New economics? or no economics?

Love Always
mudra

Living without money
Former teacher Heidemarie Schwermer has lived without money in Germany for 13 years.

Twenty-two years ago Heidemarie Schwermer, a middle-aged secondary school teacher just emerging from a difficult marriage, moved with her two children from the village of Lueneburg to the city of Dortmund, in the Ruhr area of Germany, whose homeless population, she immediately noticed, was above average and striking in its intransigent hopelessness.

Her immediate reaction was shock. “This isn’t right, this can’t go on,” she said to herself. After careful reflection she set up what in Germany is called a Tauschring — a sort of swap shop — a place where people can exchange their skills or possessions for other skills and possessions, a money-free zone where a haircut could be rendered in return for car maintenance; a still-functioning but never-used toaster be exchanged for a couple of second-hand cardigans. She called it Gib und Nimm, Give and Take.

It was always Schwermer’s belief that the homeless didn’t need money to re-enter society: instead they should be able to empower themselves by making themselves useful, despite debts, destitution or joblessness. “I’ve always believed that even if you have nothing, you are worth a lot. Everyone has a place in this world.”

http://www.dailygood.org/more.php?n=3934

Love Always
mudra

Thank you Mudra. Some great stories here and some great people within the stories.

NWK.

Ubuntu

Ubuntu is an African concept of 'humanity towards others'. It is 'the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity'. The same ideas are central to the way the Ubuntu community collaborates. Members of the Ubuntu community need to work together effectively, and this code of conduct lays down the "ground rules" for our cooperation.

We chose the name Ubuntu for our distribution because we think it captures perfectly the spirit of the sharing and cooperation that is at the heart of the open source movement. In the Free Software world, we collaborate freely on a volunteer basis to build software for everyone's benefit. We improve on the work of others, which we have been given freely, and then share our improvements on the same basis.

What is Ubuntu?

Ubuntu is a community developed operating system that is perfect for laptops, desktops and servers. Whether you use it at home, at school or at work Ubuntu contains all the applications you'll ever need, from word processing and email applications, to web server software and programming tools.

Ubuntu is and always will be free of charge. You do not pay any licensing fees. You can download, use and share Ubuntu with your friends, family, school or business for absolutely nothing.

read more here :

http://www.ubuntu.com/products/whatisubuntu

Love Always
mudra

You are most welcome NewworldKarma

Love for You
mudra

Prices listed are only suggestions. Pay as much or as little as you like, or pay nothing and offer to wipe tables instead. It's just another example of how it can actually work to take the rigid idea of predetermined exchange rates out of the equation, and not only do ok, but to thrive.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2010-05-18-panerabread18_ST_N.htm

Awakening

Awaken to the world around us, the problems we face, why they exist, and how to truly solve them once and for all.










Love Always
mudra

Love Always
mudra

Love it, Mudra. Thanks for your harmonious additions.

Love,
mp3

You are most welcome MP3
Let's hold the dream .

Love from me
mudra

Love Always
mudra

Mary Croft : spiritual economics

Part 1/6



Love Always
mudra

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUYQCHm_ofc&feature=related


Love Always
mudra

Community Exchange System

Caught in the money trap? Break free by joining the Community Exchange System

With the impending implosion of the usury-based, global money system, now is the time to seek a new way of 'doing' money, one not based on debt and controlled by a global monetary elite that seems happy about destroying our planet in the pursuit of profit.
Conventional money is created as debt by private financial institutions for their own profit-making purposes, not as a public service. This is the root cause of the economic, social and environmental problems that beset us. The amount of debt determines the quantity of money, which has nothing to do with the amount of money we need to live decent lives.
CES money is 'created' by its users so it can never be in short supply. So long as you can offer something of value you can have from the community goods and services of like value.

More infos on how it works here : http://www.community-exchange.org/index.asp#exchanges

http://www.community-exchange.org/index.asp#exchanges

Love from me
mudra

To Build Community, an Economy of Gifts
For a multitude of reasons, we need to need each other.
Dec 27, 2011

Wherever I go and ask people what is missing from their lives, the most common answer (if they are not impoverished or seriously ill) is "community." What happened to community, and why don't we have it any more? There are many reasons—the layout of suburbia, the disappearance of public space, the automobile and the television, the high mobility of people and jobs—and, if you trace the "whys" a few levels down, they all implicate the money system.

