USF Understanding
We are working in community to create production systems to heal nature and produce abundance.
How Humans Came to Live in Peace and Plenty – Version 3.0
There came a time in our community when we grew tired of arguing over who was right and who was wrong. Despite all the arguing there were still hungry people and the environment kept declining. What we needed was more places for people and creatures to fit.
Then we came to realize that the market could not solve all our problems. The market is wonderful for what it does – a spur to innovation – producing better and better goods and services – more and more efficiently. But the market did not provide a place for everyone to fit. When there was more of us than the market needed we were laid off – the market did not value clean air and clean water and the diversity of ecosystems. Anything that is abundant has no value to the market.
Then we came to realize. If people are abundant in the eyes of the market does that mean we have nothing to contribute? And if clean air and water and plants and animals, fish and fungi are abundant does that mean that they have nothing to contribute? What else would we like to be abundant? What if food, clothing, shelter, education and health care were abundant? Would they then have no value?
Then we came to realize. If we cannot rely on the market for those things we want in abundance, we can create new ways of doing things for those that do not fit in the market. We can design a way to recognize the value in people and creatures that the market does not value. We can find a way for those people and creatures to contribute their gifts to the flow of value and receive value in return.
And we called out to government to help us find the way – and government said, “We are not elected to interfere with business.” And we called out to the captains of industry to help us find a way – and industry said, “Our only mission is to make a profit.” And we called out to the foundations and the universities that they support to help us find a way – and academia said, “We do science and education – we do not design the world”.
And we came to realize that we would have to find the way ourselves.
And so, our community came together – people from government – people from industry – people of charity and seekers of knowledge – we came together to discover what we could do to make our community a better place to live. And we found that we could produce an abundance of food, clothing, shelter, education and health care by creating integrated systems of production. Integrated systems of production use assets to support as many different processes as possible. The different processes are arranged so that the production of one process becomes the feed stock of the next process – creating internal production and consumption cycles.
Those who did not fit in the market and those who wanted to work at a slower pace, and those who had retired from the market, began to contribute their skills in exchange for shares in the community investment enterprise. And the enterprise produced abundance by finding a place for many different people and many different creatures. And we became whole, our economy and our lives in balance, and we live together in peace and plenty.
Organizing to Heal Nature and Produce Abundance
examples:
Community Investment Enterprise
Economics of Integrated Production
George Chan's Integrated Farm Management Systems
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Comments
You frame it an invittion to help craft a story... the invitation itself is more storylike than the outline that follows 11:39 PM
Can we in fact make the outline more story like and less tratise and series of defintiions? This is a challenge 11:39 PM
I do like the invitation a lot
