[p2p-research] Debugging our Code of Conduct (was: Junto and a possible "social software stack")

[Patrick Anderson]

Alex Rollin wrote:
> On a list like this, with thousands of members, it seems to me that
> someday we'll get together and sponsor one of these servers.

Yes, yes, I am very interested in this too.  How can we share Physical
Sources?...

And how can we share without accidentally becoming one of the same
beasts we currently fight (facebook, Google, etc.).

We need a detailed description of what to do and what not to do at
each step so we can finally create a business model that is better
than *either* of Capitalism or Corporatism.

This "Code of Conduct" would be a legal document that members of any
group could apply to any material assets they intend to share.


But we will need to simplify our analysis to find what we have been
doing wrong and how to correct it.

So let's start with just 2 people and see what we can discover:

> We can keep the profits without ever spending them!

Hmm... If 2 people are sharing some tangible object (say a computer),
is there such a thing as profit?

The 2 people must pay for the costs to purchase, install, maintain,
etc. the machine.

But I don't think they pay profit - for who would they pay it to?

Also, they do not 'earn' Profit, but are instead paid in 'Product'.
Their ROI is the very output of that production.  In other words, they
are owning and working for Use-Value alone.


Ahhh, but if a 3rd person appears that does not yet have ownership, we
can charge him more than real costs and thereby extract Profit.

Now, he could have avoided paying Profit if he just had the ownership
needed to protect him...

So if he could gain some property of his own - let's say we used some
of that Profit he just paid toward the purchase of another computer
that he and other late-comers would eventually co-own.

Treating profit as the payer's investment creates a negative-feedback
loop that auto-levels resource allocation (growth only occurs during
overbidding, and overbidding only occurs when growth is truly needed),
distributes control to those who are willing to pay for it (in the end
those who are willing to work for it), and safely drives Profit toward
0 while also creating a basis for production withou fear of automation
or unemployment.

Patrick Anderson
Social Sufficiency Coalition
http://SourceFreedom.BlogSpot.com