Radical in Depth
Intro to the Fiat System and Co-Ownership..
Seeing Fiat
You are about to learn about an alternative way, where traditional boundaries crumble. Be ready for a journey that will challenge the status quo, spark your imagination, and leave an indelible mark on the world. Imagine a journey that encourages the audacity of dreams, where pioneers emerge to lead the way into uncharted territories, groundbreaking ideas that invite you to be part of a movement that shapes the future.
In the world of Radical it is up to you to open the floodgates to opportunities. Here, the conventional is reimagined, and innovation thrives on a different kind of risk-taking. Join us.
Together, we will challenge the status quo and propel humanity towards new horizons. We embrace calculated risks, harnessing the power of playfulness and innovation to paths untraveled. We redefine the very fabric of success. Together, we will embark on a journey of possibilities and drive change on an unprecedented scale.
Join our community of like-minded people, where collaboration is a cornerstone. We aim to achieve what was once deemed impossible and create a world driven by contributions, not capital. We aim to leave an indelible mark on the world.
Now is the time to be part of something truly daring. Step forward as a pioneer, and together, we will surpass expectations, and transform ownership. Dare to challenge the boundaries.
What the Fiat System Does
If you are feeling overwhelmed by work, it is not a matter of working harder. That is what your boss tells you, and even your well-meaning co-workers. That is what every business book says, to search for excellence, acquire new habits to move up, and do more with less effort. But it is not you, it is the system that we call Fiat. The Fiat system is designed to create more wealth for the owners and investors of the business you work for.
The thing is that we created it, and we can create an alternative system, an alternative way of living.
“Fixing” the Fiat system would be never-ending because the system is too easy to game, particularly by powerful people. The Fiat system adapts to fixes very fast.
Beware that alternatives to Fiat are fundamentally different and will feel alien, idealistic, and even crazy. It will take more courage than you can imagine.
Creativity takes courage
Henri Matisse
If you are not open to this and are just being polite (“Sounds interesting… tell me more about it”), you can return the book now. Sorry for any inconvenience.
What Does Fiat Even Mean?
You may not even know what the heck Fiat means, but you know that something is not quite right. And, you are correct in that it is not right, at all. Perhaps you are spending too much time at work. Or you are always ready to travel to a last-minute destination. Or maybe you have to do what would be three days’ worth of work in two, or one, hoping for an attaboy and maybe a reward. Don't worry, you will get a chance to rest when you get back, but the pile of work is bigger when you get back.
Maybe you are fully aware of this or maybe you think that this is our destiny. But it is not “our destiny.” It is not even living. It is the way the Fiat system limits us.
We want to help you see Fiat and how it is causing you the way you feel.
Fiat, the Word
But Fiat it’s a car. And, indeed, FIAT as an acronym is the name of an Italian automobile car manufacturer that stands for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino. Thus the acronym.
But what does the word Fiat mean?
Fiat is an honest-to-goodness word that means because I say so. Fiat money, for example, is worth what each nation says it is (plus or minus what investors will pay for it). Money used to be an equivalent to gold, but that stopped in the 1970s. Now it is because the country says so (and nominally its economy).
In the context of giving orders, the phrase additionally carries an implied threat: or else. “Move those boxes from there to over there because I say so… or else.”
In the context of giving orders, the phrase additionally carries an implied threat: or else. Move those boxes from there to over there because I say so… or else).
Rules, Laws, and Force
Imagine a world where rules, initially upheld through conventions, eventually morph into cold, heartless Fiat laws that leave us no choice but to comply. Fiat is a relentless force, bearing down on us with an iron grip.
Force
Picture this,
You get a traffic ticket. A very minor form of force.
You have to give up money (i.e., coined force) to be spared the pain that would follow if you don’t.
If you strongly feel that is an injustice, you let it go to court (i.e., another type of force).
Either you win or you lose,
Victory brings celebration, the force is with you.
If you are defeated, you are angry, but you have to pay the ticket. Still a minor force.
On the other hand, if you happen to be from the edge, any sort of protest or disobedience may send you to prison. This is no longer a minor force.
Behind those cold, unforgiving walls a fight may break out and blood is spilled and lives are maimed or lost. Either way, it is definitely a force majeure.
Force is ever present in our Fiat system. It goes from merely a frown to the ghastly specter of the electric chair.
