During boom years, it takes land owners only three years to recuperate a lifetime of taxes through the rising land values. A brilliant explanation by Fred Harrison. Introduction to the book, ‘Ricardo’s Law ~ House Prices and the Great Tax Clawback Scam’ by Fred Harrison: http://www.fredharrison.com Ricardo’s Law points lawmakers, policy analysts and social reformers… Continue reading
Date archives "February 2016"
Policy & FLOSS for the Commons – upcoming P2Pvalue Event in Barcelona
The P2Pvalue team is hosting the following event in Barcelona, Spain, on March 12-13, 2016 (with a locally-focused event taking place March 11). WHAT: Policy & FLOSS for the Commons “Commons Collaborative Economies: Policies, Technologies and City for the People” A two-day international interdisciplinary workshop which aims to highlight the relevance of the commons-oriented approach… Continue reading
STWR’s verdict on the Paris Agreement
There is no true ambition or justice in a global climate deal that undermines the principles of sharing, equity and justice. But after the ‘COP-out’ negotiations in Paris, there is still every hope that the growing power of the people’s voice can usher in a more equal and sustainable world. Now that all the world… Continue reading
Video: Benjamin Tincq and Francesca Pick on Globally Scaling Shared Values
Benjamin and Francesca share how they collaborate as a large-scale international distributed community. (The conversation was conducted by Alanna Krause in the context of an investigation of how organizations use Loomio.) Watch the video here:
The Political Scientist Who Debunked Mainstream Economics
“Picture a pasture open to all.” For at least a generation, the very idea of the commons has been marginalized and dismissed as a misguided way to manage resources: the so-called tragedy of the commons. In a short but influential essay published in Science in 1968, ecologist Garrett Hardin gave the story a fresh formulation… Continue reading
Transitioning from Extractive Capital Models to Generative Capital Models
“We believe that a new economy cannot be built in vacuum. We see this as a process of metamorphosis. The ethical and aware classical players will join first to transfer their classical store value and production assets into new assets. This is in essence a transfer of resources from the old economy into the new…. Continue reading
A new era of global protest begins
In line with the steady rise in social unrest over the past decade, it’s likely that we will witness an unprecedented escalation in large-scale citizen protests across the globe in 2016 and beyond. Research by Dr. David Bailey provides empirical evidence for what many activists and campaigners have long suspected: that we have entered a prolonged period… Continue reading
Decentralized Autonomous Organization as Social Automatization: do we need techno-cratic governance ?
The whole blockchain development is a very good example of ‘value-sensitive design’, i.e. how the material interests and visions / intentions of various human groups enter into design decisions. The underlying cyber-libertarianism is a composite of different sensibilities, all of which are competing for the design direction of our new technological systems. The original Bitcoin/Blockchain… Continue reading
Video: Why are people turking for Amazon ?
Very nice short film, watch it to the end, for the testimonies of indivual ‘Turkers’: Watch the video here: Watch this video on The Scene.
If networked communication and cybernetic technologies are so potentially liberating, why are they so authoritarian in the forms they currently take?
In an article at Alternet a while back Richard Eskow (“Rise of the techno-Libertarians,” April 12, 2015) made some excellent criticisms of the capitalist model of “techno-libertarianism” centered on Silicon Valley. Most of his points relate in some way to the profit-driven business model of the tech industry, which treats products primarily as a source… Continue reading
Food as a Way to Help Refugees and Build Social Solidarity
Can food be used as a way to bring strangers together, if only for a meal or two, and create the beginnings of a new type of community? Penny Travlou, a cultural geographer and ethnographer at the University of Edinburgh, decided to find out. In an interview posted on “Social Innovation Europe,” an EU website,… Continue reading
Democratic Money and Capital for the Commons: Exec. Summary and Full Report
DEMOCRATIC MONEY AND CAPITAL FOR THE COMMONS Strategies for Transforming Neoliberal Finance Through Commons-Based Alternatives By David Bollier and Pat Conaty. A Report on a Commons Strategies Group Workshop in cooperation with the Heinrich Böll Foundation. Berlin, Germany / September 8-10, 2015 Download this Executive Summary as a PDF. “Democratic Money and Capital for the… Continue reading
A last stand for the Davos ‘gods’?
After yet another Elysian gathering of corporate executives, politicians and celebrities in the Swiss mountains, the Davos elite appear more disconnected from the socio-economic realities facing humanity than ever before, and increasingly deluded about the role they can play in creating a sustainable future. Although the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) mission statement claims that it… Continue reading
The Commons as a Path for Philanthropy: from symptomatic medicine to systemic change
European philanthropic institutions are seriously considering a turn towards the commons, in particular the members of the European branch of the Edge Funders alliance, a organization of radical funders. Excerpted from Nicolas Krausz, Heike Loeschmann and Vivian Paulissen: “In its quest to promote deep progressive change within society, philanthropy is often blamed for addressing the… Continue reading
“A Call for Decentralized Governance”: On the Lack of Democracy in Bitcoin
Decentralization simply means building mechanisms which allow for a group of peers to efficiently arrive at decisions without having to rely on fixed hierarchies, central coordination and single points of failure. From an excellent article on the “Mike Hearn” controversy in the promising magazine Backfeed, excerpted from Julian Feder: “Since Hearns post mid january, the… Continue reading