Create a Zeitgeist Corporation? Using money against itself.

I joined the Sacramento Chapter of TZM a while ago, as I probably will end up joining many other cities' chapters just to better keep up on what folks are doing at local levels. There are some brilliant people out there and their ideas should be spread throughout all chapters, not just their own local chapter, simply because some chapters are still too small to really act upon their ideas.

With this belief in mind, and having read Kirby Armstrong's "Proposal for Action", I feel it's important to share his idea and see what kind of response it gets.

http://tzmsacramento.groupsite.com/discussion/topic/show/511631#message_715428

It proposes that we start a corporation where no one owns more than 10,000 shares at a dollar a share, so we can invest some of our money into this corporation and begin building it to support ourselves and further our goals for a resource based economy.

I can see TZM'ers pissing themselves already at the thought of tainting TZM with money and even calling ourselves a "corporation", but consider this...

We live in a monetary system. We cannot operate outside this system. Right now, we're giving our money to a system that exploits us and it's people for every nickel it can get.

Do we really want to continue to do that?

We are buying food from Monsatan, clothes from Waltard, houses built with the cheapest materials possible for the most amount they can squeeze out of it (whatever the market will bear). Do you really want to continue to support the very corporations you want to see gone?

Me neither

So after reading Kirby's idea, I thought - maybe one corporation would have a hard time building up to a point where we can begin living self-sustainably, but.... 

• What if we did this in every city? What if every city had a similar 'corporation' with the exact same rules, each with an apartment building - or groups of buildings - from which they operated and housed members who wished to live there?
• What if each of these 'corporations' merged into one giant corporation and small 'franchises'?
• What if someone in one city could add his shares to a project in another city?
• What if we actively recruited 'out-of-work' scientists and engineers and chemists (I'm sure they're out there) to collectively invest in their own ideas?

See where this is going?

Now before you go sci-fi/illuminati on me, keep in mind these facts:

• There is no CEO in this 'corporation'
• There are no 'bosses' in this 'corporation'
• Anyone who wants to work on any idea invests his/her own time and money into the ideas.
• Profit from this 'corporation' goes first directly into expanding the real estate of this 'corporation' for more members to work, carry out their ideas, and possibly live, if they don't want to pay outrageous rent and/or mortgages.
• All 'costs' for anything created by the 'corporation' would be minimal to it's members, and market value to non-members - the latter generating both more money to invest in more facilities, and incentive for non-members to become members.

This can be expanded upon but basically, members would be investing in themselves, and by doing so, can create a more self-sustaining, cost-efficient environment in which to work. To start out, shares can be invested in solar and wind power to stave off utility bills, roof gardens, aquaponics and greenhouses to grow our own food, electric cars/trucks that we can share as a group to handle our own shipping and transportation needs, all of which will step-by-step help to eliminate the need for super-corporations, gradually, over time, building exponentially (hopefully) into a huge, interconnected network, sharing ideas and resources, and showing the world what can be done when profit is not a motive.

Let me take this a few steps further - maybe into fantasy land...

We advertise on Craigslist to get a large group of people who have education they can't use because there aren't any jobs, who have lost their homes to banks, and we all get together and buy into this corporation and get some farmland. We build earthships, cob homes, strawbale homes, invest in a solar power grid and some wind power - heck even some pedal power to generate electricity. We buy a few cars that we share.

Now we've eliminated mortgage/rent utilities and car payments.

We plant food in every nook and cranny on the property that will grow food - even the roofs (where there are no solar grids). We get WiFi internet and share it. We convert the cars to electric using motors from old forklifts we buy from foreclosed warehouses.

Now we have nothing left to spend our money on but our own projects. All our inventions are patented under the corporation and then release under creative commons to draw in more professionals. All profit goes into buying more land, more power systems, and doing the same thing til we've pretty much taken over the world.

OK, it won't be as easy as that, but you catch my drift. The possibilities are pretty extreme once we've eliminated the need to feed the system and taken care of all our basic needs.

I would guess all potential members would need to first familiarize themselves with the TZM orientation guide and the workings of the Venus Project in order to become accepted as members. Adhering to the current mindset of a monetary system would be completely counterproductive to this endeavor. Rules and financial transactions and records would all need to be completely transparent to all members at all times to stave off temptation from any latent greed that might still have not been completely weeded out of our systems.

We all understand, as it has been drummed into us from the start by anyone who opposes TZM that the transition will not be an easy one. Do we want to wait around and hope that Occupy Wall Street creates a class war? Do we want to wait til the monetary system collapses and we're all fighting off bands of marauders stealing the last scraps of a dead world? Do we want to sit around and bitch about why no one is doing anything?

Personally, I'd rather at least TRY this. The worst that could happen is we could all join together for a common cause and meet some very cool people. So hit that link above, read the idea, comment on it if you can expand on it. If you don't like the idea, move on or come up with one of your own. There's just no point wasting your time - and especially ours - bashing it. Go do your own thing. It's not a popularity contest - it's a brainstorm. The worst that could happen? It could fail, and we could walk away with new knowledge. The best? We could actually get this ball rolling!