If you’re willing and able to devote years of your life to reducing the "cost of flourishing" for people in your community, you should be able to get enough funding to pursue this mission full-time.
Powerful piece, Gary. I think that many people with entrepreneurial qualities only see one path that's valued by society -- starting a startup. This is an alternative path, with potential for much higher impact. These kinds of builders should be funded!
Great piece highlighting the importance and challenges of solving some of the critical issues facing society. Really thought provoking, learned a lot, well done!
The system you describe is basically a grant system which operates lots of places. You get paid and have to provide impact reports to show progress or lose your funding.
Herein lies the problem with libertarianism - the market does not seek to fund these things for the reasons you’ve outlined above. I guess in countries other than the USA society does fund these people - it’s called taxes and we pay govt workers to fix these problems. Not always the most effective altho if you look to places like Netherlands and Denmark the society solutions they have in place are pretty good.
You are so right. Society so readily funds entrepreneurs seeking to "make" money but nobody "invests" in ventures that don't have money-making as the foundational premise. I've been researching economics my whole life, and have an alternative for a global model that is both stable and sustainable for both people and the planet but I'm at the starting line and unable to start for a couple of reasons. One, for lack of funding, and two, it's a big project, socially and politically risky.
Love this stack Gary! Solving these fundamental societal problems like housing requires passionate dedicated and visionary leaders like yourself to catalyze the movement and solve them!
Entrepreneurial efforts and innovation are at their core about creating excess/new value. Where that value accrues is a separate question. We have lots of systems in place to fund *organizations* that primarily focus on capturing that value as economic profit. Even for social entrepreneurship, consumer/societal surplus is a side-effect. We can credibly invert that with web3 tooling, culture, and long-term optimism. Being agnostic to the form and path the change agent takes only increases our design space!
Thank you! Absolutely agree. I've been searching for this sort of funding myself. Currently attempting to use SubStack for that, but open to any platform that makes it possible.
For me, being a "Society Upgrade Entrepreneur" means building out a network of OpenSource Regenerative Communities. Feel free to check out my blog here on Substack for more details.
If you're looking for help with the software for such a platform, I've got over a decade in the software industry that I can throw into the mix.
Definitely a good article, esp: apprenticing with the problem.. I suppose one must make the choice How deep they wish to address "the problem" whatever that is... and really questioning as well; is even in the desire to solve "the problem" still working within the very system that caused it, as opposed to attempt to get "outside the box" of underlying fundamentals: e.g. greed from landlords charging expensive rent - because the market will "bear" it - despite 1/2 the units standing empty (this was the case for one building in Oakland, for example...) - as well as supporting the continued growth, awareness and consciousness of those that engage in co-collaborative listening into what the emergent potential (of a given issue, problem or space is...)
no answers here... but definitely a lot of questions...
I have been working on a community-startup circle & exploring ideas for new-gen society. We’ve recently got a community-coworking space in Montreal to further explore & experiment with society upgrades.
Powerful piece, Gary. I think that many people with entrepreneurial qualities only see one path that's valued by society -- starting a startup. This is an alternative path, with potential for much higher impact. These kinds of builders should be funded!
Well put!!
Great piece Gary! I can’t wait to see what Society Upgrade Entrepreneurs contribute to society
Great piece highlighting the importance and challenges of solving some of the critical issues facing society. Really thought provoking, learned a lot, well done!
The system you describe is basically a grant system which operates lots of places. You get paid and have to provide impact reports to show progress or lose your funding.
Herein lies the problem with libertarianism - the market does not seek to fund these things for the reasons you’ve outlined above. I guess in countries other than the USA society does fund these people - it’s called taxes and we pay govt workers to fix these problems. Not always the most effective altho if you look to places like Netherlands and Denmark the society solutions they have in place are pretty good.
You are so right. Society so readily funds entrepreneurs seeking to "make" money but nobody "invests" in ventures that don't have money-making as the foundational premise. I've been researching economics my whole life, and have an alternative for a global model that is both stable and sustainable for both people and the planet but I'm at the starting line and unable to start for a couple of reasons. One, for lack of funding, and two, it's a big project, socially and politically risky.
Here are the links: the original outline from 6 years ago: www.common-planet.org and the new working document for Creditism: https://coda.io/d/_dHzggmkZ3S5/Creditism-an-economic-evolution_suxXc
Love it! 🔥
Love this stack Gary! Solving these fundamental societal problems like housing requires passionate dedicated and visionary leaders like yourself to catalyze the movement and solve them!
Entrepreneurial efforts and innovation are at their core about creating excess/new value. Where that value accrues is a separate question. We have lots of systems in place to fund *organizations* that primarily focus on capturing that value as economic profit. Even for social entrepreneurship, consumer/societal surplus is a side-effect. We can credibly invert that with web3 tooling, culture, and long-term optimism. Being agnostic to the form and path the change agent takes only increases our design space!
Really well thought out - empowering the right builders will be essential for our future!
Thank you! Absolutely agree. I've been searching for this sort of funding myself. Currently attempting to use SubStack for that, but open to any platform that makes it possible.
For me, being a "Society Upgrade Entrepreneur" means building out a network of OpenSource Regenerative Communities. Feel free to check out my blog here on Substack for more details.
If you're looking for help with the software for such a platform, I've got over a decade in the software industry that I can throw into the mix.
Such a well structured piece, really has me thinking.. thank you for sharing!
Nice! Love it! More of this! 🙌🏽💗👏🏽✨
Gary,
A very impressive piece that is timely and informative. Your sense of purpose and innovative leadership is more of what is needed. Thank you!
Greetings Gary Mathias (from Twitter) here...
Definitely a good article, esp: apprenticing with the problem.. I suppose one must make the choice How deep they wish to address "the problem" whatever that is... and really questioning as well; is even in the desire to solve "the problem" still working within the very system that caused it, as opposed to attempt to get "outside the box" of underlying fundamentals: e.g. greed from landlords charging expensive rent - because the market will "bear" it - despite 1/2 the units standing empty (this was the case for one building in Oakland, for example...) - as well as supporting the continued growth, awareness and consciousness of those that engage in co-collaborative listening into what the emergent potential (of a given issue, problem or space is...)
no answers here... but definitely a lot of questions...
Hey Gary, deeply resonate with this sharing.
I have been working on a community-startup circle & exploring ideas for new-gen society. We’ve recently got a community-coworking space in Montreal to further explore & experiment with society upgrades.
would be great to connect with people like you 🙏