Steven Johnson wrote:Hi Mike, So how about you tell us what the best idea in the book was? I liked your first post in this thread about how to own the land in community.
I have been thinking about this a lot. I think we need to hold an ideal, a goal in mind, and also work from where we are, immersed in a competive society.If we can identify and learn to trust a group with whom we pledge to work cooperatively, together maybe, against the rest of the world, and get that to work, and accumulate a permanent culture of cooperation, maybe it can accumulate rescources and grow and eventually overshadow the money driven economy. What do you think? Steven
I'm fully on board with those intentions, but it's a massively complex issue that will probably have to shake out on the fly by those who are actually doing it.
Being that we're very much still inside the legal/political/economic 'container' of The Matrix, these land issues require a ton of legal planning and support. It looks like the only way to do it properly/solidly/trustworthy/reliably is to set up legal entities (LLC's/non-profits/etc.) via lawyers/contracts/'corporations'/taxCPA's/etc. It's super complex and I don't fully get it (at all, really) (but I haven't actually read through each page - I've skimmed just to see that this subject matter IS thoroughly covered). Any group doing it will likely need an expert real-estate agent and an expert attorney and a CPA, at several stages through the process.
Of course people can just 'trust' each other and take that leap of faith - but my sensibilities tell me that this kind of thing/behavior will never truly take root for anyone who has any kind of mainstream sensibilities (as in, they want some guarantees for the thousands and thousands of dollars and countless hours of effort they'll be putting into their residence).
The book spends numerous chapters going over it (plus tons of other critical elements involved in the overall picture). It's COMPLEX. So I can really only say GET THE BOOK. Anyone who is serious about this is going to need to have it on their shelf, for thousands of references over time. I see it, used, for $15, so getting the book is the only way to go. I'm ultra grateful that someone has already mapped it all out with a guide like this. I didn't know we'd gotten this far (to be able to step-by-step it...I was worried it's all too new of a concept to have any actual reference material yet.)
