capital ownership to general citizenship. So, if everything works like it's supposed to, eventually everyone ends up with a job that's right for them and a piece of the capital pie as well, so they make money in two ways.
Binary Economics would end usury through an Interest Free central bank, thus cutting off fractional reserve banking, and the never-ending cycle of debt associated with this practice. The government would regain control of the country's monetary supply (yoinking it from the hands of the Federal Reserve System).
When properly working, a Binary system should ensure a baseline for every citizen and still leave incentive to excel, work harder, and potential to go further.
Tech Fallback
Tech fallback means asking, "What happens when the tech fails?"
Okay, so, it's the twenty-first century and all that. Tech's proceding faster now than it ever has at any time in human history. We just keep taking all these neat things we've learned and wonderful toys and tools we've made and combining and recombining them into newer and more wonderful things. Good times, huh?
Well, along with all of these amazing developments comes a new danger. Namely that of addiction to our technology.
Think about it – most people don't.
So you've got a GPS and think you don't need to learn how to navigate by stars or read a map? Well, what happens when your battery dies (or the satellite network dies) or the signal is being blocked by a hostile force? Don't need to keep in shape ('cause you don't ever have to lift something heavy, and you can always drive to get where you're going)? Well, what happens when you get pinned and have to lift something heavy? What happens when your car breaks down or you can't get more gas?
Don't get me wrong, here, either. I'm not some kind of crazy luddite survivalist who wants to burn books and smash the tubes (you know, the ones that the Internet is made of?). In fact I'm just the opposite--I've got a real crush on science and technology.
The point is, as we become more and more reliant on our newer and newer tech, we run the risk of atrophying our older (lower tech) skills. Coming to depend on tech leads straight into the trap of What Happens When the Tech Stops?
Preparedness
I was never a boy scout, but I've always agreed with their notion of being prepared. Kind of like not having all your eggs in one basket, you can set up your mind (and life) so that you'll have options, or multiple levels of redundancy.
That way, if the tech loses its functionality, you're not caught with your pants down.
These options I'm describing can be built up in a number of different ways.
Technology Fasting
We are surrounded by our creations more or less non-stop from birth (and before, depending on how you look at it). A lot of this stuff gets taken for granted, and like I said earlier becomes an addiction for us.
By consciously (even if only periodically) limiting the direct influences of technology in our lives, we are able to limit our reliance on such things.
Try this some time: cut out some tech that you use regularly. Take the battery out of your cell phone for a day or two, unplug the TV, park the car, leave the computer-machine off, cut your circuit-breaker.....whatever.
All of these things have become so ubiquitously pervasive that many of us wouldn't be able to function (much less know what to do with theirselves) without the steady emanations from our trusty devices. This is a powerful exercise for two reasons. Firstly, it quickly makes it apparent just how much influence these contraptions exert over your life. Secondly, without them, life still does go on. By fasting from these devices, we are able to practice living without them for awhile, and can find new ways of making life happen.
Tech Fallback
Limiting and controlling the direct effects of tech in our personal lives can be rewarding and educational, but cutting out the tech completely is not the only way to bolster your defenses against the potential hazards of too much technological reliance.
Make backups.
Substitute one kind of tech for another. This has the benefit of broadening your skillset/toolset for dealing with life, as well as diversifying the conditions you can acclimate to (e.g. your GPS may've quit, but your map probably still works–maps are tech, too, and by having both available (and knowing how to use both), you have just doubled your potential tools).
Just about anything can be done in more than one way, and as we (humans) discover new and better ways to do things, the older methods and tools sometimes get dropped by the wayside and forgotten about. This is bad, because it limits your opportunities.
Backups and alternative methods for doing things provide you with different options, and levels of redundancy. All have to fail before you are totally screwed.