Iceland, 2018

If you were an architect for the new economy, how would you design it?

We all know there is so much non-sense in our economy, yet we all feel we have to continue to play along with the rat-race, because no one has a clue how to change it.

The trouble is, to just have water, food, and shelter, our bear necessities for survival, require us to play the current economic game. Unless you’re Bear Grills, stepping out of the system as an individual comes at a great cost, it’s something we need to do collectively.

The Challenges

Arguably the driver of the capitalistic mindset, is our competitive nature, which seems to root from the fear of scarcity, not feeling there is enough for ourselves or our family. Our current economy functions through hierarchy, resource destruction, and disparity of wealth. It’s inherently competitive, and the people with the power to change it, are conveniently the ones that benefit from it most.

There is no such thing as wealth without poverty.

Another problem is our simplification of value. When we turn a tree into a product, we simplify its riches. From a diverse array of ecosystem services; like shade, carbon storage, habitats; which grows in value. To a simple plank of wood, paper, or item; ever decreasing in value.

We turn complex alive systems, into simple dead ones.

This problem echos in our other chambers of value, where we only measure money, objects, or labor.

The next and biggest problem is again our fear. We fear the unknown, scarcity, each other, unseen dangers, made up dangers, ourselves… pretty much everything. This really screws up our economy, because fear means a lack of trust, which means people cheat, and when we cheat we don’t treat trade deals, laws, or our environment with the respect we would normally. We prioritise short terms gains above long term stability. We cheat our children out of a future. We cheat our neighbours out of freedom.

And the hideous bi-product of this lack of trust: bureaucracy. Designed to deter cheating, which adds rust to our wheels of progress.

We only cheat or lie when we’re afraid; like when we think we don’t have ‘enough’. Fear also means that we aren’t as willing to take risks. This might be as simple as trying a different grain or crop for a season, or as complex as trying a different form of economic policy; like universal basic income. Risks are important in our economy, they are the trial and error of improvement, pushing us forward as a civilization. We need to take risks to adapt to new conditions.

We have to embrace mistakes as a part of growth.

The final problem I see, also rooted from fear, is ownership. Without giving you a full education of the tragedy of the commons, let’s just say that when we are scared, we fear not having enough to provide for our family. On a micro-scale, this is someone owning a second property, building profit from the less fortunate renter. On a macro scale, this is Jeff Bezos owning every single commission through the largest marketplace in the World. It’s fraught with privilege, entitlement, and inequality.

This same fear causes, what I call, blood clots in our economic system. When we fear scarcity, sometimes we hold onto as much as we can, and money accumulates. This takes away value from another part of the system.

Let me explain.

If three people each hold a service of equal value, that each other party needs, the same ‘coin’ can be passed between the 3 parties, and each will receive the thing they desire from the other. However, if one person chooses to hold onto the same coin, the cycle stops and the other two parties cannot obtain the service they need. Similarly Jeff Bezos holding billions of dollars in his bank accounts takes away billions of dollars from another part of the World. (Nothing personal against Jeff, he’s just an extreme representation of some of our human fears)

The system flows when value continues to be exchanged.

So what does our new blueprint look like?

Slowly, I see the foundations of a new economy being laid; kindness and compassion are the bedrock. Over time, our care for others, our natural World and ourselves, grows. What would our economy feel like, if instead of trying to beat others up a ladder, we were building each other’s bridges?

When we remember we are all on the same team; collaborating, sharing and improving becomes habitual.

The windows of the new economy are transparent. No more secrets, no more hidden agendas. If there is something to hide, we can only assume it is cheating. When there is nothing to hide, there is everything to learn, and organisations can progress faster through sharing information and lessons.

The way we make decisions, in companies and communities, are decentralised and collective. Any concentrations of power are weak to corruption, foul play, and unethical behaviour. We can use the internet to build transparent, fair and safe ways of making decisions together, and fully harness our collective intelligence.

Let’s stop perfecting how we watch funny cat videos, and start getting our basic human needs covered.

We incentivise good behaviour. In our old system, cheating is rewarded because the economic model doesn’t account for our environment, human happiness, social value or reputation. We can build a system for reputation that goes well beyond a 5* Google review. Creativity, helping others and bringing people together are all worthy real recognition. Our new economy will rely on individual responsibility.

Health is the new wealth, kindness the new cool

And eventually, one day, far far away, we will look back on the concepts of ownership, currency and restricted travel and laugh at how immature and naive we were back then. The ridiculousness of how much we fought against one another, despite being the same species.

To conclude

We are all architects of our world. Collectively, with our dreams, ideas, and hard work, we build our society. We all have as much power to create change as the next person, you only have to see and believe it.

Those who recognise their own power to affect change, hold it.

I have great hope and excitement for the future. Our trajectory is leading us towards organising in ways that care for each other and our environment better. We all have an immense capacity to share and work together, it’s only our limited perspective that keeps us in our box.

What a beautiful design challenge we have on our hands.