[p2p-research] What should a Community do with Profit? (was: personal server technology)

[Patrick Anderson]

Eugen Leitl wrote:
>
> I'm aware of nonprofit-deployed ISPs, which includes the last mile.

Unfortunately, so-called "nonprofit" corporations still charge Price
above Cost, but then 'hide' that revenue in various ways, including
padded wages or bonuses.

They also grow the organization, but retain all the ownership of that
growth for themselves, leaving the users who paid without any property
whatsoever.


> If you deploy
> GBit Ethernet mesh which is municipally owned and connect this by
> intercity fiber there's no centralized backbone. It's a bit like a
> federal railway only much less expensive.

I agree it *should* be less expensive, since the municipality will not
be paying Profit to external owners, but on the other hand, local
governments suffer from other problems (especially associated with how
funding is collected through mandatory taxation) that make them unable
to allow full user freedom, nor truly at-cost services.


>> Patrick Anderson wrote:
>> > What should a Community do with Profit?
>
> Why, invest it into infrastructure operation, maintenance and upgrade.
> Earthworks for one are remarkably expensive, especially a lot of them in
> cluttered environment.

Yes, but who should be the *owner* of that growth?

Most assume it should be the current owners or original organizers -
as that is how Capitalism and even non-profits work - but what would
happen if that growth (those investments) were instead the property of
the people who actually *paid* for them?

That would create a very different dynamic where control was
continuously 'distributed' and automatically balanced since the profit
a user must pay decreases naturally as that user gains property in the
"Physical Sources" of that good or service.