free farm

Related: CityCoin, For Product

Free Farm helps consumers place orders for future goods and services to secure the Property and Promises required for that production.

Some users supply plain-old-money to buy the land and tools, while others commit to achieve the work required for that production.

Once enough money and work is committed, we buy the land and tools to begin production.

Production must be diverse enough to supply food, shelter, sanitation, health-care, trans portation, communication, etc. for all on-site owners.

Each investor attempts to own approximately the amount of sources (chickens, dental tools, cattle, bees) required to produce the amount of products (eggs, healthy teeth, milk, honey) they predict they will need in the future.

Unlike a cooperative, the owners do not buy the product from a central authority, but instead just claim the portion of those results that they already own.

Each owner must periodically cross-commit the inputs required for the ongoing costs of production for all of the outputs they expect, else lose some of that ownership to compensate co-owners for those costs.

For example, each co-owner of a dentist office must supply the sources and promises needed to keep that office operational.

In most cases, each co-owner of such a dentist office will initially own just a small amount of the consumable sources as they were packaged with the investment, and so will need to buy from others.

Each owner must commit their portion of the sources or promises needed or (more likely) cross-commit unrelated sources or promises that others are willing to accept in return for those commitments

Sources that are not yet products of vertical integration must be purchased from external sources, and yet we should also put effort into buying the sources of those sources so that we move closer and closer toward soverignty.

For example, we might buy feed for the cattle and chickens at first, but must plant alfalfa and grains to bring that production local.

That is an obvious and easy example, but we will incrementally target the more difficult products such as raising the plants or animals to retrieve fibers we will spin into thread, weave into cloth, cut and sew into our clothing.  We will buy wells and refineries to process crude oil into gasoline.  We will buy mines and forges to build heavy machinery.

As more Free Farms become operational, our goals can expand to much larger targets, for example, building spinnerets, looms, sewing machines and some of the tools to capture the power they need.

Much later, when there are hundreds or thousands of Free Farms, all that we need will be possible simply by dedicating property and promises to that production.

The size and complexity of a Free Farm is bound both by the desired quality-of-life and by the completeness of vertical integration.

The initial boot-up phase may require workers live in tents and eat cafeteria-style meals that they prepare from bulk purchases until they have built the first of the permanent structures and before the agriculture is fully operational.

Eventually we will grow all of the inputs for food, soap, cloth, medicine, and building materials on site, but this could take years for some products, so some investments must be products the workers need immediately to supply food, clothing, shelter, first-aid, etc. as we slowly increase vertical integration.

==Bootup
Estimate the quantity and quality food, housing, sanitation, clothing, basic health-care, child care, trans portation, etc. needed to support on-site workers.

Estimate the sources and promises needed for that production and issue CityCoin Titles toward those goals.

Sell those CityCoin Titles for commitments of work or money.  We call work commitments Promises, and use the money only to buy Property.

Part of the Property must be the physical sources such as land, water, tools, organisms, lumber, wire, pipe, etc. needed to create and operate the Free Farm.

The rest must be 'bootup' goods such as tents, bulk-food, used clothing, first-aid kits, etc. needed to support workers until the agriculture is productive and before the permanent shelters are complete.

We may also need to sell some CityCoin Title for money to secure commitments of external services that are not yet available on-site such as advanced dental work, extended health care, long-distance travel, etc. until we scale large enough to provide those services on-site.

Potential workers will look at the list of work needed and signup to fulfill the 'Promises' portion of some CityCoin Title for which they have skills.  If a group of owners accept those commitments, the worker is the 'Paid' by that group cross-committing CityCoin Titles capable of generating some of what he needs and, if during bootup phase, by also providing a portion of the consumable goods and external services needed until we are fully bootstrapped.

Once we have purchased the Property and secured the Promises, we can begin installing the agriculture and building the first of the shared structures.

==Outline
Potential users pre-pay to purchase land, water-rights, tools, plants, animals, etc. required to create basic goods and services they need such as food, shelter, cloth, soap, medicine, sanitation, basic health care including dentistry, optometry, etc.

