last updated: 14 December 2024
extract
book 3/1, shaping
book 3/1
About the myth of growth and the advantages of an economic system which seeks balances
‘I love the enthusiasm that’s everywhere,’ Rafael (Brazil) beamed, ‘all minds bent on questioning and rethinking, without a thought of opposing or competing—’
Kojo (South Africa) laughed. ‘—and with the playful lightness of a fairy who drifts over green meadows, half dancing, a wand pointing here and there, and new worlds pop up along her path.’
The group laughed, and Tom shook his head. He had never thought anything like this, not even when he had to listen to fairy tales as a child. But today, with the arrival of the international teams, even he had to concede that some magic was in the air — despite the fact that magic didn’t exist. But then it did. Humans could experience magic if stimulations reached an ecstatic point.
The group had just returned to Tom’s office, after lunch in the new pub, and settled back into their chairs around the conference table.
Tom’s guests were Rafael, a member of the Brazil Team, Kojo, South Africa, Bing, China, Bass, the co-head of the San Francisco Team, Graham, still the head of the Economics Team until he would leave next month, and John, in his usual blue suit, a member of the Business Team.
An all male group, a treacherous voice pointed out. But for now, Tom shrugged it off. Some habits were harder to shake off than others. Besides, he knew of some all female groups, and he heard a rumour that Alice, while not a friend of gendered groups, didn’t mind so long as everyone also mixed. Time to listen.
Kojo (South Africa) was speaking. ‘—business people keep insisting that every child knows that growth is what a healthy economy needs.’
John (Business Team) grimaced. ‘We’ve been there already. The growth argument only works if we look at a single company or at a single country, but not if we take the whole planet and the whole of humanity into account.’
‘True,’ Bass (San Francisco) said. ‘The kind of growth economists refer to always comes by way of exploiting others and by keeping others from establishing their own functioning economies. And with these tactics, the potentials of whole nations were and are buried.’
‘Not just that,’ Rafael (Brazil) remarked. ‘The idea of growth makes it desirable to produce ever more rubbish so that countries and companies have more to sell.’
Bing (China) grimaced. ‘At the same time, growth leads to less variety, less local identity because a few ubiquitous brands are suddenly everywhere.’
‘Growth sucks!’ Rafael (Brazil) remarked grimly.
Kojo nodded. ‘And the pressure to achieve growth makes free countries cosy up to dictators for more investments, eroding the very principles these countries used to embody.’
Bass grimaced. ‘And the fixation on growth pushes countries to penetrate the markets of other countries just to stay ahead of the game. And that’s essentially all growth is: a bloody game.’
‘I can’t say, I fully agree,’ Graham (head of the Economics Team) remarked. ‘But I also agree that we economists might have been a little too single-minded and disrespecting of people’s potentials when we promoted the international division of labour, and when we didn’t foresee that a focus growth leads to the production of useless products just to have more to sell.’
Tom smiled to himself. Graham, too, felt the contradictions. The agreeing and disagreeing. Tom would miss the old genius, who had been something of a rock within the team, and for Tom a connection to the old and still common ways of thinking. That was why Alice had wanted Graham on the team in the first place, someone who would scrutinise their ideas, someone who would challenge her. Graham had done an excellent job. But some weeks ago, he confided in Tom that he felt tired. ‘The trouble is,’ Graham said, ‘that the project might be right, and sooner or later it might disprove my life’s work. I’d rather take that blow in the privacy of my home. But, please, don’t tell Alice. I hate to disappoint her more than I already have by leaving in October.’
Tom understood, and he wondered whether he might get to such a point, too. Right now, he doubted it. Even if he were proven wrong, his curiosity would probably keep him on board.
Bing (China) nodded thoughtfully. ‘—healthy economy probably needs to be treated like steam. You give it room and know where and when to let off some steam. You keep it in motion, flexible. A balance isn’t something you figure out once, and then it’s there. It’s something you have to keep achieving by adjusting the space the steam operates in, by adjusting the temperature, and by keeping the pressure it gives and takes flexible.’
Rafael (Brazil) nodded. ‘I think balance doesn’t have to be exclusively local or regional. Global interactions could be balanced, too.’
Bass (San Francisco) nodded. ‘Like the dot.model does which balances local production with local, regional and global resource management and with global sales.’
‘dot. is a good example,’ Bing (China) said. ‘John, you were there when the idea was developed, weren’t you?’
John (Business Team) nodded.
