[p2p-research] A basic income guarantee versus peer production

[Michel Bauwens]

Hi Paul,

regarding your question,

peer production is a mode of production and it can exist co-exist with
different types of political economy ...

peer production is for the moment 'hyper-productive' in terms of generating
'use value', but does not work for 'social reproduction', at least not
directly. Capitalism itself is becoming ever more flexible and fraught with
risk for personal and social survival.

So the basic income makes sense both as a broader social solution for risk
in general, and as a specific way to allow more people to engage in peer
production ... until that time as society has discovered a more proper way
to integrate peer production is a more adapted political economy that can
profit from this hyperproductivity.

However, I have doubts about its political realization. Yes, there are
reports and discussions, but at the same time very strong opposition and I
see little progress ...

Michel

On Tue, Jun 30, 2009 at 12:42 AM, Paul D. Fernhout <
pdfernhout at kurtz-fernhout.com> wrote:

>
>
> Could people here directly explain why peer production is better (or worse)
> than a somewhat regulated capitalism with a basic income guarantee?
>
> I can think of various points on both sides, but I'd like to see what
> people here say.
>
> Personally, I'm starting to wonder that if I had to pick one or the other
> in its pure form, maybe I'd be better of with a basic income, because not
> everyone can produce stuff or has access to the needed resources. So peer
> production may not really solve an essential issue of distributing the
> abundance technology makes possible. Peer production may still be good and
> desirable for many other reasons, of course. But, by itself, it seems to me
> it does not solve this issue of people being left out of the system. Does
> peer production just substitute for some social hierarchy that guarantees
> certain rights (a right to access food) instead a hope for general wealth
> that will lead to local charity, the same as libertarianism?
>
>
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