Once again we must ask

Who should own the Means of Production?

It is easy to imagine
the Farmer owns the Farm,
the Miller owns the Mill,
and the Baker the Bakery.

But what happens when the Robots🤖 come?!
Who should own when the Work is all done?

… Hmm

Imagine instead, the Farmer, Miller and Baker
each own part⁰ of the Farm, Mill, and Bakery,
so each owns part of that Bread🍞, already,
as it moves through that supply-chain.

This means they *do not buy* the Bread🍞,
because it is *already theirs*,
each in their own amount.

And if they also trade Work early,
it seems they could then embrace
automation without fear.

So, maybe the Means of Production
should be owned by the “Hlaf Ceta”¹,
the “Bread Eater”, the “End User”,
as Saint IGNUcius² doth preach.

⁰ ‘part’ means “whatever amount they, personally use”, and is rarely ‘equal’, but that doesn’t matter. Land is allocated based on the goods and services you use.

¹ The Story of English in 100 Words
https://books.google.com/books?id=MiB6qzEv4a8C&pg=PA4-IA1&lpg=PA4-IA1&dq=%22Hlaf+Ceta%22+%22Hlaf+Weard%22&source=bl&ots=qgfLRJADFH&sig=ACfU3U3GA6e6RztJtSPR7uaXIiCvABV5fA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwil6aqCzeWDAxUpUGcHHTadDgsQ6AF6BAgLEAM#v=onepage&q=%22Hlaf%20Ceta%22%20%22Hlaf%20Weard%22&f=false

² https://stallman.org/saint.html

— What? No, no; Price is set in a fairMarket.

What is the Market? What is fair?

— This is where we Trade the Value of Work for the Value of Good.

But what about Land? It takes both Land and Work to make Good.

— Yes, and you must Pay Rent unless you Own Land.

Hmm, could we Work-to-Own the Land we need?

Hmm, ok, but then how will you Buy that Land?

— We can make even more than we need to payback the VC.

But how will you Organize to make so many things?

— Can we create Tickets to represent future Good?

— Can we create Agreements to represent future Work?

— The trade many Tickets for 1 Work_Agreement signature to solve the coincidence of wants for predictable things.

Hmm… Maybe.

Overview

Imagine a group who wants 🍞
owns a farm, mill and bakery.

We can own the INPUTS
to own the OUTPUTS.

If the consumers of a product own the Sources of that production, they can accept the product itself as the return on that investment and so avoid buying/selling the product.

This leaves these special shareholders happy they were able to *avoid* paying profit they would have otherwise paid if they had bought that product from the market.

We can own farms and factories and mines and forges, wells and refineries because we simply need the results. Instead of owning to collect profit, we own to avoid paying profit and to regain the reins.

We already pay all the costs (and even more when we pay profit),
so it is easy to see we can afford to be the owners.

Action Plan

Determine products crucial to healthy living and all the Sources (land, water-rights, seed, startups supplies, etc.) required for that production including minimum scale and optimum scale estimates.

Sell these Future Products before they are made to collect the money to buy those Sources without debt.

‘Pay’ workers by granting immediate access to Sources which vest as their property as the Work Agreements are fulfilled.

Housing and facilities may be rudimentary at first, even just tents until the first structures are built.

Value Proposition

When users control production, abundance is goal.
Products are the original ROI.
Surplus can be sold for profit.
Some profit can reward early investors.
Some profit must become Sources for that payer.

Social Benefits

Economy is aligned with ecology toward real solutions.

Workers gain the property required to control the products they need.

Work Agreements vanquish debt and promote permanence.

Food, housing, clothing, medical care, education
are Free as in Freedom for those who will work.

This calms the market for predictable products,
localizes production and stabilizes community
and so reduces some types of stress and crime.

Governance

Buy Future Products to achieve group goals without tax or vote.

Anyone can start or join a campaign.

Want a pothole fixed? Pay with money or sign a Work Agreement to achieve that production, or, more likely, some production within the network for which you qualify and have a ‘value-connection’.

Phase 0:
📏📐 💥 🗄 Create a secure ledger (such as blockchain) to record information.

🚿🥗🛏 ⇉ 🗄 Record some Goods and Services which can be produced locally.

🏞🛠👷 ⇉ 🗄 Record all the Land, Tools and Work required for that production.

🗄 : 🚿🥗🛏 Offer those future Goods and Services for sale.

Phase 1:
🗳[💰] ↔ 🚿🥗🛏 Users vote-with-money to buy future Goods and Services.

🗳[📃✍👷] ↔ 🚿🥗🛏 & 🏞🛠 Users vote-with-future-work to buy future Goods and Services and also receive access to the Land and Tools required for that production.

🗄 : 💰 ↔ 🏞🛠 The system uses the money to buy Land and Tools.

📃✅: 🏞🛠 ⇉ 👷 Land and Tools ownership vests as work is completed.

🏞 + 🛠 + 👷 ⇉ 🚿🥗🛏 ⇉ 👷 When you own Land, Tools and Work, you own those future Goods and Services without purchase.

📃✍👷 ↔ 📃✍👷 When you buy future Goods and Services with future Work, you implicitly trade future Work with others, and so create a true insurance network.

Phase 2: 🧭🧮 Geoff Lawton of GeoffLawtonOnline.com
Survey land for watershed and other Permaculture considerations.

Phase 3: 🏘🏡 Jae Sabol of OneCommunityGlobal.org
Drawup templates for layout of shared properties.
Vet construction plans for shelters and structures with local building codes using natural building techniques..
Use Permaculture to achieve localized self sufficiency.