‘How did you come up with the balances?’
John straightened in his seat. ‘Our first thoughts were about designing for the customer’s needs and preferences, avoiding branding, producing only what is ordered, working without exploitation. This grew into the idea of having a company that gives a vast number of designers a platform and decentralises production by creating a large network of dot.workshops — both connected via a global sales and coordination platform. That the dot.model creates balances was something we noticed later when we ran simulations to find out whether something like an ideal size for a dot.workshop exists, based on the parameters: how many contracts does a dot.workshop need to run smoothly, to pay all workers well and to stay clear of all sorts of exploitation? Of course, it’s a question of getting the numbers right. And that’s when it occurred to us. If we find ideal sizes for dot.workshops, which vary depending on the location, we can create balances regionally and globally because eventually we will work with thousands of dot.workshops, instead of concentrating production in a few gigafactories. This way more regions benefit from the dot.incomes, from satisfying jobs and from high quality products.’
Bass (San Francisco) nodded. ‘And over time, the gaps between rich and poor regions can be closed if more companies work with the dot.business model.’
Kojo (South Africa) smiled. ‘Also, dot.workshops offer workplaces which inspire and strengthen workers and which unearth their potentials. As a consequence, the satisfied and well-provided for worker can contribute to the balances in their families and communities, plus income gaps decrease which adds another layer of balance.’
Bass (San Francisco) nodded. ‘And because dot. only produce what is ordered, we avoid the imbalances created by mass production and branding.’
Rafael (Brazil) looked up from his notes. ‘Let me try to summarise. Balance happens on many levels. dot., for example, creates balances between the dot.workshops, making sure that each of them has enough work and none of them dominates. dot. creates more balances via dot.international who take care of orders, sales, and provide a supply network. They make sure that all creators have unrestricted access to all customers globally and that all customers can order designs from around the world. The typical imbalances created by a few dominating brands can’t happen within dot. — not just because of the abundance of designers but also because the focus is on what is good and fitting for the customer, not on what some marketing people and influencers hype. In short: dot. rocks!’
Bass (San Francisco) chuckled. ‘The suppliers, too, are thousands of entities with an optimal size which allows more suppliers to be part of dot. And because these suppliers are protected by dot.international, they are no longer dependent on making deals with exploiters. More balance.’
Rafael (Brazil) nodded. ‘And dot. balances by producing in the countries where the jacket or the shirt is ordered. This way a single product benefits creators, producers, sellers and customers around the globe. The more market participants benefit the more balance we create.’
Kojo (South Africa) smiled. ‘Also, by producing locally, dot. makes sure that the environment isn’t stressed by needless transports and mass production, and that existing work is spread across many workshops worldwide.’
Rafael (Brazil) nodded. ‘And dot. asks: How can we measure what the environment can take? How do we deal with natural restrictions? — And can a business become part of the natural cycles and balances on our planet?’
Bass (San Francisco) straightened in his seat. ‘Natural cycles are particularly interesting with respect to foods and raw materials. The obsession with having access to everything all year round harms our planet and dulls us.’
Kojo (South Africa) smiled. ‘Megan, head of Agriculture, and Raiden, one of the programmers who does a lot for dot. wrote a paper where they go a step further and ask: Can we restore the planet with our business activities? Not just by protecting nature, not just by planting more trees, but by working with materials and processes which nurture nature just as nature nurtures us. And could we, by nurturing nature, restore our planet?’
Rafael (Brazil) laughed. ‘Marvellous! I love this about this project. We always find another challenge. Another: to hell with what we think we know! To hell with half-measure challenges! Why not go all in! Why not find ways of creating, producing, selling and acting that restore the planet!’ Rafael (Brazil) punched the air. ‘Yes, I accept the challenge! Why go for protecting nature when we can restore it? I’m in! And yes, balance makes a lot more sense than growth — and dot. proves that!’
Several people chuckled, and Bing (China) put his head to one side. ‘Just to be thorough: growth is desirable because—’
‘— because people are obsessed with numbers,’ Kojo (South Africa) interrupted. ‘All they see is the rise and fall of numbers, and they think life is about getting ever higher numbers.’
John (Business Team) smiled a little. ‘Numbers have a cleanliness and simplicity that makes it easy to base everything on them. And humanity is in trouble because of people who are fixated on numbers. Funny enough, though, our project uses numbers, too. Only we don’t aim at maximisation, we ask what it takes to make a business viable so that no one is exploited and everyone has a comfortable income. And we don’t leave prices to the fantasies of a few or to the motions of gamblers on the stock markets. Our prices reflect our respect for everyone who has worked to make this or that product or service possible. Numbers are not the big bad. They are a tool. And like most tools, they can be used to build or to destroy.’