Some pre-pay with money used to buy property while others pre-pay with promises as commitments to complete the needed work.

After some amount of time, or some series of events [these conditions are cur rently unknown] the CityCoin Titles should vest more fully to the payer, allowing him to sell the sources.

At some point, and under certain constraints, and mostly to resolve disputes, subgroups must finally be allowed to secede (fork/split) from the group while retaining Property ownership.

==Commentary
Incorporating for Product - Investing for Goods

Let's make new corporations owned by the users of those products.

We will organize groups to co-buy the property needed for production.

We will organize workers to promise to work in the future in exchange for ownership in the Free Farm.

Each investor (whether of property or of promises) becomes a real co-owner in the Free Farm and receives the product itself as a natural return for those investments.  Each co-owner of the sources is co-owner of the products in that same amount.

For example, if you own .15% of a dairy, then you own .15% of the milk.

That leaves profit to be treated as payer investment in more sources - to become the real property of that consumer - causing him to incrementally gain the ownership in property that will allow him to finally stop buying that product late, but instead pay the costs early and then own the product as a side-effect of his property ownership.

This auto-distributes ownership to those who pay for that growth.

In this way we treat profit as misallocated property that is 'reflected' back to the payer as ownership in sources.  This must not be a payout of product or a break on the price, for such do not create a functional negative-feedback loop.

Capitalism has achieved much for humanity, but as any business scales in size it becomes clear the goals of that body conflicts with the goals of those it claims to serve.

As society becomes more aware of these troubles, corporations try to hide their goal of Profit because we understand Scarcity keeps Price above cost, and therefore striving to perpetuate Profit is the very basis of the conflict between Production and Consumption.

It may seem there could be no solution since those who traditionally Fund production demand Profit as a Return for the Risk they take.  They are operating under the paradigm of "Exchange Value" which requires some amount of scarcity to keep Price above Cost.

Let's re-examine our assumptions about who should Fund and therefore Own the Means of Production.

Let's look at the most trivial case of a single person owning a fruit tree for his own benefit.

He must pay all the Costs of ownership, including Wages if he does not do the work himself.

But he cannot pay *more* than Cost, for who would he pay it to?

Profit is defined as Price above Cost but if he does not sell the product, Profit is undefined.

This is all very obvious and might seem unimportant, but let's push the idea a bit further and see what happens:

Imagine now, instead of a single Funder-Owner-User, we have thousands of such investors pooling Funds toward an orchard.

By attracting potential Users to pre-pay for the goods they predict they will need, we can use those Funds to buy the means necessary for that production.

The Users and Owners will then be the very same set.  The product will not be sold because the ROI for the Risk is Product itself which they attain at Cost.

This solves the 'static' case where the number of Users matches exactly the output of that production.

But many of these consuming investors will want to over-own by some percentage to guarantee they have enough product at the round of each production.

We must do something with that surplus or it will rot.

We can sell those products for Price above Cost - as much as the market will bear - but to keep the organization owned by the Users of those products, we must treat the payment of Profit as an investment from the User who paid it so they also gain ownership in the Property needed for production.

==Another Outline
Attract middle-income Consumers to pre-pay for organic products and earth-friendly services.

Hybrid Option: Attract traditional Venture Capitalists, and pay them a % of profit gathered during growth.

Hybrid Option: Attract corporations like Pepsi, Nike, etc. who fund projects for Public Relations purposes.

Use part of the funds to buy cheap agricultural land without mortgage.

Use part of the funds to buy tools, plants, animals, water rights.

Use part of the funds to buy 'startup' needs of workers such as tents, bulk food, used clothing, first-aid materials, etc.

Attract Workers to build and operate the infrastructure by providing a "Basic Outcome" that covers all of: housing, all utilities (electricity, gas, sewer, recycling), trans portation, and even food, water, medicine, clothing, comprehensive health care, child-care, education, - eventually all the things the corporations and governments cur rently control instead of smaller groups.

Occupy that land with tents to begin planting and building.
Will want to qualify as non-profit to avoid Property taxes.

Each Investor (whether committing money or work) becomes a co-owner of some Property within the Free Farm.

