MONEY
MONEY
MONEY
Loving Distribution
Money – as with all else in human living – has been tainted by selfishness and grabbed for selfish individual or national ends.
Just as money has been in the past the instrument of men's selfishness, now it must be the instrument of their goodwill.
The inevitable trends of evolutionary process are calling forth individuals of financial stature to regard money as a responsibility to be dispensed wisely for the service of others.
Divergent paths are inherently devolutionary.
The custodians of money will then shoulder their responsibility without fear and with due understanding. At present, they hold on to it through fear of the future and distrust of each other.
The problems of barter and exchange, the significance and use of money, the production of right attitudes towards material living, and the entire process of right distribution of the world's resources are among the many problems waiting to be solved by advances in economic understanding and ideas.
As money has in the past ministered to personal and family need, so in the future it must minister to group and world need.
PRIVATE PROPERTY
PUBLIC PROPERTY
COMMON PROPERTY
OR ELSE?
Governing the Commons
‘The tragedy of the commons’ arises when it is difficult and costly to exclude potential users from common-pool resources that yield finite flows of benefits, as a result of which those resources will be exhausted by rational, utility-maximizing individuals rather than conserved for the benefit of all.
Many open-access resources have indeed resulted in tragic levels of overuse and sometimes destruction.
Where there is a large group, no one communicates, and where no rights to the resource exist, Hardin’s theory is supported by considerable evidence.
However, changing only one variable, namely, the capacity to communicate with one another, individuals can come to agreements and keep them to harvest very close to optimal levels.
Users can overcome social dilemmas to craft institutions to govern their own resources.
Users can find ways to organize themselves.
Traditional conceptions of ‘the market’ and ‘the state’ have not recognized these self-organized systems as potentially viable forms of organization and have either called for their removal or ignored their existence.
All forms of ownership could succeed or fail.
More critical than the form of ownership is the establishment of legitimate and agreed-upon boundaries that are effectively enforced.
There are three main types of rules that successful common-pool resource regimes have in common: (a) rules on boundaries; (b) rules specifying duties; (c) rules on sharing benefits.
One of the most important are boundary rules, which determine who has rights and responsibilities and what territory is covered by a particular governance unitDeveloping effective institutions for regulating the use of common-pool resources is increased by the following factors:
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low discount rates (most resource users have secure tenure, and plan on using the resource for a long time into the future);
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homogeneous interests (most resource users share similar technologies, skills, and cultural views of the resource);
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the cost of communication among individuals is low; and
- the cost of reaching binding and enforceable agreements is relatively low.
Nature in the Balance Sheet
Status Quo: GROWING POOR
Opportunity: NATURE CAPITAL AS A SOURCE OF SOCIETAL WEALTH
Solution: A VEHICLE FOR INVESTMENTS IN NATURE
To distinguish Nature Equity from other current methods of attributing monetary value to land, it's important to understand two conventional practices:
- The first method values land based on its surface area – essentially, the
real estate value measured in square meters or hectares.
- The second method assesses value based on the natural capital that can be converted into tradable products like soft commodities, timber, or minerals (“provisioning ecosystem services”).
The Nature Equity contract establishes a new asset class, immutably linked to a Natural Capital Account (NCA).
This account records the stock of biodiversity, carbon, soil, or water for a specific plot of land. With an NCA as collateral, payments for nature preservation or maintenance can be recognized as an immaterial asset on the buyer’s balance sheet. Nature Equity contracts facilitate an equitable exchange of nature-based contracts between land stewards and businesses.
Nature Equity can serve as the constitutional contract for nature-backed assets, then nature-backed securities and – eventually – nature-backed currencies.
Nature Equity focuses on non-extractive natural capital.
It recognizes the inherent value of ecosystems that contribute to the land's overall health and sustainability, not just the extractable resources.
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We are entering the era of human-machine partnerships without a true understanding of human-human and human-nature relationships.