Experiments into other ways: The great wall of money
Six months ago we decided to set up a wall of money in two of our communes. The idea was that it would be a public solidarity fund, used and maintained by the community. I bought 3 cork boards, loaded them each up with $80 each, split into $1, $5, $10 and $20 notes. Each bore the note:
“Take what you need, leave what you don’t..”
We left them up in our houses and watched. It was kind of amazing.
I watched them stay pristine for a few days, and slowly gain extra funds. Once they had been touched, the notes started to move and disappear. The $1s went first, but again once a $20 had gone, the others followed suit. But they oscillated back and forth in a healthy manner.
Then one night the board was cleared, presumably by a single person. It was full at 3am and all gone by 6am that morning. I was sort of delighted by this as it demonstrated to me that the board wasn’t remaining replenished through politeness. People felt empowered to used it as it was intended — to ‘each according to his needs’. And lo, after a week, the empty board, started to collect notes once more.
At times it stayed cleared for weeks, before slowly someone would place a message, a card, an I.O.U, and eventually some cash back on the wall, and so the great oscillation back and forth would continue.
Mean while at the Red Victorian, a young human encountering the great wall of money couldn’t believe their eyes, nor their ears when I told them they could take what they needed from the board.
Wide eyed they: ‘You mean I could take it all??’
Twitchy nosed me: ‘Yes, if you think you need it, you can, but you have to remember there are lots of people in need and if you take it all there will be nothing left for anyone else.’
Much amusement ensured as we watched said young human battle with this concept over the next three days, initially taking money, then returning it. Coming back an hour later and staring at it all, only then to make off with the entire board, before gingerly returning the board with a kind message attached.
Before long the Red Vic Great Wall of Money collected bart tickets, maps, notes, and all sorts of things. Eventually, the community moved it out onto the street where it collected even more goods and services — half smoked blunts and items of clothing were pinned to the board.
If we thought that tragedy of the commons would play out in terms of the money, we were wrong. The boards flourished and bounced back from emptiness time and again. In the end, it was the boards themselves that were moved and or dismantled, thrown out or appropriated for other things. Just like our Free Store it was the infrastructure that failed, not the bad actors that we all might assume. The tragedy of the commons was that we failed to keep the boards in place; the relentless force that is commune entropy won the battle of the Great Wall of Money.
