Back in January 25, 2018 I published this blog on ‘How can everyone take over the world?’ and ‘Where can I ethically invest?’ An idea that emerged through conversation with Prof. Mike Fischer in 2017 and in reply to Laura BC’s questions.
In light of the amazing developments of reddit users vs hedgefunds I thought it worth sharing. Read more here “about an unorganized, yet collective effort of memelords & avg Americans to completely ignore all market fundamentals &, thru the power of social media, bankrupt hedge funds overnight, taking their funds. Legality unclear”.
My original blog:
Challenge / A world in which 7+ billion people need to learn to live better together. A world of increasing inequalities in the face of climate change, population growth, loss of biodiversity. A world in which the global market-state order produces vast quantities of people, ideas, artistic and scientific technologies as well as lethal side effects. A world that is asking for an emergent order that leverages all these productions. Leverages them towards reacting at the right scale at the right time, to deal with the impossible task of grasping the complexity of the world.*
Aim / Develop an equitable governance process for publicly traded capital that is strategically parasitic rather than reliant or overtly antagonistic to the global order.
Abstract / We live in a world where capital speaks. To decrease inequality is to increase peoples’ capital voice. This does not simply mean investing in or owning capital in capital enterprises i.e. national government bonds or publicly traded corporate shares. This is only one side of the coin; the market. This also does not simply mean having a vote or voice in how this capital is managed. This is the other side of the coin; governance. It means embedding both equitably in the population of the world. It means genuinely incorporating as many members of the public as investors, as well as their capital, in the governance and decision making surrounding the use of their capital in enterprise. This does not preclude their capital, or the enterprise they are invested in, from generating dividends.
Objectives / Embed this two sided coin in as many people’s pockets as possible; Leverage these investors expertise and lack of expertise towards the use of their capital; Facilitate decision making to emerge -dynamically over time at shifting multiple scales- where it is salient; Resist all -static- market and governance monopolies.
Agenda / Allow the complexity of humanity and the world they live in to genuinely participate in the challenges they face at the different scales these challenges emerge at, rather than planning and imposing static solutions that will inevitably fail. Capital has been selected as the basis for this governance process as it is the global and local modus operandi of today. Hence there is no set agenda in the deterministic sense of the word. Instead the agenda is get decisions and actions to emerge where they are needed.
Method / Convert corporate capital into democratic capital, where corporate capital refers specifically to publicly traded companies and democratic capital refers to a maximum number of investors.
Work Packages
Crowdfund: 10 million investors and $1 billion investment.This is based on 10million investors each investing $100, however philanthropists can donate on other peoples behalf. This capital will then be converted into an investment through buying the majority stake in a leading publicly traded corporation. Continued investor growth leading to further corporations being invested in.
Blockstore: The invested corporations may still be run as money making enterprises. However all transactions and related influence will be recorded via a blockstore accessible to investors. This allows all investors to be linked into the governance system.
Documents: The goals of the invested corporations are set through members proposals in the form of documents. Input into these involves investor allocating their influence (~shares). Groups across the investor network can form to join proposals.
Influence: How the system regulates itself. Parasitically absorbs investors expertise. Not hackable by infusion of capital. Biased towards lower levels of ownership per investor. Investor starts with influence correlated to investment share e.g. $100 = 100 influence, $200 = 110 influence. Capped at ratio of 1 investor : 1.9 influence.
History: Change in influence is achieved through assessment of history of an investor’s involvement in proposal documents, logged in blockstore. Influence increase with successful proposals, edits to or support of successful proposal documents. A successful history increases influence weighting.
Success Measure: A given proposal document’s aim being achieved is the measure of success. However a given proposal document that goes ahead but its aim fails also is a measure of success but on a lower scale. An anti-hacking provision is required here. Success -achievement or failure to meet aim- leads to authors and supporters being paid dividends. Dividends can be paid either in an increase in influence weighting or in investment credit. An aim can be for a corporation to generate profit but is not limited to that.
Consortium: Oversees the paying of dividends, anti-hacking provision and relationship between investors and corporations.
Investor Growth: New investor sign-ups encouraged through new people buying in by investing capital. Additionally corporation dividends and philanthropic donations will be used to buy in investors unable to afford buy in themselves.
Thing Agents: Run simulations to inform investors. Proposals by one investor also activates the Thing of other investors to see their plausible responses leading to cascading activation of Things and feedback. This would enable investors to have access to the possible responses to their choice of proposal as well as a simulation of the investment outcomes, both material and otherwise. Good feedback is key to people regarding the effect of activated proposals, both before and after activation, so investor can reinforce, recant or go in a new direction.(See Thing Theory)
Simulated Prototype: Using an initial fund of $100k and correlated number of investors test the investment to influence ratios and success to influence and dividend ratios. Test technical machinery.
Optional Considerations: To enable investment in publicly traded corporations investor keeps shares but signs contract to allow consortium to act on their behalf in corporate voting in line with investors proposals or support of proposals. This makes corporation takeovers cheaper and less legally difficult.
Legal Considerations: Plenty
Caveat: Care must be taken not to financialize life further.
tbc… [JAN 2021!]
Note
*In doing so to negate the lethal side effects that come from dealing with a complex challenge through the lens of known knowns (kk) and known unknowns (ku). Instead a dynamic anthropological approach is needed to include unknown knowns (uk) and unknown unknowns (uu) in dealing with the crisis we see in the world; where the world = kk+ku+uk+uu.
Avi 