Withholding a reward because you did not say or did what was expected of you is a form of force. Getting passed over for a raise or promotion is a form of force. Firing you or laying you off is a form of force. Raising your rent so your only option is to leave is a form of force. We are surrounded by a system that runs on force, from threats to actual pain.
“Motivation” is another form of force. Do this and you’ll get the reward. We often fail to see it for what it truly is—an external force, driving us toward someone else's desires. But you are being “motivated” to do what somebody else wants, regardless of what you may want to do. That is force.
In the Fiat-base alternative to the Fiat system there is no do-it-or-else force. The Fiat myth is that without force we would never do anything of significance, we would never do anything bigger than ourselves. They try to shatter our belief in our own capabilities, in our power of our collective potential.
But I ask you to consider this: humanity evolved and has survived and thrived as a species for a long time. We birthed agriculture, spreading its roots across every corner of the planet. We managed to do all that and more without anybody dictating our path, without anyone wielding force to mold us.
Then came the people who took things by force, because they had nothing to trade. And then came money, coinage which allowed them to trade the wealth that they extracted from you by force. And slowly by surely the Fiat system took shape around us.
Alongside, there came the stories that supported the Fiat system as it evolved,
An all powerful supernatural being at the top
Paradise
Eve as the bad apple
Homosexuals as abominations, pushed to the edge.
Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ, from the Judeo-Christian Old Testament
Most insidious of All
We learn to expect that the fruit of our work should go to someone else,
A god, an omnipotent being at the top
A boss, an omnipotent being at the top.
And that we get paid what the boss says is reasonable.
It didn’t start this way, but it evolved. First came prisoners of minor wars that were made to carry whatever the winners didn’t want to carry, including the winners dead. At the end they either joined the winners (after all, they were related) or they went back to their village. Then came slavery, they kept you as a worthless worker because they had the force (and you were not related). Finally came wage work. From forced labor by sheer force to forced labor by coin. Different forms of force, but force throughout.
Fiat tendrils extend deep into every aspect of our lives, particularly in the realms of economics and politics. For example, “being a good worker” is a sign of pride today within the Fiat system you and I live in. Unwavering loyalty to their chosen politicians, no matter the cost. There is nothing strange about it, it is totally normal. The alternative, they say, is chaos to be avoided at all costs.
Anybody talking about alternatives (you and I) must be crazy. Ignore them.
Organized religion has been part of the support system as well, but before we talk about that, we have to talk about divide-and-conquer.
Countries and Other Divisions
Fiat
Countries are Fiat creations, straight out of kingdoms that had been cleansed by force.
For example, before Fernando and Isabel sent their minions to conquer the Americas, they waged their own cleansing campaign on their portion of the Iberian peninsula. Basques, Astures, Galicians, Catalonians, al-Andalucians, and others were forced to act Catholic and speak Castilian (or else). The Inquisition stood as a merciless enforcer, ensuring obedience to the rules.
By the time they got to what would become the Americas, Fernando de Aragon and Isabel de Castilla,
Had power over most of the Iberian peninsula and were extracting its wealth accordingly
Had developed a methodology to cleanse out whatever other cultures they encountered
They had what it took to subjugate, control, and obliterate anything that stood in their way.
Divide and Conquer
At some point women were made the property of men and were made subservient to them. That is, for example, why inherited last names are the man’s. The “ez” at the end of Spanish family names (e.g., Perez) is the equivalent to the English possessive (e.g., Pedro’s). It indicated that people with that last name “belonged to” the man called Pedro in the village. Men were the kings of their castle and everybody, including women, were reduced to chattel.
Sounds comical now, but there is an intuitive logic to it: men, half the population, now had to worry about staying in control of what belonged to them, and not about the injustices from the powerful men above.
It all was bundled with a strong ideology that created an institution and, surprisingly enough, women became pillars of it. Eve was the instigator of sin, and must submit for salvation. Women covered their hair, wore burkas, and relinquished their autonomy in the name of duty and survival.
The tyrant grinds down his slaves and they don’t turn against him, they crush those beneath them.
Emily Brontë
As Christianity spread by force of colonization, non-Europeans were made subservient to Europeans. Of course, there were wealthy non-Europeans, close to their colonial masters, and poor non-Europeans. The wealthier were even put in charge.
