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

Time Based Currency

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

Altruistic Economics

Zero Sum Money System

None Zero Value System

Measuring Value

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

Gift Economy

Give-Away Project

Recycle.org

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

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.

Consumerism is basically the equation of money (or the things money can buy you) with happiness and fulfillment. 

Consumerism is purposely driven by entities who want you to buy things.  Advertisement campaigns (by definition) do their best to influence people with the intent of creating and/or strengthening desire to buy more 'stuff'.  

In practice, humans are frequently capable of surviving (and even thriving) without succumbing to consumer traps.  This involves thinking for oneself, analyzing the actual value of an object (or service) as relative to one's own wants, needs, and personal beliefs.  

This is not always as easy as it sounds, because everybody seems to want a piece of you (or, more precisely, your money).  As members of modern society, we are constantly bombarded by communicatons designed to sway our desires in a particular direction. 

Consumerism is actualized when someone buys something for any reason other than actually wanting or needing it.   This creates waste of resources, and adds power to those who would manipulate your mind for their own gain.