Phase 4: 🏭🛠🤖 Marcin Jakubowski of OpenSourceEcology.org
Build tools which make tools to achieve modern comfort with far less ecologic and economic costs.

Within the For Product model, you own and control the INPUTS of production so that you own and control the OUTPUTS of production.

You invest to become a co-owner and then accept the Product itself as the natural return on that investment. This allows you to avoid paying the profit you would have otherwise paid to buy that product from someone else.

Instead of selling and buying the product, each portion is directly claimed by each property owner.

When the consumers are owners there is no sale.
Just as when you own a tree, you own the fruit,
when you co-own a forest, you co-own the fruit.
You own the outputs because you own the inputs.

This sounds great for consumers, but what about the poor workers?
Well, every worker is also a consumer who needs goods and services.
So workers gain property as they complete work and remain debt free.

As a For Product property owner, you accept the product itself as the natural return on investment.

You own the same portion of the product as you own of land and tools required for that production.

You do not buy the product from collective others as a cooperative would have you do, but instead that final transaction is eliminated by using property ownership over the Means of Production to “pre-distribute” the results of production to the consumers who predicted they would need them.

Like crowdfunding, it brings sales to the beginning of the production chain.
But the members of the crowd becomes the real owners of those productive assets and accept those goods and services as the natural ROI.

Workers who promise future labor receive immediate access to debt-free property which vests incrementally as they fulfill those promises.

Any co-owner may decide any amount of the product they own is more than they want, and so declare it as surplus product to be sold to other consumers with insufficient ownership.

The price of surplus is set by the market, but some amount of profit gained in this way must be treated as an investment from and for that paying consumer.

This causes late-coming consumers who pay profit to slowly gain property ownership in the land and tools needed to create future instances of that kind of product, and so eventually also avoid paying profit.

Paying workers with the property they need as consumers means they do not pay debt or rent for housing and do not pay profit for the goods and services they need.

Owning property For Product creates an imperfect assurance of future production. This replaces the fragile, for profit, token-based insurance industry.

When you accept product as ROI, you do not buy; it is yours already. This eliminates the final sale in a natural way — similar to how you do not buy nuts from yourself when you own the tree, even if someone else does the work.

This also changes the focus of the company from exchange-value to use-value.

Those who own For Product gain no benefit when market scarcity increases the potential profit on that product, because they intend to use the product directly, not sell it to someone else. This also realigns ecology with economy and makes robots our friends.

Terms of Operation

. Investors are consumers paying early for things they will need in the future.
. Investors become real co-owners and accept the product itself as the natural return.
. Workers are also investors who become vested owners as they complete work promises.
. Consumers who buy surplus product become owners when they pay more than costs.

Property is the Investor’s right

Whether you invest money or work, or if you pay more than cost when buying surplus you receive property co-ownership under these terms. Your shared control (vote power) over those assets is weighted by the amount you own.

Product is every Owner’s Return

Given: If you own a plant, you own the fruit and do not buy.
Given: If you own a plant with others, each owns their part.
Claim: We can use property ownership to preallocate product.

Investors become real owners in the property used for production and receive the product as a natural side-effect of that ownership.

Similar to crowdfunding, investors are consumers who prepay for future product, but here investors are real property owners that own the product automatically and so do not buy.

Promise is a Worker’s Investment

Workers are treated as special kind of investor that receive property on a “work-to-own” basis when they commit to work in the future for other investors. This property vests incrementally as the work is completed, giving workers immediate access and eventually debt-free ownership in all the property needed to produce all their food, housing, clothing, sanitation, health care, etc. as long as they fulfill those promises.

Some investors will choose live on-site from the beginning in temporary structures to begin building the first shared housing structure. Agriculture should be integrated in the community in a careful way to achieve the same beauty as ornamental species while also creating the food security we must have.

Skills and capability must be proven, in some cases on a daily basis (to operate dangerous machinery, for example).

On-site investors also need immediate shelter (even if just tents), cooking tools to turn raw ingredients into nearly free food, a rigorous sanitation plan, first aid supplies and references to enable low-cost, on-site basic healthcare.

Trading promises early in time allows us to specialize without passing tokens by solving the “simultaneous coincidence of wants” problem that faces typical barter. This arrangement also reverses the usual drive to perpetuate work and promotes permanent solutions.

Worker guilds might help ‘buffer’ owners from the whims of individual workers.

Each group may arbitrarily exclude any individual worker or guild.

Profit is the Payer’s Investment

Surplus may be sold at any price, but some part of that profit must become property for the consumer who paid it.

The GNU GPL requires users gain access to the immaterial Sources of every object they use.

The For Product model requires consumers gain access to the material Sources of every product they use.

This is done by ‘reflecting’ part of profit back to the consumer who paid it as their investment. So when you buy some surplus product, you automatically receive property ownership in the land and tools required to create even more of that good or service in the future.

Under these terms, consumers who pay profit gain small amounts of ownership in the land, water, plants, animals, tools, etc. required to create future copies of that product.

This causes the physical sources of production to be incrementally and continuously redistributed to those who pay for that growth. As consumers gain property ownership in farms and factories, they regain control of production and pay only the real costs of that production.

Subgroups may split the property

Under constraint of realistic divisibility, subgroups must be allowed to split from the majority while retaining property rights — allowing cells to divide and wield their own localized governance.

Free as in Freedom Physical Production

The GNU GPL uses Copyright to require users gain access to the immaterial Means of Production (source code) for that product.

Similarly, the For Product business model uses Property rights to require users gain access to the material Means of Production (land and tools) for that product.

This creates a puddle of user freedom in the physical realm where we can Share Property, Trade Promises, and Reflect Profit to deliver Products at cost while users regain the reins.