Saturday, November 17, 2012

Chapter 2.4 – Win-win financing

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«


“How can you finance large amounts when money is perishable?”

“Through loans. Both parties benefit from these. The lender gets their money back in full at the time agreed. If they hadn’t granted a loan, their money would have become less because of its transience. The borrower gets an interest-free loan. Here we have a classic win-win situation.”

“I didn’t quite understand that.“

“Imagine a young family would like to build a house and they need a loan for this, let’s say 100,000 gradidos. Other people have a lot of money on their accounts, which would have vanished after a few years. They give the young family loans to the total amount of 100,000 gradidos and the family uses the money to build their house. They pay back the loan in a few years and the lenders have their 100,000 gradidos back in full.”

“That sounds quite simple and logical. Do such things as investments exist?“

“Yes, on one hand, you can lend your money by giving loans and, on the other, you can participate in projects, rather like your shares. However, the need for loans and investments has decreased. After all, everyone is provided for all the time. So they don’t need to accumulate money any more to guard against hard times. The fear of not being provided for has disappeared. We all live much more in the here and now. And we are provided for in the here and now. We often give away a large part of our superfluous money.”

“Really?“

“Yes, when someone is planning a project and still needs more money they write to their friends. The ones who like the project support the person and pass on the request to their friends. So it can happen that the person gets a lot of support from people they didn’t even know beforehand. We call this here-and-now financing.”

“And it works?“

“It depends on the people and the project. Ego-trips can’t be financed like that. You also have donations. You on earth mostly donate to a good cause, for example to help people in need. With us there is nobody in need anymore but there are a lot of good causes. The third syllable of gradido, the “do” stands for »donation«.

“And you really are so generous?“

“Some people more, others less – everyone according to their wish. After all, we have money in abundance. If we try to keep it, it melts away between our fingers. And we get more and more new friends by helping each other. If we need something some day, we will also be helped.”

“That reminds me of the donation buttons we often find on the websites of providers of free software or other free content on the internet. It is a great thing: everyone is allowed to download the software or information free of charge, copy it and pass it on to friends. If you like the thing, you send a donation to the author. Good things can be quickly spread over the whole world without any marketing costs and the authors get money to continue their valuable work.”

“Yes, open source, Creative Commons and similar initiatives are already bridges to the new era. In this way projects which would otherwise hardly be possible can be realised. With our free donations it is similar: we give money to others to help them realise their wishes and projects. We have money in abundance and it’s easy for us to make donations. In addition, there is the feeling of having helped others. Are you happy too, when you can help others?”

“Yes, when I do it completely of my own free will, no matter if someone expects it of me or not. Then I feel good.”

“That’s how it is with the system of free gifts. It’s completely voluntary and it’s fun. Besides that, we see the whole thing more like a game.”

“A game?“

“Yes, money doesn’t have nearly as much importance as it does with you. Since everyone has plenty, you can’t use money to force someone to do something anymore. Money is only a means of motivation, not an instrument of power. Everything has got more playful. Work is play, commerce is play. Anyone who doesn’t want to play the game has a bit less money but still more than enough to live on.”

“Is there still competition?“

“In a sporting sense, yes. Certainly some enterprises are more successful than others. But there are no real losers anymore.”

No comments:

Post a Comment