More directly posed: community is nearly impossible in a highly monetized society like our own. That is because community is woven from gifts, which is ultimately why poor people often have stronger communities than rich people. If you are financially independent, then you really don't depend on your neighbors—or indeed on any specific person—for anything. You can just pay someone to do it, or pay someone else to do it.

In former times, people depended for all of life's necessities and pleasures on people they knew personally. If you alienated the local blacksmith, brewer, or doctor, there was no replacement. Your quality of life would be much lower. If you alienated your neighbors then you might not have help if you sprained your ankle during harvest season, or if your barn burnt down. Community was not an add-on to life, it was a way of life. Today, with only slight exaggeration, we could say we don't need anyone. I don't need the farmer who grew my food—I can pay someone else to do it. I don't need the mechanic who fixed my car. I don't need the trucker who brought my shoes to the store. I don't need any of the people who produced any of the things I use. I need someone to do their jobs, but not the unique individual people. They are replaceable and, by the same token, so am I.

Because people in gift culture pass on their surplus rather than accumulating it, your good fortune is my good fortune: more for you is more for me.
That is one reason for the universally recognized superficiality of most social gatherings. How authentic can it be, when the unconscious knowledge, "I don't need you," lurks under the surface? When we get together to consume—food, drink, or entertainment—do we really draw on the gifts of anyone present? Anyone can consume. Intimacy comes from co-creation, not co-consumption, as anyone in a band can tell you, and it is different from liking or disliking someone. But in a monetized society, our creativity happens in specialized domains, for money.

To forge community then, we must do more than simply get people together. While that is a start, soon we get tired of just talking, and we want to do something, to create something. It is a very tepid community indeed, when the only need being met is the need to air opinions and feel that we are right, that we get it, and isn't it too bad that other people don't ... hey, I know! Let's collect each others' email addresses and start a listserv!

Community is woven from gifts. Unlike today's market system, whose built-in scarcity compels competition in which more for me is less for you, in a gift economy the opposite holds. Because people in gift culture pass on their surplus rather than accumulating it, your good fortune is my good fortune: more for you is more for me. Wealth circulates, gravitating toward the greatest need. In a gift community, people know that their gifts will eventually come back to them, albeit often in a new form. Such a community might be called a "circle of the gift."

Fortunately, the monetization of life has reached its peak in our time, and is beginning a long and permanent receding (of which economic "recession" is an aspect). Both out of desire and necessity, we are poised at a critical moment of opportunity to reclaim gift culture, and therefore to build true community. The reclamation is part of a larger shift of human consciousness, a larger reunion with nature, earth, each other, and lost parts of ourselves. Our alienation from gift culture is an aberration and our independence an illusion. We are not actually independent or "financially secure" – we are just as dependent as before, only on strangers and impersonal institutions, and, as we are likely to soon discover, these institutions are quite fragile.

Given the circular nature of gift flow, I was excited to learn that one of the most promising social inventions that I've come across for building community is called the Gift Circle. Developed by Alpha Lo, co-author of The Open Collaboration Encyclopedia, and his friends in Marin County, California, it exemplifies the dynamics of gift systems and illuminates the broad ramifications that gift economies portend for our economy, psychology, and civilization.

The less we use money, the less time we need to spend earning it, and the more time we have to contribute to the gift economy, and then receive from it. It is a virtuous circle.
The ideal number of participants in a gift circle is 10-20. Everyone sits in a circle, and takes turns saying one or two needs they have. In the last circle I facilitated, some of the needs shared were: "a ride to the airport next week," "someone to help remove a fence," "used lumber to build a garden," "a ladder to clean my gutter," "a bike," and "office furniture for a community center." As each person shares, others in the circle can break in to offer to meet the stated need, or with suggestions of how to meet it.

When everyone has had their turn, we go around the circle again, each person stating something he or she would like to give. Some examples last week were "Graphic design skills," "the use of my power tools," "contacts in local government to get things done," and "a bike," but it could be anything: time, skills, material things; the gift of something outright, or the gift of the use of something (borrowing). Again, as each person shares, anyone can speak up and say, "I'd like that," or "I know someone who could use one of those."