We are still struggling with that attitude today, thousands of years later,
We could be in paradise, but Eve, the woman, poisoned us out of it.
We are still struggling with the leftovers of colonization, domestic and foreign.
We are on our way to heal the wounds, but it is a struggle as powerful people cling to the past.
Lording as Division Mechanism
With men lording over half of the population, it was easier for a few men to lord over them. And they did. They could appeal to the stories and imagined history to support this convenient ideology that happened to support the making of kingdoms and empires.
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have an eternal, almighty, all powerful boss at the top. You would not dare to even think of yourself as equal to such power, you can only submit to it.
Radical
For example, before Fernando and Isabel sent their minions to conquer the Americas, they waged their own cleansing campaign on their portion of the Iberian peninsula. Basques, Astures, Galicians, Catalonians, al-Andalucians, and others were forced to act Catholic and speak Castilian (or else). The Inquisition stood as a merciless enforcer, ensuring obedience to the Church.
By the time they got to the Americas, Fernando de Aragon and Isabel de Castilla had developed a methodology to cleanse whatever other cultures they encountered—a tool to subjugate, control, and obliterate anything that stood in their way,
In a Radical-based alternative to the Fiat system, there is no imposed hierarchy or divisions. If you believe in a supernatural world and supernatural beings, so be it, but the story of the omnipotent boss at the top doesn’t work for people anymore; in fact, that particular belief works against our survival as a species.
The alternative is not chaos, but it is certainly different.
Community
I trust my decentralized and fully transparent community.
What is going to keep my community growing is what’s good for us.
People in my community listen to me. They help make my ideas easier to understand. They help me find meaning.
And if that is not the case, I leave.
Alignment
But the Foundation is not enough, it needs an Explicit Alignment,
To hold us together a community must define the “what for,” the Impact it wants to have on the world.
It must be explicit about the “why,” its Purpose that made it come together as a community.
The community can then define the “what, when,” and “how,” of each Mission of the work it needs to do.
It is explicit in that it lays it all out for all to know; there are no dark corners where need-to-know information is kept away from view. It is alignment in the sense that it ties people together into a community with something in common.
To be clear,
If the “what for,” the Impact, is not your thing, then you don’t join the community. In theory it could be changed, but in practice it would make it a different community. It would be like transforming a hardware company into a software company. Sun Microsystems failed to continue as an independent business because it is very, very difficult.
If the “why,” the Purpose, doesn’t work for you it is somewhat easier to change. Not a walk in the park, but easier to change. And if that doesn’t work, you don’t join the community.
The “what, when,” and “how,“ the Mission, changes all the time. People may be pursuing different Missions in parallel and you may join one of them. Or you may create your own with the support of the community.
No Divisions
All members are co-owners of the result of the community’s work. If their goal is to build products or services it would be called a company,
We are used to having businesses around. Their one and only goal is to create wealth for the owner. It may start with different ideals, but in the end it has got to make wealth for the owner. You get paid whatever the boss feels is reasonable.
A company is a group of people that comes together as a community to improve the wellbeing of their members. We call these members co-owners. They own everything about the company, including its revenue. The level of co-ownership is not equal, as in co-ops, but it is equitable based on contributions.
BTW, the word company comes from the Latin prefix “co-,” meaning together, and the Latin word “-pan,” meaning bread. “Breaking bread together.”
The level of co-ownership is determined by contributions, not capital.
These contributions are recognized by other co-owners.
And…
And, yes, there is an app for that.
Capital and Contributions
Fiat
In the Fiat world we live in, the default is that the only way to contribute to a business is to invest capital in it. Said capital investment gives the investors power over the business. In the US investors don’t technically have any power over company operations. But there is a big, juicy loophole: they can replace the CEO. And they can keep replacing him until they find one that runs the operations according to their wishes. Those are some of the side-effects of seeing capital as the only way to contribute.
For one, power is force-waiting-happen. So given their capital contribution, investors have power over the business. On the other hand, you have no ownership in the business and you are happy to get your salary, but that’s that. Owners have power over you.