Each worker receives the 'level' of Basic Outcome according to the quantity and quality of work they commit to achieve in the future.

Others commit their future labor in return for accepting your commitments.

If you want the studio apartment, a 5 minute shower, and very simple meals, you will not need to commit very much of your future labor.

If you want a 5-bedroom house want to shares in the club house and more difficult meals, you will need to commit more of your future labor in order to compensate others for the extra work and land and tools

We do not pay wages, but that is ok since the worker does not need to buy most of the goods and services he needs.

We do not sell the Products (except Surplus) because all of that output is in the correct hands even before it is produced.

==Overview
Investors become co-owners in the Free Farm according to the value they commit as measured by the others in that group.

Each co-owner of Property is the co-owner of Products even before production is complete.  You might say they each own their portion of all *potential* Products.  They do not buy the Products from Free Farm, but instead just claim that which is already theirs.

For example, if you like milk and honey, then you will need co-ownership in cattle and bees and all other Property, (land, shelter, food, medicine), and the things needed to create those things (plants, animals, tools), recursively through the entire tree of production.

==Timeline
The vision of a future product is proposed.
Engineering constraints are enforced to find a realistic implementation or variation.
The scale and level of vertical integration are estimated, balancing more immediate needs with longer term goals.
A 'recipe' for that production is written, listing the required Property and Promises.
CityCoin titles are issued against that Property and those Promises.
These newly issued CityCoin titles are sold to the citizen investors to purchase the real estate and tools and plants and animals on the open market.
Once we have all the commitments of Property and Promises, we can begin production.

After the first round of production, Products are distributed to each investor based on their percentage of ownership.

Owners with surplus Product may sell to non-owners to cover costs of production and Profit may be collected from the non-owners (as much as the market will bear), but some of that profit must be treated as that payer's investment, causing them to gain CityCoin titles.

Workers are consumers who receive ownership in the Property required to produce the Products they need.

For example, "Dental Assurance" requires co-ownership in the land and capital needed to perform dentistry combined with promises of future labor from a qualified Dentist to fix your teeth in return for you working on his behalf somewhere else in the city, or on behalf of somebody else who will work on his behalf, and so on, to any depth.

Promising to work *before* production begins allows us to trade Labor between ourselves and never need to trade oranges with apples, since the co-owners of the Property own their % of the Product *already*, even before they are produced.  This is "Predictive Barter" - where we Property and Promises are preallocated to those who need the Products.

A functional Free Farm will require a minimum "Horizontal Diversity" to allow us to 'pay' each other without needing to pass tokens.  For example, we buy/build a dentist office and the tools for simple dental procedures.  We must attract or train someone that can operate those tools, and who is willing to commit to do that work for the 'pay' of gaining co-ownership in the property for his housing, food, clothing, trans portation, sanitation, etc. combined with commitments of others to operate that property for his benefit in return for his fixing their teeth.  Notice this fully replaces traditional insurance.

We will also want to work toward "Vertical Integration" to move away from the need to gather and spend external tokens. For example, we will buy grains and alfalfa at first to feed our chickens and cattle, but will also grow those plants to avoid the need to buy in the future.  Vertical Integration is a very long-term goal, and we won't co-own mines or factories right away, but will just buy off-the-shelf tools at first, while we are 'booting'.

Part of the initial costs for purchasing the property might be collected from middle-income consumers who are willing to pre-pay for organic goods and services.

Each person can invest as much or as little as they like in any one Product.

If you don't like Avocados, you shouldn't own any titles in that orchard.

Workers receive real co-ownership in the property for which they need the outputs, but until those facilities are functional, also need direct solutions such as temporary housing and shared meals, and sanitation facilities.

There is no need to pay wages when workers commit work before production begins because compensation comes in the form of co-ownership in the property they need combined with promises from others to work on their behalf to produce all the goods and services they need

For example, if you promise to pick Apples in return for someone else promising to pick Oranges and someone else promises to fix your teeth, and someone else promises to fix your car, etc., then we can enjoy the full benefits of specialization without the problem of double coincidence of wants caused by trading products late.