Bing (China) looked up from his notes. ‘And fixating on growth indicators destroys. Growth is the major driver of the planet’s destruction and of making our societies sick. We drive ourselves to exploit, overwork, maximise, dehumanise, imbalance, consume, create more waste, enslave, build soulless high rises, run down businesses, hype other businesses, milk what was hyped for all it’s worth, throw the wrecks to the coyotes, penetrate more markets, more pristine lands, more mines, more oceans only to see some numbers grow and to outperform other economies. We are killing our societies and our planet to cover our planet in more rubbish, to make more things blink and to push more useless items into each other’s lives. That’s growth. Balance,’ Bing (China) took a deep breath and a small smile appeared on his face. ‘Balance asks what we need, as people, as societies, as creators, as producers, as the inhabitants of our planet. Balance opens spaces for each of us. Balance allows us to live without stressing or obsessing. Balance allows us to be and to be at our best. Balance allows us to restore our societies, to come together and to rebuild our villages, our towns, our cities, our lands and our oceans. We don’t have to be gamblers, we don’t have to be exploiters, we don’t have to be winners, we don’t have to be enemies. There is enough space and work for all of us if we choose balance over growth and over the destruction of everything that makes us alive.’
Graham (Economics Team) sighed. ‘I’m still critical. Our dot.model seems sound enough, but it ignores geopolitical facts. Countries have always wanted to gain power not share it.’
‘It’s not about sharing power,’ Bing (China) said. ‘It’s about the absence of power. Balance makes power obsolete.’
John (Business Team) nodded. ‘Balance and dominance can’t exist in the same space. We either have the one or the other.’
Rafael (Brazil) punched the air. ‘I love it! If we have balance, power isn’t needed any more. I love it!’
Bass (San Francisco) smiled. ‘And that’s desirable because balance offers abundance, health, prosperity and satisfaction.’
‘Hm,’ both Tom and Graham mumbled and exchanged a shrug — the shrug of two old experts who believe they understand the world and who watch their convictions unravel before their eyes. But also a shrug which repeated: It’s still early days. What sounds convincing still has to survive in the real world — a remark Alice and others at the project would laugh about. ‘The real world is an invention,’ Navarro said. ‘It’s time we reinvented it to our advantage.’
‘Hm,’ Tom mumbled again.
Kojo (South Africa) finished a note and said: ‘Our biggest challenge will be to demonstrate that centuries of business practices don’t make those practices any good. In fact these practices destroy our societies and our planet. Why did that fact go unnoticed? I think, it’s because we never lost the idea of rivalries, conquests, classes. We just gave it different names and forms. But we can do better. We only need to rethink how we deal with each other, and we need to ask what serves us. Destroying our planet, doesn’t serve us. Making ourselves sick with the way we work and live, doesn’t serve us.’
John (Business Team) looked thoughtful. ‘We need to be careful. We have to find every flaw in our business models and deal with them. The moment we get smug about our businesses is the moment we lose.’
Kojo (South Africa) nodded and smiled. ‘And we can stay safe by mimicking nature. Nature works best when an ecosystem has a fitting level of biodiversity. We translate this to working with millions of dwarf enterprises, like we do at dot., where dot.international provides the framework and the guardianship to make sure that every dwarf: designers, suppliers and workshops, has everything they need. And at that point, we can deviate from nature. While nature needs the hunter and the hunted, the fruits and those who eat the fruits, humans don’t. We don’t need to cut each other down, we don’t need to compete or kill. We have, by now, the tools to figure out how to create balances without killing each other, without competing, exploiting, fighting or outsmarting. All we need is to think it through, to make the calculations, to use simulations, to find the ideal sizes for businesses and production. Not for the maximum profit but for the maximum benefit.’
‘And we will reach a maximum benefit,’ Rafael (Brazil) said, ‘once we accept that the planet is our home and that the other humans are our fellow humans, that empowerment beats competition every day, that we can shape our world in a way that heals our societies, and reconnects us to each other and to the environment. And that will allow us to restore our planet. A restored planet is the basis for unrivalled prosperity.’
© Charlie Alice Raya, book 3/1, shaping, arrivals & shaping