During both these rounds, it is useful to have someone write everything down and send the notes out the next day to everyone via email, or on a web page, blog, etc. Otherwise it is quite easy to forget who needs and offers what. Also, I suggest writing down, on the spot, the name and phone number of someone who wants to give or receive something to/from you. It is essential to follow up, or the gift circle will end up feeding cynicism rather than community.

Finally, the circle can do a third round in which people express gratitude for the things they received since the last meeting. This round is extremely important because in community, the witnessing of others' generosity inspires generosity in those who witness it. It confirms that this group is giving to each other, that gifts are recognized, and that my own gifts will be recognized, appreciated, and reciprocated as well.

read on: http://www.yesmagazine.org/happiness/to-build-community-an-economy-of-gifts

"Snowflakes are one of nature's most fragile things, but just look what they can do when they stick together."

- Vista M. Kelly

Love Always
mudra

Wild Economics - An Interview with Mark Boyle
Mark Wallace | Thursday, 26th September 2013

If we merge permaculture design and relocalisation with the concept of the gift economy, what do we get? Moneyless Man, Mark Boyle, suggests 'Wild Economics'.

Mark Boyle founded the worldwide 'Freeconomy' movement which now has local groups in over 170 countries. He is currently working on developing a permaculture-based gift economy in Ireland. In this interview he discusses the concept of Wild Economics, the subject of an exciting new course he'll be leading with Fergus Drennan and Charles Eisenstein at Schumacher College this November.

What is wild economics and why do we need it?

Wild economics is where the growing movement to localise our lives meets with the emerging desire of people across the world to relate to each other in a much more inspiring and uplifting way. It is a form of economy that replicates and draws its inspiration from Nature, where people can share their gifts with each other in a way that adds fertility to both the Earth and their local communities. It is devoid of the notions of debt and credit which riddle modern human culture and which are entirely absent from the wilderness.

"Wild economics is the convergence of permaculture principles with gift economics," says Mark.

Permaculture is an innovative and practical framework for developing ecologically harmonious, efficient and productive systems that can be used by anyone, anywhere and are tailored to local culture and landscape. The gift economy, the only tried-and-trusted human model of economy that has served us for the majority of our time on Earth, is commonly understood as a way of meeting our needs where materials, labour and skills are shared unconditionally and without any explicit agreement for immediate or future rewards.

Within the high technology world we live in today however, the gift economy is practiced with increasing regularity on a more global scale, mostly through web-based gift economies such as freeconomy (which I set up six years ago, and which now has local groups in over 170 countries), couchsurfing, freecycle and the like. Whilst this has many positive and worthwhile benefits in the transitionary phases we find ourselves, Wild Economics is a more purposeful move towards relocalising our economic habits. This strengthens our ties to local people and place, as opposed to increasing our dependence on an industrial infrastructure that is turning our beautiful world into a landfill of emptiness and meaninglessness.

Wild economics takes a conscious approach to the convergence of crises we face, merging our physical and spiritual needs into a much more holisitic way of life, and a new way of being human. Through the relocalising of our economies for all our needs - food, clothing, medicine, entertainment, booze, our dwellings and so on - mixed with a simplification of our lives, we restore the health and balance of the biosphere; through interacting and relating with each other in a more unconditional way, sharing the gifts we ourselves have been given with others for no other reason that we can benefit the life of another (in contrast to the 'what do I get in return' spirit of modern culture), we make each other feel good about the place in which we dwell, and in doing so start to heal many of the social ills we find ourselves immersed in today.

read on: http://www.permaculture.co.uk/articles/wild-economics-interview-mark-boyle

Love Always
mudra

TEDxO'Porto - Mark Boyle - The Moneyless Man

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PuyYVVVkIM


Love Always
mudra

give
take
give
take
share
take
share
give.....

What Matters Most



All living beings share one thing in common. Each man, woman, child, each bird, bee, and dog – all have just one life. For every living being, life begins and ends. We are all here for a very short time. Most of us live a life preoccupied by work, by earning a living, by being on time, by countless other distractions. This preoccupation keeps us from asking ourselves and each other “what matters?” What truly matters in life? Please, take some time, close your eyes and think about what really matters to you. I’ll do it with you…

It didn’t take long for me to find the answer. What really matters is obvious – it is my relationships with other beings, both human and non-human, that are of the utmost importance to me. They are more important than any job or hobby, more important than my success or my failures. They are even more important than my pride or ego. Yes, it is relationships that matter the most. If you doubt this, try to imagine being the only living being on the planet. You would own everything, yet have nothing.