Radical
This is probably the most shocking thing about Radical alternatives: companies are not there to make founders and investors wealthy. Companies have to make money and be self-sustainable. But what usually goes into the pocket of the owners, now goes into the pockets of the co-owners, into the pockets of everybody who contributes to creating the wealth. If you are looking for yet another way to become wealthy, this ain’t it. Companies are a way to increase the wellbeing of every co-owner and the society around them.
Your level of co-ownership is determined by these contributions given to you by your co-owner peers. Your recognized contributions determine your level of co-ownership on a month to month basis. It is not static, it is dynamic. Next month it will most likely be different.
The Calculations
RADs make contributions tangible.
You get a RAD every day to give, not to keep. RADs are distributed based on what you recognize as contributions,
As you give those RADs away, you are giving other people ownership in the company. No boss needed.
But…
At this point you may be coming up with objections, Yeah, but it can be easily gamed: I’ll give you all my RADs and you give me all of yours. And yes, it could, but only if the other co-owners do not say anything. Because of Transparency, they can see all the transactions and it is up to the co-owners to say or do something. Co-owners can have a conversation with people who seem to be trying to game the process. If they do not change their behavior, co-owners can decide to not recognize any of their contributions because they are doing something that makes co-ownership a joke.
Another objection might be that people won’t want to take the time to recognize contributions. They may do it at first, but then they will stop. Again, the data is there for all to see and if all co-owners stop recognizing contributions, then they won’t get any more co-ownership, including the take of the revenue. They may slow down until they see the result and then, I hope, they will go back to doing it. If not, the company will fall apart. On the way to a non-Fiat alternative things won’t go perfect or smoothly. There will be plenty of bumps along the way. The “fix,” in my opinion, is not to elect a boss to tell us what to do; the fix is to deal with what you consider a problem—you are all co-owners.
An objection that I heard more than once is that other people are “coin operated.” They do not want to do anything for a community or society. “Homo Economicus” is one of those convenient stories that popped up to support the Fiat system. People are not coin operated, but people have to survive and will go to kinds of lengths to do it. The thing to observe is that survival, though necessary, is not living.
Capital
Capital does have a place in a non-Fiat company, but it doesn’t acquire power. A Radical Investment is more like an investment in that it carries the risk of non-payment and it is a loan in that the return is negotiated.
Usually that capital goes to pay for,
Things needed by the company.
To fund a Predictable Recurring Income (PRI) fund.
The PRI
The PRI is used to pay co-owners a predictable, recurring income (like a salary) when there is little or no revenue. The PRI is paid back by the revenue each co-owner gets given their RADs. Until it is paid in full, what a co-owner takes out of the PRI fund is a personal debt. Once the PRI fund is paid, the upside (dividends) that would normally go to the owners and investors goes to the co-owners according to their RADs.
But…
But what about investing in the future? Owners don’t put all the profits in their pocket, they invest it!
Indeed many do, and co-owners can do the same. I make a distinction between profits and dividends, and the latter is what is left after paying all expenses, including any investments. For example, if the co-owners want to buy a $5M building, they would put up a Banner to accumulate that amount. They could decide to commit enough into the Banner to build up to $5M in three years. That amount is not to be included in the dividends.
Banners
Banners represent non-people things like projects and investments. With the RADs! Mobile App you can, at minimum, create a Banner, change your contribution to it, see who is contributing, and the beneficiaries.
For the case where all co-owners agree, the Banner could look like this,
Banner:
Goal: $1M
Time: 3 years
Reason:
To buy a building
Beneficiaries:
Building Fund
Contributions:
Mary O:
$100.00
Alternatively, all co-owners may not agree to commit any particular amount. In that case, the Banner would be funded by a subset of co-owners and when the building is bought the monthly rent would go to them according to their investment.
Banner:
Goal: $1M
Time: 3 years
Reason:
To buy a building
Beneficiaries:
Building Fund
Contributions:
Mary O:
$100.00
Anita P:
0.25% of $M
Salim Q:
5% of RADs yield
From Democracies and Dictatorships
The Fiat model and its embedded force is at the root of all governance, from democracies to dictatorships. Can you think of a decentralized national government? I can’t, either, because it doesn’t exist.
Fiat
I have already said a lot about Fiat. One thing I mentioned in passing is that Fiat evolved into the complex mess it is today. For example, the Christian Bible admonished slaves to “obey your earthly masters.” However, when outright slavery went out the door, that stopped being acceptable language (though the majority of women and children to this day still have to obey their earthly masters).
