[P2P-F] A Brief History of the Corporation: 1600 to 2100

Tue Jul 5 20:00:21 CEST 2011

Dear Tom,

thanks for your comments, for an integrated policy approach, I now recommend
http://p2pfoundation.net/Six_Framework_Conditions_for_Global_Systemic_Change

feel free to write up a paragraph or two, on the Pooled-Usler-Determined
Account model, to put in our wiki as reference,

Michel

On Tue, Jul 5, 2011 at 9:45 PM, Tom Crowl <culturalengineer at gmail.com>wrote:

> Hello Michel,
>
> Sorry its taken me so long to reply. Much going on.
>
> Re the article<http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2011/06/08/a-brief-history-of-the-corporation-1600-to-2100/>
> :
>
> Can't say I'm sure he yet has a thesis... but rather is in search of one
> based on the perspective he presents. Whether or not I can agree with what
> he comes up will have to remain for the time being unknown.
>
> BUT... for* me* what is important is the discussion regarding the
> problematic evolution of what is called the attention economy<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention_economy>...
> that the domination of human attention by narrow interests is a* threat* (
> *my characterization*) facing global society largely because of the
> concentration of influence capability (media and the evermore capable
> lizard-brain approach used by its corporate backers in advertising whether
> for commercial or political purposes).
>
> In that sense, he seems to realize (or merely hope) that technologies and
> social evolution will more broadly distribute influence capability and
> combine with a more* granular** economic capacity (which he seems to
> characterize as an evolution of the corporation into a more individualized
> construction not dependent on the monopolization of resources, time or
> attention in the way it has in the past) will drive an evolution in the
> nature of the corporation. Whether or not some legalistic alteration in  the
> nature of the corporation is part of the path to that is a very fair
> question.
>
> From the piece:
>
> *"...the Schumpeterian corporation, the oil rig of human attention, will
> start to decline at an accelerating rate. Lifestyle businesses and other
> oddball contraptions — the solar panels and wind farms of attention
> economics — will start to take over."*
>
> He calls this Coasean growth:
>
> *
>
> "Coasean growth is not measured in terms of national GDP growth. That’s a
> Smithian/Mercantilist measure of growth.
>
> It is also not measured in terms of 8% returns on the global stock market.
> That is a Schumpeterian growth measure. For that model of growth to continue
> would be a case of civilizational cancer (“growth for the sake of growth is
> the ideology of the cancer cell” as Edward Abbey put it).
>
> Coasean growth is fundamentally not measured in aggregate terms at all. It
> is measured in individual terms. An individual’s income and productivity may
> both actually decline, with net growth in a Coasean sense."
> *
> He then closes with an honest admission that he doesn't quite know what the
> metrics for 'Coasean' growth might be and is open to ideas...
>
> * By "granular" I mean an individual or localized capability for economic
> production with less dependence on external interests with extractive
> agendas. (E.g. the pathology of Monsanto and banking interests in destroying
> the independence of the farmer in India.)
>
> Don't know where the author is on the question of credit and currency
> creation but no solutions will be ultimately found without addressing this
> problem.
>
> I share with you (I believe) a fundamental disagreement with our current
> monetary system and believe competing currencies and credit-creation
> mechanisms are necessary.
>
> My hypothesis is that the path to viable alternatives, as regrettable
> and/or counter-intuitive as it may be... lies in establishing first a robust
> peer-to-peer capacity for transaction* and especially networking *in
> currencies they are familiar with. (And NO... they don't have that now in
> any practical sense that's useful to the average individual.)
>
> The potential for the catalyzation of what will I believe be eventually
> realized to be a fundamentally necessary network offered by the method I
> propose (the Pooled-Usler-Determined Account model) distinguished by its
> microtransaction capability (vital in scaling social intercourse) offers
> such a path. Its an opportunity which has arisen only very recently in human
> history. And if it is allowed to pass may not return.
>
> Regards,
> *
> *
> *Tom Crowl*
> (818) 363-0775
> http://CulturalEngineer.blogspot.com
>
>
>
> On Mon, Jun 13, 2011 at 1:10 AM, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> I don't really get that article, so any summary of the main thesis would
>> be most appreciated,
>>
>> Michel
>>
>>
>>

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