If you were to stop and take note at the way people are treating others today, you might get a different idea about what matters most to us. We are quick to judge and hate, have very little patience, and have little general regard for the emotional state of others. Animal abuse and torture runs rampant throughout society. Our television shows and movies are filled with people plotting against one another. People climb corporate ladders at the expense of colleagues. These are obviously not behaviors that nurture healthy and loving relationships.

There is a conflict within most of us who live in highly monetized, Western societies. It is the conflict that arises when we are forced to compete with others for the means to survive. Think about that for a moment. In order to survive, we must compete with each other. And we are consistently reminded of the costs of losing that competition when we walk by the homeless and hopeless on our city streets.

We are told that there are “not enough” resources and that in order to ration scarce resources we need a system that efficiently allocates scarcity. The truth is most goods are in fact abundant – just take note of all of the underused machines and living space throughout the developed world. We have created the capability to provide for all, and it takes fewer and fewer man hours each year to do it.

Market economies tend to be fantastic economic system for civilizations in need of growing efficient means of providing material comfort. However, they fail miserably in fostering the cultural values conducive to nurturing healthy, quality relationships. Market economies fail to address and, in fact, may hinder fulfillment of non-material human needs such as the need to belong and the need for intimacy, love and touch. Extensive research has proven that these non-material needs are crucial to our empathic development. Failure to nourish these fundamental human needs to belong, to be recognized, to love, and be loved not only reduces the quality of our relationships but also may lead to an increase in psychopathic behavior, general fear and distrust of others, and even death.

To do well economically, in addition to possessing some positive qualities, one must also be opportunistic, attention-seeking, and self-fulfilled – all traits that harm personal relationships. To do well in personal relationships, one must be selfless, eager to give and receive, and have genuine concern for others – all traits that hinder one’s ability to thrive in a business environment. Hence the adages “Don’t mix business with family” and “Don’t loan money to friends and family.”
This internal conflict exists in all of us. And it can be very difficult to live in a state of constant conflict. Our hearts desire to give, but our economic self-interest tells us it is not wise. Our hearts want to trust, but we can’t bear any more disappointment. Our hearts long to love and be loved, but our threshold for emotional pain has already been breached. Because this internal conflict never goes away, we bury it deep inside and compensate for it by seeking ever new ways to entertain – or rather distract – ourselves from it. Hence, the material world thrives simply because it must in order for us to survive.

By contrast, gift economies align the allocation of resources with personal needs for empathic connection, compassion and love. Gift economies are nothing new – they exist today for each of us. When you provide for a family member or have friends over for dinner, we do not send them a bill at the end of it. We give freely with the unmentioned knowledge that our gifts will be recognized and reciprocated for each gift creates a bond of gratitude. The more you give, the more gratitude is created. The more gratitude that is created, the more wealthy you become. Gift economies remove the internal conflict that derives from competition instead placing more value on cooperation.
Deep inside, we know life can be much more beautiful – with less fear, worry, control and more love, compassion, and empathy. We already know what is most important. It is time that we start living in the spirit of the gift, by understanding the unique gift we each have to give the world. Even if today you lack the means to give material things, you have the power to give your love, your compassion, your attention, and your forgiveness. We need not worry about ourselves.

Lewis Hyde writes:

“The gift moves towards the empty place. As it turns in its circle it turns toward him who has been empty-handed the longest, and if someone appears elsewhere whose need is greater it leaves its old channel and moves towards him. Our generosity may leave us empty, but our emptiness then pulls gently at the whole until the thing in motion returns to replenish us. Social nature abhors a vacuum.”

Living in the gift also means opening up to receive, for there can be no gift without someone’s willingness to accept. Once you have received, you will feel gratitude for not only did you receive a precious gift, you strengthened a bond – a bond with another being experiencing their one and only life with you. Now what greater gift can there be than that.

