GivingMarket/AfterThoughts

Mapping the Territory

We are trying to bring Love and Money together. This is not a direct or simple transaction. Personal passion (love) must be brought forward as story, as so many offerings in the mountains of daily news, our collective consciousness and culture. The aggregation and digesting of these stories must inform the construction of social infrastructure and movement in community-based marketplaces. Only then, supported by these community structures and riding on these social movements, can individuals take action.

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                                        individual dimensions (leadership)

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             LOVE, PASSION, PURPOSE     |    MONEY, POWER, RESPONSIBILITY, ACTION           
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 --- inner, discernable, subjective dimensions ------------------ outer, measurable, objective dimensions ---
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 STORY, CULTURE, DREAM, INVITATION     |     STRUCTURE, LEARNING, MOVEMENT, MARKETPLACE    
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                                    collective dimensions (communities and orgs)             

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If we want to Fund a World that really is Better, we must actively invite Love into the news of the day in a structure that supports individuals taking right and good action. Only individuals can take this action. And only individuals can know what of all the possibiities are truly love and good. In other words, we as so many individual co-conveners have the Love and we have the Money. What we need is the News and Exchange organizations that will allow us to connect them to everyone, everywhere, all at once. That's where Google and eBay come in.

What does this really mean? ...reflections added Sunday morn by MichaelHerman

Consider that commerce on eBay currently is limited to physical stuff, in the same way that the money supply was once tethered to the stock of gold in vaults. Philanthropy is similarly limited to what is given from stocks of old stuff in basements and wealth accumulated in various kinds of stocks and vaults over lifetimes. What GivingMarket represents is a shift to a monetizing system that transcends our stock of available physical stuff and begins to monetize invitations, ideas, projects and dreams -- of anyone and everyone. It opens a space for a fiat-based system where the requests and the decrees that create real value come not only from central banks and rulers, but from everyone who is willing to give their time, talent and treasure to the making of a better world.

There have been a number of experiments in recent years with developing complimentary currencies... this idea represents the ultimate in that. In the system proposed, anyone with a history of doing good could monetize their own stories and experience and visions. Imagine "Michael Herman Dollars" and "Julie Evans Rupees" ...all fully convertible into the dollars, yen, yuan rupees, euros currently issued by the world's Central Bankers, based on the strength of the attention economy at any one moment and the market-determined value of tthe contributions that could be brought to market for consideration and contribution.

In the last century, our Central Banks left the gold standard and money became disconnected from the limits of Life on Earth. Governments inflated and often crashed their currencies. Many economists and others continue to champion a return to the gold standard. While there can be no going back, the GivingMarket represents a giant step forward. By opening a space for individuals to bring forth these stories and realize their value, GivingMarket offers the flexibility of fiat money and the grounding of the gold standard. Anyone can create their own currency, based on the strength of their own ability to support Better World Projects, and the entire system is bounded and grounded by the natural limits that exist on people's ability to give time, talent and treasure to their causes. A new standard where the people who would do good ARE the new gold and can print the money they need to do more good.

In this way, GivingMarket transcends even the strongest national currencies. If the richest countries in the world were to become the poorest, active citizens there could continue to bring their stories, dreams, passions and plans for a Better World and ask for support from whatever places and in whatever currencies are currently strong enough to help them. The potential here is absolutely staggering. This is the kind of global social economic safety net that no one central bank can ever be. And it is surfacing, not creating, as this net of asking and giving is the only thing that has ever insured our survival as individuals, communities on up to species. And, at the same time, it isn't anything new. It's merely a more inclusive, visible and efficient way of moving attention, energy and funding to where it can do the most good... just like Google and eBay.