The thing that has remained constant in the Fiat system is Force.
Radical
As opposed to Fiat, Radical is a Foundation of what we need at the root of the system (i.e., in yellow, below), not a system that has evolved to be a big, hairy ball of hair. Radical does not have embedded rules and it is not dogmatic in any way,
When looking for solutions to what we feel is wrong, we often get lost in the intellectual weeds and point to the first obvious thing. We never get beyond this point and we end up never discovering what’s really at the root of the problem. The Radical Foundation helps us remain clear,
Will this decision make us more or less decentralized? Either choice is up to you and your community, but the Foundation helps you know which direction the decision is taking you.
Will this decision make it easier to help people find meaning in what they are doing or not? Again, either choice is up to you and your community, but the Foundation helps you know where you are headed.
You may be leaning one way, but rethink it once you realize where it would take you. What you definitely will not be able to do is hide behind, “Oh, I didn’t know!”
Radical doesn’t come with rules out of the box, but you and the community of people you work with can come up with any rules you want; without Force. You are all co-owners and none of you have the right to Force to others.
Competition and Collaboration
Fiat
Competition is another constant feature of the Fiat model. We learn to compete from the minute we are born. Kindergarten slows it down a little, but it comes back in full force in everything that follows. We pretend to listen, but we are really waiting for our chance to outcompete the previous speakers. Sometimes we are aggressive and sometimes we are meek, but underneath it all we compete in the Fiat system. There are even debate clubs where we can practice our competitive skills.
And, “so?” you ask, “what is wrong with that? We need to compete to survive.” But I see it as a way to divide people, as in divide and conquer. Them who win and they who lose. This makes it a lot easier for the powerful to just pay off enough of the winners.
Democracy-by-voting probably was the best system in the 18th century, but here we are, 300 hundred years later in the 21st century. Things have changed and we can do better now.
Radical
Competition is a way of imposing your will. Cooperation is how you negotiate your will. Collaboration is the way to come up with acceptable goals. The people who can’t live with these goals, have to come up with their own proposal. BTW, this is called consent by Sociocracy practitioners and as far as I know, they came up with it.
We don’t need to compete to survive. We need to compete to survive within the Fiat system where artificial, made up scarcity is used as a tool of force. This is what Marx never figured out. He just wanted a system where the workers were at the top and powerful at the bottom. Stalin named himself the representative of all workers and the rest is history: worker at the top and everybody else at the bottom.
Scarcity and Abundance
Fiat
Food scarcity ended centuries ago, as soon as agriculture started to mix in with hunting and gathering. But then, agriculture brought in land scarcity. At least, that’s how the story goes.
Actually, what agriculture brought about was land enclosures. An enclosure is when somebody takes, by force, over land that was previously communal and provided for all. After the enclosure, if you want to use the land, you have to render goods.
Abundance for a few, scarcity for everybody else.
In the Fiat system, abundance creates scarcity. Abundance brings out the forces to enclose and creates scarcity for the rest of us. For example, the newest abundant good is the so-called AI computing. It is abundant because it evolved in the Open Source space (free, as in beer), but some people would like to enclose that technology with regulation (force). People like Elon Musk, Tesla and SpaceX, Sam Altman, OpenAI, Kent Walker, SVP at Google, Mustafa Suleyman, Co-founder of DeepMind, Francesca Rossi, Global Leader at IBM Research are lobbying the US Congress for regulation that would amount to enclosure.
Abundance for a few, scarcity for everybody else, 21st century style.
Radical
Enclosures do come out of Force and Force is a no-no in Radical-based alternatives.
We can’t fix history, but we can choose our future. And we can choose a future where abundance is the rule, not the exception-until-somebody-figures-out-how-to-exploit-it.
We must lead the way to such a future. It won’t be easy and there will be many obstacles in the way. Many will come from inside us, children-of-Fiat that we are. Nevertheless, we need to make it happen.
Pain vs Wellbeing
Fiat
The Fiat model is based on Pain and people have gotten used to avoiding pain and surviving.
In the Fiat system a Threat is usually enough to get compliance. If not, Force and Pain will rear their ugly heads.
Radical
The Radical foundation is all about wellbeing for you and your community to live your lives.
Transcendence
Who Am I If Not a Manager?
