I see two approaches to the Capital problem.

1) Find ways to raise people up.
2) Find ways to bring institutions down.

After all, they're working with our investments, our labor and our commerce.

Institutions have been funding the commons through things like Open Source software, and we could leverage the same tools to build competition instead of collaborating.

On Wed, Aug 21, 2024 at 10:07 AM Jansen Smith <Jansen@bstarengineering.com> wrote:
The mention of the phenomenology of increasing productivity being accompanied by stagnant wages going back to the 90s reminds me of Thomas Piketty's findings. Put simply, a wealth of economic data suggests that the issue of increased productivity resulting in centralized wealth extraction from communities to consolidated investment centers runs alongside aggregate rates of return on capital outpacing aggregate growth rates of an economy. This principle ALSO plays out on somewhat local levels (provinces, municipalities), meaning that a vibrant community generating wealth requires two things: 
- open source and commons-managed productive capacity, for unfettered productive growth 
- limitations on investment capital, which can come in the form of limitations on possible returns 

The question then becomes... How do we shove enough capital into the commons to do wondrous things, without subjecting ourselves to the same fiduciary responsibility traps that have destroyed like-minded well-meaning endeavors? 
Open source chains are a great start, but they do not themselves solve the capital problem. Thoughts?

On Wed, Aug 14, 2024, 7:46 PM Gregory Boyce via WLUG <wlug@lists.wlug.org> wrote:


On Wed, Aug 14, 2024, 12:47 PM Kevin Harrington <mad.hephaestus@gmail.com> wrote:
Odoo is very FOSS friendly: https://github.com/odoo/odoo

I have been mulling over the problem posed by automation and software
participating in the labor market alongside people for quite a few
years now. I love hearing about localized solutions to problems. The
closer people are to the control of what they need to survive, the
better.

Definitely agreed. 

COVID really highlighted some problems with global economies. 

Along with the bigger issues we see with abundance, waste and poverty.  We have more than enough, but would rather let resources go to waste than provide them to people who need them. 


One of the ways to localize control are what David Graeber calls Debt
Loops: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZIINXhGDcs

Thanks!  I'm about 30 minutes in so far, and it's interesting.
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--
Greg