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

[Eugen Leitl]

On Mon, Feb 22, 2010 at 11:31:29AM -0700, Patrick Anderson wrote:

> Unfortunately, so-called "nonprofit" corporations still charge Price

Not a nonprofit corporation, a nonprofit community. e.V. in my
jurisdiction, I don't know what your equivalent would be.

> above Cost, but then 'hide' that revenue in various ways, including
> padded wages or bonuses.

Doesn't have to be that way.
 
> They also grow the organization, but retain all the ownership of that
> growth for themselves, leaving the users who paid without any property
> whatsoever.

Again, not necessarily so.
 
> 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

Local governments (county scale) are typically less corrupt than higher
up.

> funding is collected through mandatory taxation) that make them unable
> to allow full user freedom, nor truly at-cost services.

The only reason there's no full user freedom it's because other laws
prevent them.
 
> Yes, but who should be the *owner* of that growth?

Your nonprofit. You can outsource the operation to a lowest bidder
for-profit. But the infrastructure ownership should remain in nonprofit's hand.
 
> 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?

In case of a nonprofit, the end users who paid for it are the owners.
 
> 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.

-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
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