- See more at: http://sustainableman.org/what-matters-most/#sthash.mBbqW5KD.ZCkm2TzG.dpuf

Love Always
mudra

Govt is forever intertwined with the individual. The Constitution explains how to keep a Republic if you can. This is furthered detailed with the writings of the founding fathers discussing.

This Is What It Looks Like When You Realize How Toxic Your Job Is and You Do Something About It
Adrain Hoppel

Deciding to Offer Web Design in a Gift Economy Changed My Life. Here’s How.

I’ve built websites for people for about 13 years now, the first 11 of which were done in the typical “here is my quote, I need this amount in deposit, and at the end, here is my bill” type of model. It is the same model most people experience in the business world, and it is composed of two totally opposing forces: the seller attempting to take as much money as possible while giving as little of the product as possible, and the buyer attempting to take as much of the product as possible while giving as little money as possible.

People have described this model to me in a  variety of apathetic, shoulder-shrugging ways, like “That’s the way it works.” or “That is the American way.” or “It’s a dog eat dog world, what did you expect?”

I don’t know…what did YOU expect? What did you expect when you were a kid? What did you expect before the “realities of life” taught you otherwise?

I always expected something different. It’s why I struggled so much on the inside in my earlier careers, despite achieving significant professional success. I talk about when I reached the tipping point in this blog post, but the point is, I could not continue to work that way.

This past weekend, I received many requests from people who felt like they could not continue to work that way either, and they wanted to know how to work like I am.

So, How Do You Do It?

In 2011, I read Sacred Economics by Charles Eisenstein, because a dear friend told me I must. At that time, I was already almost a year off the corporate treadmill, but I did not know exactly where I was going. The ideas in the book blew my mind. The concept of a Gift Economy was immediately compelling to me, but I was terrified that it would fail or that people would just take advantage of me.

Despite many reservations, I decided to put up a website describing my willingness to build websites for people in a Gift Economy — basically that if we decided to work together, that I would build you a website as a gift, and after I was done, I would give it to you. Then you would consider what the finished project was worth to you and choose something fair to gift back to me. There would be no contracts, no negotiating, no pressure.

And, in contrast to the traditional model where all the risk is on the buyer, the way I was set up, all the risk would be on me. There was every chance that I could build you a website and you could just say “Thanks!” and never gift me anything at all in return.

So, I did not advertise, or tell many people outside of my Facebook friends about this project. I was worried that people would scam me and have me build a website for them and then never offer anything back as a gift. Also, I thought I would do maybe 1 or 2 websites a year like this. I was actually pretty sure the thing would end in disaster.

I Was Very Wrong.

First of all, the project went from an experiment to a full-time job in just a matter of months,  totally driven by word of mouth, and soon I had a constant stream of clients. I ended up doing 22 websites in 2012, all by myself, all in the gift.

Secondly, every single client has supported me in whole.

Every. Single. One.

Most clients gifted me with payment, and the payment is more than I ever received in the traditional model, which was based on negotiation and the lowest bid wins, instead of the Gift model which is based on mutual respect and fairness.

Working in the gift does not mean that I work for free, or that I give my work away without care. It means that people trust me to build them a website, and I trust them to support my work as they believe fair.

read more:   http://adrianhoppel.com/this-is-what-it-looks-like-when-you-realize-how-toxic-your-job-is-and-you-do-something-about-it/

Love Always
mudra

Steven Hail: "The word "budget" buys in with the metaphor that the government is a household"
(not sure this is the correct transcription of that line, but I presume you will get the picture)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBpm5sVmGYc&feature=youtu.be


In the attachment is a 63 page booklet:
SEVEN DEADLY INNOCENT FRAUDS OF ECONOMIC POLICY
WARREN MOSLER

On page 9 of this booklet:
Seven Deadly Innocent Frauds of Economic Policy

1. The government must raise funds through taxation or borrowing in order to spend.
In other words, government spending is limited by its ability to tax or borrow.

2. With government deficits, we are leaving our debt burden to our children.

3. Government budget deficits take away savings.

4. Social Security is broken.

5. The trade deficit is an unsustainable imbalance that takes away jobs and output.

6. We need savings to provide the funds for investment.

7. It’s a bad thing that higher deficits today mean higher taxes tomorrow.