When we talk to people about going Radical at their company, many perceive an existential threat to managers. If you are getting rid of my job type, then you are getting rid of me.
Ironically, managers can be the happiest abandoning their titles and becoming co-owners with their former employees. People who are today "managers" will benefit the most by going Radical because they are currently boxed up by the Fiat hierarchy.
Adrian Perez
How Fiat Developed (according to me)
By the time Thomas Hobbes writes Leviathan the idea that people were a warring species was already normalized. Hobbes argued that humanity’s natural state was a “war of all against all.”
If there is hierarchy, … access to resources will grow with hierarchical power.
Blair Fix, An Evolutionary Theory of Resource Distribution
Surviving Is Not Living
First, I jumped into the void, past my fears. I was hoping to go through it safely. Instead I came out stronger, with a positive view of life. It was a blind jump, but I discovered the light in my life.
I am not split between my “personal” live and my "work" life. I am one and the same no matter what I am doing.
I was surviving, not living. But now I can recognize the fears that held me in survival mode. I can go around them, lovingly, and go on with my life, guiding me, not my fears. I am still afraid, but I am living my life. The more I do it, the easier it gets. I am not afraid of dying, so I am not afraid of living.
Nobody knows how to live my life better than myself. Nobody, besides me, knows what's best for me.
Chabeli Atahuaman
RADs
Fiat
In a Fiat business, things are static. You give me so much cash, and I’ll give you a percentage of the company. That percentage of the business remains fixed forever. You can even die and your heirs inherit that piece of the business. They will try to dilute you, but if you stay on your tippy toes, you can fight it.
Radical
In a company based on Radical, things are dynamic. You give me so much cash, negotiate a return, and you get your principal and the negotiated return in a negotiated timeframe. You contribute a lot this month and you end up with a serious percentage of all RADs and you get a serious percentage of the dividends. Next month you don’t contribute as much and you end up with a smaller percentage of RADs and a smaller percentage of dividends. Ownership is dynamic.
What Are RADs?
RADs are like tokens—not crypto tokens or anything like them. Your RADs really are a percentage of all RADs ever given. That is your percentage of whatever is distributed through them. Most often it is dividends. That is what remains of the revenue after paying all expenses, taxes, and any investments. This usually goes to the owners, but in Radical companies it goes to people who create the wealth, people like you, the co-owners.
The number of RADs you get for a given cycle (e.g., one month) is calculated from the number of Recognized Contributions. These are your contributions that your peers co-owners have recognized as significant. They accumulate and at the end of the month the RADs! Mobile App calculates the number of RADs that each co-owner gets. They may be guidelines that your community has agreed to, but in the end it is whatever moves you to press the recognition button.
The reason I think that the RADs! Mobile App is fundamental is because it is likely the sharp end of the Radical spear,
But Why RADs?
People Need to Learn How to Be Owners
In the Fiat world we live in, we are trained to look for a job. Preferably, a high status, high paying job. When we talk about being an owner… well, we don’t talk about that. “Some people do that, but it is a lot of work and why would you want to work that hard for a bare living?” And if the business fails to make you “a bare living,” that mark’s on you forever in most of the world. “Get a good job instead. I hear the Post Office is hiring!”
People need to learn to be owners and all the fear that it brings up. They have to learn to recognize others’ contributions without being afraid of “making them look good.” People need to learn to collaborate, and get away from competing all the time. They have to be able to let others know what they are doing and why you think it is important to all co-owners, it ain’t bragging if you’ve done it. It is not a matter of learning to sell or any such, it is a matter of learning to be an owner.
People Need to Learn to Notice and Recognize Contributions
Recognizing contributions is not as simple as it sounds. The usual “contribution” is work-related. The number of code check ins or the number of bags of concrete you brought in from the truck. All work-related. But talking to somebody who is down and lifting up her spirits is a major contribution.
R, the cleaning woman, went by picking up the stuff people had left behind on their desks the day before. There were only a handful of people in the office at the time, including a young woman who looked really down.
When R came back around she started talking to the young woman. It was easy to listen in, so I did.
It turned out that the young woman had a traumatic experience the night before. She had not slept much and decided to come to the office early instead of facing her walls. But here she was, facing the office walls. The conversation continued and went on for a while, but by the end the young woman said Screw him. His loss.
