[The Wise Turtle]

Nicely said. (Steve's blog posting I mean, though the comments here are good too!)

I'd love to see (and am working to create) an economic model that makes it easier to compensate people for things that they offer the world. Wouldn't it be great if everyone had their own "make a donation" (i.e., a "tip jar") option both online and off, so that people who offered things of value could easily be compensated for that value at whatever the amount seemed appropriate - based on the value itself and the amount someone could afford to give? For example, Steve has a donation link where you can monetarily thank him for his services, and I think it's an excellent way to offer a completely fair "satisfaction guaranteed" service. I think it would be a huge benefit to the world if this kind of open-ended employment became more of a standard. If you valued something that someone else was offering, you could offer them something of value in return. You could even offer them something other than money (for example, food, shelter, art, useful ideas, etc.), as long as it was of value to them. It would be the ultimate in fair trade!

A few businesses and most organizations already run this way (non-profits being the pros at it), but what if individuals could do it too? For example, what if musicians, in addition to selling CDs and performing live, had a donation link on their website so that you could pay them if you downloaded their music (for free) and liked it, or just wanted to support their work in general? Since people are already downloading the music for free, I think it would beneficial to everyone to create an atmosphere that encouraged and legalized free downloading and that also encouraged people to make a donation equal to the value of the music. This would help the musicians, be more reality-based, and create a more psychologically healthy world that was centered in gratitude rather than forced obligation and theft. Some call it a gift economy, though I think it deserves a better term than that (though I have yet to come up with one...).

So, anyway, that's what I'd like to see.

-Turtle
not sure how to make it happen, but willing to try...