[p2p-research] abundance and scarcity in second life: market vs. other incentives

[Patrick Anderson]

On Mon, Feb 16, 2009 at 11:24 AM, marc fawzi <marc.fawzi at gmail.com> wrote:
> In the P2P Energy Economy model the trading happens at the median cost in
> work energy, which is to say that most producers will trade AT cost but more
> efficient ones will trade a little above cost

Marc,

Do you have any restrictions or requirements about what a 'producer'
(does that mean 'owner', or 'worker'?) do with any profit he is able
to aquire?  Will it be treated as his reward, or will the consumer be
considered?


> Can you elaborate on "trading at cost except for decentralized growth" ?

I'm saying that growth only results (not strictly, but generally) when
"price above cost" is collected, for otherwise, if only the costs for
the previous round of production are collected, what would be used for
growth.

In other words, collecting profit can actually be *good* in that,
without it, we cannot grow.

In comparing centralized to decentralized I am referring to the
difference between regular Corporations (whether for-profit or
non-profit) and the new ... uh 'Cooporations' we need.

When traditional Corporations re-invest profit, the entity grows, but
that growth (those investments) are the property of those current
owners.

So, while this treatment of profit does cause growth, it also causes
that new Capital to accumulate into the hands of those originating
owners.

As this cycle continues, the current owners aquire more and more Means
of Production, while the non-owning members (or Consumers) fail to
ever gain any ground of their own, and so finally find themselves in a
position of begging for proper treatment.

A Cooporation would need to treat profit as an investment from the
person who paid it (the non-owning Consumer who paid a price above
cost) so that each member gains as much ground as they overpay for
until they finally own enough property that they can simply do as they
please without asking anybody at all except in cases of border
disputes and for Means of Production that cannot be meaningfully
subdivided - and so require consensus of those other peers (and only
those other peers) involved.


Patrick