[p2p-research] Stabilization Growth through Negative Feedback (was: User Freedom and the Purpose of Profit)

[Patrick Anderson]

Richard Stallman wrote:
> Does your idea depend on unending economic growth?

No, treating profit as payer investment will redistribute ownership
more than it will increase overall production.

Since ownership in Physical Sources is currently very far from being
in the hands of the Object Users, property will need to change hands a
great deal at first as farms and factories are slowly bought by groups
using the contract.

....

As a collective whole, we have had for decades enough agricultural
technology, if applied, could supply all humans many times over.

But those who currently own the sources of our food, medicine, soap,
cloth, etc. cannot allow that those sources to be utilized to their
full potential, for that would cause prices to drop.

And they can't let prices drop because their investors expect profit
as their return.

These organizations grow so large they are able to purchase
legislation such as the US Farm Bill that once again pays farmers to
NOT grow in areas that must be provably arable.

This occurs because Capitalists treat Profit in such a way that it
becomes a "positive feedback loop" - promoting actions that increase
Profit even further, and subjugating the user to keep those measures
in place.

Our species is trivially able to support itself if only we could
organize in such a way as to allow Price to reach Cost in a 'safe'
manner so we are not forever trying to 'protect' trade by propping up
Prices and Wages through artificial scarcity enforced by tarrifs and
Unions etc.

The usual opposite to that is to claim trade must be made 'free' using
instruments such as NAFTA, CAFTA, etc.

But that doesn't work either, because the goal of those corporations
is wrong from the beginning.  They dont' care about product; they care
only about profit.

....

Within Capitalism, the owners of Physical Sources are usually under
obligation to investors who expect them to treat Profit as the return
for taking risk.

But what about the Product itself?  We can pay investors with Product
of that production if those investors are also *users* that will be
satisfied with "at cost" goods and services under their full control.

So how can we pay investors if we intend to use Profit for another
purpose?  One way is to attract Consumers to pre-pay for a return of
*Product* instead.

Everyone will have "high-level" control of their milk, eggs, bread,
medicine, networking, transportation, etc.  We will have those things
"at cost".  How much does it *really* cost to send a photo from a
cell-phone?

....


The payer of profit gains ownership the Physical Sources needed for
the production of each type of object he consumes.  And as his
property ownership approaches 'sufficient', his need to purchase
objects approaches zero.

For example: when the payer of profit has enough ownership in Peach
trees needed to supply himself with all the peaches he will use during
that season, then he no longer buys Peaches from someone else, but is
instead already owner of his % of Peaches that fell from his tree.  He
must pre-pay for the costs of dealing with that fruit, but does not
pay profit, for who would he pay it to?

And since he no longer pays profit for that specific objective, he
will no longer be 'growing' in that regard.

His investments have fallen to zero because his payment of profit fell
to zero; and his payment of profit fell to zero because he gained
sufficient property in those Physical Sources.

The payer slowly gains property in Physical Sources as the profit he
paid is invested for him.

While Profit is treated as Payer investment, Payers gain Property in
Physical Sources until they have enough of that type that no longer
need to grow in that regard.

Growth will approach zero as Profit approaches zero,
Profit will approach zero as Property approaches 'sufficient' for each
type of objective.
Property will approach 'sufficient' if Profit is treated as a Payer's
investment.

Growth will auto-level and stabilize in a natural manner when the goal
is the outputs of production instead of the difference between Price
and Cost.

This occurs because we will treat Profit in such a way that it becomes
a "negative feedback loop" - promoting actions that decrease Profit
toward and even reaching zero, freeing the users by giving they full
and final control that Worker Owned organizations would never do.