[p2p-research] Pay-it-forward Mutuals and Cooperatives

[Edward Miller]

I am especially interested in feedback from Kevin and Patrick, but anyone is
free to respond.

I was wondering what examples of mutuals and cooperatives there are which
are currently serving the mainstream US consumer market. I can think of a
few insurance mutuals and credit unions, community supported agriculture,
and igo carsharing which are all close to the mutualist ideal, but all of
them fall short and only make up a tiny share of the overall market. By the
way, if anyone has other examples of current institutions I would love to
hear them.

Why is this the case? One of the main things I have tried to drive home for
people interested in post-scarcity models is the incredible resilience and
viral nature of the standard mode of production. This can not be emphasized
enough!

The main elements which contribute to this incredible resilience include:
limited liability, shareholder ownership, fractional reserve banking,
monetarism, and keynesianism.

The only way to beat this system is to create something even more viral and
even more resilient. The method I am about to propose is likely
insufficient, but it is thinking along the proper lines.

Contract law can allow for pay-it-forward models that fit well within the
current system and should be philosophically inoffensive to most anyone.

The concept of Copyleft could easily be extended much further. I know many
people talk about gpl hardware, but I am thinking of extending it into
organizational structures.

I don't know how many of you have seen this, but there is a group called
Presumed Abundance that is trying to apply a pay-it-forward model to angel
investing.

http://www.presumedabundance.com/

I think this could work even better for gift economies.

Pay it forward skillsharing
Pay it forward reprapping
Pay it forward freecycling
Pay it forward couch surfing
Pay it forward carsharing
Pay it forward seed saving

There is already a lot of pay-it-forward stuff happening in these
communities, but it isn't formalized let alone institutionalized with
reputation systems or contracts.

Perhaps where it gets more interesting is when money is changing hands and
contracts are being signed. Cooperatives and mutuals could adopt a
pay-it-forward philosophy that is set in stone into the contracts.

If you are a mutual that is producing tools, you could stipulate in the
contract that the tools be placed into a tool library for at least some
minimum amount of time per year.

If you are a mutual that produces cars, you could stipulate that the cars be
lent to the Center for Neighborhood Technology for a certain minimum amount
of time.

If you are a cooperative that builds houses, you could stipulate that the
residents lend out their sofas for some minimum amount of time per year.

Then the second level would be the people who borrow the tools or the cars
or the sofas would then have to do the same for others. (there is no profit
that needs to be reinvested as with the Presumed Abundance example)

Pretty sweet.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listcultures.org/pipermail/p2presearch_listcultures.org/attachments/20100425/07e08907/attachment.html>