Contributionism

“The world’s biggest problems are the world’s biggest market opportunities. And that’s a huge thing. Solve hunger, literacy and energy problems, get the gratitude of the world and become a billionaire in the process.” – Peter Diamandis

An awakening of consciousness with the realization of our interdependence and interconnection with one another and our environment could be decisive, but it will need to be integrated at the global level and transform our society in order to give its full potential, in order to make it efficient and backed through a new model of system and organization. Logically, we need to think about co-creating a society dedicated to humanity as a species, with earth and its limited resources as a home and departure base, and the universe as a potential for unlimited expansion.

This is a first principle for a system that should be co-created in order to transform capitalism. In fact, capitalism is already a few centuries old, its origins are traced back to the 17th century. Neither capitalism, nor consumerism have been created taking in consideration the long term negative effects on wealth repartition, the environment or the limits of our planet.

And this is where an advanced form of capitalism called contributionism can be designed. And contributionism does not only transform the economic system but also the governance system. In fact, contributionism is an evolutive model of society in which the economy and the governance are fully dedicated to serve humanity. One of the main pillars within the principle of contributionism is to interlock private and collective interest by financially rewarding the actors of society (individuals or groups) based on their estimated level of contribution to humanity.

By doing so, contributionism aims at shifting the priority of society, from countries, corporations, and businesses profits to humanity as a whole. In a contributive society, every individual or group is rewarded based on its contribution, and the wealthiest individuals are doing the most to improve our living conditions. There are 3 main areas considered as contribution: well-being, which is anything that allows us to cover any type of activity related to physical and mental health (agriculture, health services, security etc.), goods (shelter, technologies, equipment etc.) and fulfillment (education, art, sport, culture, spirituality, self-development etc.), on top of any other activity needed to protect and enhance life.  The great advantages of this system is that anything that improves the well-being, the goods and fulfillment of individuals in a contributive society becomes an opportunity for contribution, as a result the biggest world problems such as environmental protection, poverty, hunger, energy and lack of education become the biggest economic sectors with plenty of job opportunities and potential rewards for those who have the ability to tackle them. It means the actors of the society get the gratitude of the world and the financial reward according to their contribution. Contributionism is a system in which the richest are the biggest contributors to humanity. And that is a real game changer.

Additionally, anything that can be improved to make our life better, generate more happiness is an opportunity, so when there is no huge problems to fix, such as poverty or environmental issues, contributionism can shift its priority to innovation and enhancement, improvement. One of the many advantages of this system is to give individuals the freedom to choose how they want to contribute, contributionism as a system would not only create plenty of jobs activity, but would give individuals and groups a real sense of purpose since the main focus of their activity would be dedicated to make this world better.

A contributive system is dedicated to humanity, which remains the ultimate priority, which means that the system is evolutive and any flow in the process and organization affecting the contribution to humanity must be identified, and corrected.

Also, as all society actors share the same objective and are dedicated to improve and enhance living conditions, there is much more collaboration between them and competition only occurs when it is beneficial for all, for example, between all earth research centers to find a cure to an existing disease. Logically, in a contributive system of society dedicated to humanity, any invention, any new knowledge, any technological advancement will be shared with all humanity, which means progress and innovation can take a faster path. Additionally, the smartest people in the world will be dedicated to contribute to humanity instead of being dedicated to the wealthiest private financial interest as we see too often in our contemporary society.

Another main difference is that a contributive economy uses much more relevant indicators connected to reality to measure its performance, such as health level, happiness levels, fulfillment levels, ecological levels, ethical levels, etc. With such indicators, the contributive economy performance can be measured more effectively, permitting both to evaluate the quality of the contribution and the functioning of the society. The performance of a contributive economy is measured through life indicators.