The Currency Of Social Media

The economic system we currently use was established by old rules set by barons of industry and governments.

We the people bought into the rules and worked for “corporations” or formed our own and have done so for hundreds of years. Corporations are a form of organization designed to conduct commerce within the rules of the economic system we’ve bought into for hundreds of years.  The corporation produced “stuff” in which we the people consumed. When the system of consumption changes then the economic system must changed to adapt to consumption of different things and such things represent new value.

Capitalism Or Capitalist?

Capitalism typically refers to an economic and social system in which the means of production (also known as capital) are privately controlled; labor, goods and capital are traded in a market; profits are distributed to owners or invested in new technologies and industries; and wages are paid to labor.

Capitalism is based on the premises of laissez faire, where private individuals are free to exchange goods or services without intervention from the State, hence the term “free market.

The word Capitalist was first used by Arthur Young^[1] in his 1792 work Travels 1787–89; undertaken with a view of ascertaining the cultivation, etc. of the kingdom of France in the sense of one who owns capital, and was more precisely defined by Karl Marx in Das Kapital as one who owned working capital including machinery and made money by letting others work on those machines. Being a capitalist in this original sense does not necessarily mean that one supports capitalism.

Read the definitions again and slowly. Do you see the conflict that has arisen over the last 200+ years?  Our current economic system is largely dependent on gaining “capital” from capitalist (large corporations, VC’s and Government) and the rules to gain said capital is defined by the capitalist. Thus, to engage in capitalism one must follow the rules of the existing “economic system” which is not a truly “free market” rather a market controlled by the few and consumed by the many.

Capitalism Works Best In A Free Market: Social Media

Doc Searls Cluetrain Manifesto was based on the premise that “markets are conversations“. If markets are conversations then capital can be created by the free flowing of conversations. Social media represents the “system” of conversations.  Now it is time that we the people use it to create our own currency which can be traded freely to create our own economic system outside and separate from the capitalist whom control the current economic system.

Kevin Kelly writes “This new economy has three distinguishing characteristics:……It is global. It favors intangible things–ideas, information, and relationships. And it is intensely interlinked. These three attributes produce a new type of marketplace and society, one that is rooted in ubiquitous electronic networks.

Because communication–which in the end…is what the digital technology and media are all about — is not just a sector of the economy. Communication is the economy. Communication is the foundation of society, of our culture, of our humanity, of our own individual identity, and of all economic systems.

The Coming Formation Of A New Currency

You’d have to live in a cave not to realize that the current global economic system is in is deep  trouble.  The social forces against the economic stress are mounting daily all around the world.  One of the most successful economic systems in the world is the United States and that system is in trouble. What will all this lead to? A new system based on capitalism which is created by the people for the people.

Let’s take this down to simply examples. My currency is knowledge. I have no products to sell rather people and companies pay me to use my knowledge to their benefit. Could I gain a “social coupon” for my knowledge that I can use to by products and services from others? Yes I could if there was a market which agreed to trade the value of my “social coupon” for the value of theirs.

Sound crazy? It does if you aren’t able to think outside the rules and control of the current economic system which is managed by the market of capitalist.

Got a coupon you want to trade?

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