Now she was looking more like her usual self.
That was a major contribution,
R noticed that somebody was not her usual self, and
R engaged her in conversations.
It was definitely a major contribution to the young woman and our community. If we had the RADs! Mobile App back then, I would have pressed the recognition button many times. Or perhaps not. That is why practice is necessary.
If I were in the grip of my Fiat cage I might have thought, “that was fantastic, but no, it doesn’t equate to the amount of code I checked in yesterday.” In order to recognize all forms of contributions, we have to train ourselves out of the Fiat cage and the RADs! Mobile App is the equipment for it.
People Need to Learn to Give Pieces of the Company to Their Peers
In the Fiat world we live in, getting ownership in a business is a big, big deal. Many meetings happen, voices and tempers rise, and finally an agreement is cast in stone. After much grumbling the investor hands over cash and in exchange the business owner signs a stock certificate and gives it to the investor.
In a company based on the Radical foundation, everybody, every co-owner, gives away pieces of the company as they see fit. But this is a skill like any other, and we will have to learn it. We are the pioneers. We, the children of Fiat, have to learn to be leaders of Radical-base alternatives.
The RAD! Mobile App
The RADs! Mobile App is deceptively simple to use, but it might just change the world by giving people a chance to live an alternative.
Co-Ownership
As opposed to centralized Fiat ownership, which is what we live with now, co-ownership is profoundly transformative. It evokes hope and possibility. This revolutionary concept marks the demise of oligarchic wealth and decentralized power. Gone are the days of toiling for a mere wage; instead, you will be rewarded based on the contributions you make as recognized by your peer. No longer will a traditional Fiat owner hoard the wealth generated by your efforts. Instead, you will reap the wealth you helped create, enjoying an empowering and fulfilling experience.
Co-ownership is the least understood thing about the Radical paradigm. It is not a co-op and it is not revenue sharing. It is powerfully different. We’ll get into the details of it below.
RADs Instead of Shares
Before I go on, I need to explain what RADs are.
The name, RADs, is meaningless. It is the first name I could think of. But they are the key to decentralized ownership.
We are used to ”somebody else,” the boss, owning the business. RADs make it possible to have decentralized ownership, where you and your peers own the company. You are part of creating value and wealth, and with RADs you are a co-owner of it.
The value that you help create shows up as revenue, money paid for your goods or services. With decentralized ownership, you are a co-owner of that revenue. Now “somebody else” owns it.
Not Revenue Sharing
Revenue sharing is done according to what the boss says people are going to get. In the Radical-based model, the system is decentralized and there is no boss to decide what you are going to get. Instead, your peers decide how many RADs you get and you decide how many they get.
The percentage of RADs you end up with determines what percentage of the revenue you get.
Not a Co-op
Co-operatives make everybody financially equal. But people’s contributions are not equal. The same person can contribute a lot one month, but less the next.
RADs are used to keep a tally of contributions.
How RADs Work
Now we can talk about how RADs work.
The whole thing starts with recognized contributions. As you do your work, other co-owners will recognize some of it as contributions that resonate with them and they will record those using the RADs! mobile app by simply pressing a button. The more significant you find the contribution, the more button presses.
At the end of the cycle (e.g., a week, a month), the app calculates how many RADs those recognized contributions translate to. That many RADs are given to each of the contributing co-owners.
RADs accumulate, so each cycle adds to existing RADs.
Shares Tired, RADs Wired
As I mentioned, Radical-based companies don’t have shares. Ownership is based on recognized contributions, not capital
Shares are a 16th century invention that worked pretty much as RADs, with one significant difference: shares are based on capital while RARADsDs are based on recognized contributions. But they are both ways to create something bigger than one person could.
Business shares must have sounded crazy, like RADs sound today. The clientele for shares back then already were risk takers and it was a smaller audience. The audience for RADs is everybody who has been trained since birth to work for a wage and leave everything else to the oligarchic owners. We are counting on them being more educated and who sense that the current system is not working for them.
Decentralized Ownership
Decentralized ownership is sustainable. The company is not dependent on a top boss. It is forever flexible.
Decentralized ownership lasts… forever. For one, there is no issue of inheritance.
