Editors’ Note: The following is adapted from our forthcoming book, working-titled: For the Winners .

Opportunity, wealth, freedom

What we’re creating with Copiosis is opportunity for all. Not just opportunity, truly unprecedented, first-of-its kind opportunity: Freedom and Wealth For Everyone.

What do we mean by this?

First, we’re creating societies that thrive on moneyless economies. No, that’s not a oxymoron.

Talk about an economy – let alone a society – that thrives without money. You’ll be met with blank faces. Humanity and money have been together for so long, we can’t conceive what society would look like without it. Common belief suggests no civilization can survive without a thriving economy. Economies can not function without a viable exchange medium.

Our almost religious belief in money as the sin qua non of functional economies, brings with it a panoply of problems. Those problems will intensify until we kick existing structural systems to the curb, replacing them with something better, including a better way to reward those who produce value.

Eliminating money from civilization is a grave issue. Money is not the root of all evil, but for many reasons, money causes nearly all problems we see today. Eliminate money and virtually all these problems disappear. No endeavor holds more promise.

More of us are discovering the theory of how moneyless economies might benefit humanity. What it would look like and how it would function are different matters. Let alone how we might pay for such a transition. Copiosis answers both the what and the how, including the part about paying for it. Without these answers, such societies will remain merely theoretical.

How does this equal opportunity, let alone wealth, for everyone?

Look at the one percent. Opinions to the contrary, the majority of these people, especially the newer ones, have far more in common with the 99 percent than not. A common thread running through these multimillionaires’ experience is…well, here’s what they say:

…you will never have to worry about things like retirement, being able to send your kids to college, paying for catastrophic medical problems, working if you don’t want to.

…well, I can basically do anything I want. So what do I want?

I knew it meant I’d never, ever have to work again unless something went terribly wrong.

The only thing I really desire nowadays, is for “self actualization”. How do I leave a legacy in a short life?

What is real wealth?

Being wealthy is less about money and more about what money allows. Wealth = freedom.

Remember Abraham Maslow?

He wrote a paper a long time ago called “A Theory of Human Motivation.” The paper later became a book “Motivation and Personality”. You may not remember the writings. I’m sure you remember his famous Hierarchy of Needs.

To review briefly, Maslow asserted five motivations behind human action.

Psychological – Satisfying survival needs (breathing, food, water, sex, homeostasis, etc) Safety – Gaining security: physical, resources, health, property Love/Belonging – Satisfying needs in sexual intimacy, friendship, family Esteem – Gaining respect of others, respect by others, achievement leading to confidence Self-Actualization – creativity, spontaneity, problem solving, acceptance of facts, etc.

The five motivations above are written in backwards order. They really look like the pyramid to the right, with step five representing the pinnacle. The others come underneath it.

People generally strive to climb the pyramid, the goal being Self-actualization. Some people, most people, get to level three or four. Few reach level five.

The main thing about being wealthy is your priorities. With wealth, priorities shift up the pyramid. Radically different life experiences result. No, not flying in private jets and screwing the 99 percent. But taking time to completely understand oneself, then achieving those things that add to one’s self-worth, -esteem, and the higher states of being human.

This is what Copiosis offers everyone.

How?

Copiosis replaces money with Net Benefit Reward. Net Benefit Reward is not money. Some of its functions are similar to money in appearance. Yet, Net Benefit Reward is limited in ways money is not.

Net Benefit Reward, like all rewards, represents an expression of a society’s gratitude to an individual whose acts benefit society and the planet. This is a critical difference between Net Benefit Reward and money. Any reward is a gift. It is not something the recipient expects in return for something. Nor do they earn it.

Typically, rewards are awarded after the fact. Sometimes, the person or organization offering the reward is a third party to the act itself. Recipients of said rewards are usually not expecting such recognition. They are instead performing acts of their own volition for purposes other than receiving the gift of recognition.

For example, a Marine receives the Medal of Honor, the greatest wartime distinction in the US Armed Services. Did the Marine commit his act of bravery in order to receive the award? Of course not.

He didn’t say to himself: “If I do this, I may win the Medal of Honor! Semper Fi!!!!” then charge the hill. When he returns to the rear after single-handedly saving his platoon, he doesn’t walk into the Platoon leader’s tent and say: “Where the hell is my Medal of Honor? I earned it!”

Instead, such men are thinking (in the moment): “We’re pinned down. If someone doesn’t do something, we’re all gonna die.” Or, more likely, he just takes action because that’s what he does.

In the rear, he’ll explain it this way:

“Hell man, I was just doing my job, protecting my fellow Marines.”

If you read such accounts, this invariably is the “hero’s” response. It is the Staff Sergeant, the Platoon commander and their chain of command – the Marine’s “society” – that responds to this Marine’s “just doing my job” – his act – by rewarding him with the Nation’s highest honor…after the fact. After all the details are in, often after several months go by, maybe, even years.

This is how Net Benefit Reward in Copiosis works too. Producers act. They act because they are passionate about what they are doing. They are doing that thing as an expression of their passion. They do that thing because they can’t think of anything else they’d rather be doing. If they could be doing something else, they’d be doing that.

They could be doing it because their passion is to make society better in a way they know how, in the way that fulfills them. They could be doing it because they just love doing that thing and they’d do that thing if society was around or not.

A Copiosis society responds to Producers’ “passion expression” by rewarding them. Producers can then use that reward to access certain other rewards. Things that are only accessible….not through reward….but through acts.

There is no exchange going on. There are only acts. Society rewards desirable acts by making accessible certain tangible rewards. Incidentally, Medal of Honor recipients, once rewarded can use that reward to access other rewards not accessible to others. Net Benefit Reward functions similarly. In a Copiosis economy, “certain rewards” are luxury goods and services.

Necessities (food, clothing, shelter, education, healthcare) are provided to all at no cost. Producers who make necessity goods are acting. Action which produces Necessities are rewarded by the Copiosis society with Net Benefit Reward. That is how Consumers receive Necessities at no cost.

Is Copiosis akin to that fabled “gift economy” people theoretically talk about? Or is it an exchange economy?

It doesn’t really matter. This is how Copiosis works.

Shortly after the transition, producers may feel they are owed this reward like an exchange. Such feelings don’t describe how Copiosis works. Copiosis doesn’t “make” people feel this way.

That feeling is an artifact of a system where people needed money to buy things they needed to survive. The way they got that money was to earn it (through work). Debt fostered expectation—if money didn’t come, one risked loss. The longer the delay between work performed and money paid, the stronger the expectation. Foiled expectations lead to anger, workers’ rights and labor unions. After all, work in the old days was often dangerous, life-threatening and extremely physically demanding. Creditors were unforgiving as well. Fail to pay your debts and you could lose all your possessions, even your children and your wife.

This doesn’t happen in Copiosis. Everything you need is provided at no cost to you. Society covers the “cost” as an expression of gratitude (Net Benefit Reward) towards producers. With all Necessities provided, everyone instantly experiences wealth unparalleled. The first two levels of Maslow’s hierarchy – where most people invest their time achieving – are instantly covered.

But it doesn’t stop there. People now are free to do whatever they want in pursuit of climbing the pyramid.

Freed from earning a living, it’s natural that people will perform acts best-suited to their talents. Now they have time to discover who they are, what lights their fire. Contributing to others and to society then becomes natural.

Copiosis creates a functioning economy with no medium of exchange. That same economy overflows with acts at all levels and in all sectors. Acts creating tremendous prosperity. No money required.

To find out more about Copiosis, visit Copiosis.com.

Join the growing number of people financially enabling Copiosis. Become a Patron.

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