Tag Archive for 'community'

Quick Thoughts on Money

Published on April 9, 2009 in Abundance by Taj Moore. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

A friend forwarded this quote to me, which rings true:

“Money is like an iron ring we’ve put through our noses. We’ve forgotten that we designed it, and it’s now leading us around. I think it’s time to figure out where we want to go – in my opinion toward sustainability and community – and then design a money system that gets us there.”

— Bernard Lietaer Interview with Yes! Magazine: Beyond Greed & Scarcity

This squares nicely with something I have been saying about systems in general: “the hand should shape the tool, and not the other way around.”

But let’s take that one step further and say this:

“The hand shapes the tool, the tool shapes the work, the work shapes the soul.”

And the soul … what does that shape? Please leave your comments; ask your friends, too.

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Friend-to-Friend Commerce (F2F)

Published on September 24, 2008 in Abundance by Neal Gorenflo. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

I was talking with Taj of the Denver Abundance League on Saturday about how we can make the league more meaningful on a day-to-day basis. Imagine what it would be like to experience the mutually-supportive environment we create at monthly meetings, but on a daily basis.

This lead me to the concept of Friend-to-Friend commerce. Instead of putting your stuff on Craigslist or eBay and selling to a stranger, why not sell to a friend? I mean think about it, most people never even let their friends know they’re selling something on a C2C site. That’s weird. Why not let your friends know first? Why not give them first dibs. Or even better, just give the item to a friend, someone that you love, trust, and want to help. And what if all your friends did the same thing? And what if listings went beyond stuff and included all kinds of support? F2F commerce might be a way to experience extraordinary generosity every day.

This idea may represent a gigantic cultural lacuna. There’s only one result that comes back from a google search on the exact term “friend-to-friend commerce” or the same without dashes. And that result is in reference to marijuana sales networks in the law enforcement domain. In a way, that shows the power of the corporate controlled marketplace – we do not see our friends as sources of material sustenance. We search vertically to get our needs met, not horizontally. That’s radically undemocratic. Conversely, Friend-to-Friend Commerce is radically democratic.

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