Co-ownership is dynamic
Say in January you make a lot of contributions that are recognized by your peers. Your RADs go up quite a bit. But in February you are down to routine things. You get a few recognized contributions, but not many. Your RADs go up a bit, but not much.
In March you and your team give talks about the projects you just finished and how it is going to reduce costs significantly. Your recognized contributions go up and so do your RADs. Then you go on vacation in April. Your RADs stay the same but the total RADs go up (e.g., more people) so your percentage of revenue goes down.
Your level of revenue ownership bobs up and down depending on 1) the contributions you make, and 2) how many of those are recognized by your peers.
The same is going on for every co-owner and their level of revenue ownership changes.
No Get-Rich-Quick Scheme
In our Fiat world, owning a business is the way to accumulate a lot of money. You pay yourself well and keep the dividends. If you are lucky, somebody buys your company and you make a big lump sum. In the Radical-based approach, this is not it.
You accumulate Fiat money by keeping the wealth that other people created. Yes, you pay them good wages to do so, but you keep the bulk of the value they create. In the Radical-based space you get paid according to the contributions that your peer co-owners recognize. Because you are getting a portion of what a Fiat owner keeps, you have the potential of making much more than a mere wage.
Capital
But, I need capital. That is the normal way to get started!
Capital still has a role to play, but it just doesn’t get power over the company.
A business corporation is organized and carried on primarily for the profit of the stockholders.
1918 Supreme Court, Dodge v Ford
A Radical Investment is more like a loan, but with negotiated returns.
The point being that mere capital doesn’t get of the powers that investors get in the Fiat world.
What’s the Catch?
Sounds like people are not guaranteed a salary!
And, yes, people are not guaranteed a Fiat salary. However, if you choose, the PRI Fund can provide a Predictable, Recurring Income. You are not expected to get paid less than in a Fiat business. However, you are not a replaceable resource in a machine that makes wealth for others, you are a co-owner. You have to learn to do different,
You are expected to speak up if you think another co-owner is trying to game the system.
You are expected to for what goes on with the company..
You are expected to talk to your peer co-owners so they understand what you are working on and how it will benefit them and the community.
You are expected to speak up when you see opportunities that others may not see.
You can help people to migrate out of violent language and into language that helps to learn and grow.
To do all that and more because it is your company.
That is the catch!
Afterthoughts…
In a world where the relentless grip of Fiat-based systems has long dictated the rules of ownership, a beacon of change emerges. RADs shatter the chains of static, archaic ownership models. In this epoch-defining transformation, we are ready to move from the unyielding Fiat fortress to the dynamic Radical frontier.
RADs are a declaration of liberation. They represent a tangible share in the wealth generated through collective effort. Ownership, once an immutable concept, now dances to the rhythm of Recognized Contributions, rising and falling with each heartbeat of innovation.
This Radical paradigm casts aside the shadowy figures of oligarchic wealth. No longer shall the fruits of labor be hoarded by distant overlords; they shall flow to those who contribute and recognize each other's worth. Decentralized ownership is the future.
But make no mistake, this revolution comes with its own catch—a catch that demands active participation, open dialogue, and the relentless pursuit of innovation. In the Radical realm, co-owners are not passive bystanders; they are the architects of their destiny.
So, as we stand on the precipice of this new era, one must choose: the stagnant past or the dynamic future. The time for decisions is now. Will you be a mere spectator, or will you seize your Radical destiny
In a world where the Fiat system has long reigned, where force, scarcity, and fear have held sway, there emerges a beacon of hope and transformation. This alternative is not merely a theoretical concept; it is a profound shift towards abundance, wellbeing, and co-ownership.
As we've journeyed through the stark differences between Fiat and Radical, we've seen how to revolutionize ownership, how decentralized power can empower individuals, and how to be more than just replaceable cogs in a machine.
The Radical alternative offers us a chance—a chance to step into the light, to break free from the shackles of old paradigms, and to reclaim what it means to be truly alive.
It. Will. Not. Be. Easy.
Change seldom is. The journey towards Radical co-ownership will be fraught with obstacles, resistance, and moments of doubt. But remember this: every seismic shift in human history began with a daring vision and the courage to challenge the status quo. Let us choose a path that leads us towards abundance, well-being, and co-ownership. Let us choose a path where force and fear no longer hold dominion. Let us choose a path that enables us not just to survive but to truly live.
