Urgent Evoke

A crash course in changing the world.

My favorite rule is Ethan Zuckerman's rule number 3 - embrace market mechanisms (Giving stuff away rarely works as well as selling it.) I totally agree with that. As a business studend I learnt about markets and that they are the solution for everything. I believe that with a free market the situation in third world countries can improve, but only if there exist a certain kind of regulation to prohibit abuse. And if we come up with clever ideas to enable people - for instance with micro credits, education and adequate products.

Giving away stuff for free is only a solution in emergecy situations. If people learn that they can get everything for free without working for it they get lazy and it doesn't help them in the long term. We should merely enable people to help themselves. If a product is valuable for the people and simple and cheap enough
they can afford it there is no need to give it away. Giving stuff away for free also bears the danger that it doesn't appear or in fact isn't truely valuable and useful to the people. Selling products in third world countries forces
manufacturers to create products as simple and stripped-down of unnecessary extras so they can be sold cheap enough for people to afford it. And with the incoming money there can be found new ways to
improve the life of people. This way NGOs can also become independet of fundings.

I believe in markets and that they can help to improve the world. If we use them in the right way.

Views: 16

Comment by Turil Cronburg on March 24, 2010 at 5:50pm
Just as an opportunity to really understand your own ideas, I'd like to ask you if you think nature doesn't work? Because the natural economy of the vast majority of the planet works as a gift economy, where the trees, rain, sun, and soil give all their products away for free, in a natural cycle of life.

If you're interested in understanding how effective the natural (gift) economy works, you could check out biologist Elizabet Sahtouris's rather provocative (in a humorous way) little performance in the video Body Economics. Because embracing the market mechanisms of reality can really help you be so much more successful when you're doing business in reality! :-)
Comment by Nicholas Nagao on March 24, 2010 at 5:53pm
Irene, I too am in business and often think about the "business model" of giving things for free, however, something to consider which does not seem to be accounted for is the definition of "free". Something can be free monetarily, but cost something in time. For instance, this site is "free", but to really see the full benefit in my opinion, you must pay your time into it. Whether it's to create content or just use it, either way you're spending time. And another important concept that business and others alike agree...time is valuable.
Comment by Turil Cronburg on March 24, 2010 at 6:29pm
Excellent point, Nicholas! In the sense that you have to invest resources when using something (it takes energy to digest food, for example), then nothing is really completely free, not even a free lunch. :-) But in the sense of offering things to the world freely, without demanding direct restitution or compensation, then most things in life are indeed free.
Comment by Irene on March 25, 2010 at 9:38am
Wow you guys, I didn't expect this much of a reaction to my first post. You both are making an interesting point I didn't think about while writing this entry. To Turil I want to say that nature has worked perfectly well until humans stepped in and exploited all those "free" resources. It's not a problem with the sunlight but it is with the oil resources and the trees also. So what people do it take these things for granted and not thinking about the extrenalities they cause, like pollution and climate change... That's why regulations are needed to stop people from expoiting nature which is something that market mechanisms don't do because they only care about direct costs and not about costs that other people have to "pay" at some point. We are now starting to "pay" which in this sense means suffer from the effects of nature expoitation.
About Nicholas point, this is very true I think. We can not only pay with money but also with time. For instance when a charity wants to build a new house or whatever for a community the people should "pay" by helping build. Like this they get involved, can help to take decisions and learn something in the process too.
Comment by Turil Cronburg on March 25, 2010 at 11:27am
Irene, why do you think humans, unlike all the rest of the Earthlings, started to take more than they needed? And what do you imagine would have to happen before they again started taking only what they needed?
Comment by Turil Cronburg on March 25, 2010 at 11:36am
And by this I mean the motivation to take only what they need. As in the internal core instinct, or basic personality trait, rather than having some kind of external obligation or threat trying to force them to do something. Basically, I'm wondering what you think of the psychology of greed, and what causes it, and what causes a more healthy and sustainable personality. Once you investigate the science of the human mind, you'll be able to make more practical choices about how to work with market mechanisms in a truly sustainable and effective way, I imagine.
Comment by Irene on March 25, 2010 at 4:11pm
Turil, you seem to know more about psychology than I do so please tell me your insight on this subject. In my opinion and from what I've learned so far there is a long way to go until the mayority of people stops beeing greedy from intrinsic motivation. We are greedy because we learnt that it works for us most of the time. Sustainability only becomes an issue when we realize that greedyness is backfiring on us. I think this is how the mind works: first of all we try to do what is best for us.. and sometimes it involves things that are good for other people too. I want to be nice to people because I hope that they are nice to me as well. I give to charity because it gives me the good feeling of beeing a generous person. This is why markets are so brilliant and why capitalism doesn't work. Markets have the mechanism to transform something that is good for me (profit) into something that is good for you (valuable and maybe innovative products and services) or the other way around. So to create a more sustainable personality what people would needs to realize is that it can make you feel better to be sustainable, caring person.. Or alternatively we need to realize that if we act greedy in the long run it will harm ourselves. It's about education then...
Comment by Turil Cronburg on March 25, 2010 at 5:24pm
I think you'll learn much more if you are curious and look for your own answers, than if I try to explain it. :-) Explore how other kinds of systems work, notice which ones enable people to be most generous, and decide which ones you'd like to use as a model as you experiment with how to market your creations...

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