For Product
The For Product business model is a fundamentally different investment and ownership strategy that alters the flow of value during acquisition, operation and governance of shared physical assets.
Within the For Product model, you own and control the INPUTS of production so that you own and control the OUTPUTS of production.
You invest to become a co-owner and then accept the Product itself as the natural return on that investment. This allows you to avoid paying the profit you would have otherwise paid to buy that product from someone else.
Instead of selling and buying the product, each portion is directly claimed by each property owner.
When the consumers are owners there is no sale.
Just as when you own a tree, you own the fruit,
when you co-own a forest, you co-own the fruit.
You own the outputs because you own the inputs.
This sounds great for consumers, but what about the poor workers?
Well, every worker is also a consumer who needs goods and services.
So workers gain property as they complete work and remain debt free.
As a For Product property owner, you accept the product itself as the natural return on investment.
You own the same portion of the product as you own of land and tools required for that production.
You do not buy the product from collective others as a cooperative would have you do, but instead that final transaction is eliminated by using property ownership over the Means of Production to “pre-distribute” the results of production to the consumers who predicted they would need them.
Like crowdfunding, it brings sales to the beginning of the production chain.
But the members of the crowd becomes the real owners of those productive assets and accept those goods and services as the natural ROI.
Workers who promise future labor receive immediate access to debt-free property which vests incrementally as they fulfill those promises.
Any co-owner may decide any amount of the product they own is more than they want, and so declare it as surplus product to be sold to other consumers with insufficient ownership.
The price of surplus is set by the market, but some amount of profit gained in this way must be treated as an investment from and for that paying consumer.
This causes late-coming consumers who pay profit to slowly gain property ownership in the land and tools needed to create future instances of that kind of product, and so eventually also avoid paying profit.
Paying workers with the property they need as consumers means they do not pay debt or rent for housing and do not pay profit for the goods and services they need.
Owning property For Product creates an imperfect assurance of future production. This replaces the fragile, for profit, token-based insurance industry.
When you accept product as ROI, you do not buy; it is yours already. This eliminates the final sale in a natural way — similar to how you do not buy nuts from yourself when you own the tree, even if someone else does the work.
This also changes the focus of the company from exchange-value to use-value.
Those who own For Product gain no benefit when market scarcity increases the potential profit on that product, because they intend to use the product directly, not sell it to someone else. This also realigns ecology with economy and makes robots our friends.
Terms of Operation
. Investors are consumers paying early for things they will need in the future.
. Investors become real co-owners and accept the product itself as the natural return.
. Workers are also investors who become vested owners as they complete work promises.
. Consumers who buy surplus product become owners when they pay more than costs.
Property is the Investor’s right
Whether you invest money or work, or if you pay more than cost when buying surplus you receive property co-ownership under these terms. Your shared control (vote power) over those assets is weighted by the amount you own.
Product is every Owner’s Return
Given: If you own a plant, you own the fruit and do not buy.
Given: If you own a plant with others, each owns their part.
Claim: We can use property ownership to preallocate product.
Investors become real owners in the property used for production and receive the product as a natural side-effect of that ownership.
Similar to crowdfunding, investors are consumers who prepay for future product, but here investors are real property owners that own the product automatically and so do not buy.
Promise is a Worker’s Investment
Workers are treated as special kind of investor that receive property on a “work-to-own” basis when they commit to work in the future for other investors. This property vests incrementally as the work is completed, giving workers immediate access and eventually debt-free ownership in all the property needed to produce all their food, housing, clothing, sanitation, health care, etc. as long as they fulfill those promises.
Some investors will choose live on-site from the beginning in temporary structures to begin building the first shared housing structure. Agriculture should be integrated in the community in a careful way to achieve the same beauty as ornamental species while also creating the food security we must have.
Skills and capability must be proven, in some cases on a daily basis (to operate dangerous machinery, for example).
On-site investors also need immediate shelter (even if just tents), cooking tools to turn raw ingredients into nearly free food, a rigorous sanitation plan, first aid supplies and references to enable low-cost, on-site basic healthcare.
Trading promises early in time allows us to specialize without passing tokens by solving the “simultaneous coincidence of wants” problem that faces typical barter. This arrangement also reverses the usual drive to perpetuate work and promotes permanent solutions.
Worker guilds might help ‘buffer’ owners from the whims of individual workers.
Each group may arbitrarily exclude any individual worker or guild.
Profit is the Payer’s Investment
Surplus may be sold at any price, but some part of that profit must become property for the consumer who paid it.
The GNU GPL requires users gain access to the immaterial Sources of every object they use.
The For Product model requires consumers gain access to the material Sources of every product they use.
This is done by ‘reflecting’ part of profit back to the consumer who paid it as their investment. So when you buy some surplus product, you automatically receive property ownership in the land and tools required to create even more of that good or service in the future.
Under these terms, consumers who pay profit gain small amounts of ownership in the land, water, plants, animals, tools, etc. required to create future copies of that product.
This causes the physical sources of production to be incrementally and continuously redistributed to those who pay for that growth. As consumers gain property ownership in farms and factories, they regain control of production and pay only the real costs of that production.
Subgroups may split the property
Under constraint of realistic divisibility, subgroups must be allowed to split from the majority while retaining property rights — allowing cells to divide and wield their own localized governance.
Free as in Freedom Physical Production
The GNU GPL uses Copyright to require users gain access to the immaterial Means of Production (source code) for that product.
Similarly, the For Product business model uses Property rights to require users gain access to the material Means of Production (land and tools) for that product.
This creates a puddle of user freedom in the physical realm where we can Share Property, Trade Promises, and Reflect Profit to deliver Products at cost while users regain the reins.
