“Neighborhoods and residents all over Austin know what projects need to be completed, yet our city has neglected to advance those projects due to lack of creativity and appropriate incentives. Our platform will accelerate the completion of projects in the most equitable way possible, as we will create a new citizen-incentive network to mobilize our collective energy and maximize our productive potential. This system can be known as: Incentivized Volunteer Contributionism – Simply, we have tools, either through elimination of utility costs, tax exemptions, or any other relevant and consensus-reached benefit, to incentivize a group of people in our city to become the Greater Good Coalition of Valued Leaders in Our Community. These are people who will be given dignity, respect, and public recognition for their contributions, who will help us for ALL sorts of activities that benefit the community. In a city of roughly 1,000,000 people, we will easily find 10,000 people (0.01%of population) who want to get free electricity somehow. If each one of these people only donates 3 hours of their time per week, we could have 1,428 people volunteering each day, which breaks down to 285 people contributing each hour, if we work from 6am to 9pm. Of course we can configure this however is relevant to the task at hand. For example, if an area of road needed to be built, these 10,000 people will be organized into micro-teams, who specialize in micro-tasks, who meet over the course of 12-14 weeks (1 day a week) to learn safety, procedure, and master that one tiny little job. They will master this job. Then, once the time comes for construction, once every team is ready, every team will go in order of their task, and carry it out effectively. When 10,000 people descend on a project in a very organized manner, it will get done much quicker, and with much more community heart. We have the ability to achieve much more through cooperation and abundant mindset. Imagine the economic benefit we receive by completing a major intersection project in 2 weeks, verses 2 years.

This system can be applied to literally any project we need to get done: community organic farming, building eco-villages for homeless, building sidewalks, ADA compliance infrastructure, home renovations, cooperative technology innovation, bike lane development, park maintenance, and on and on.

As far as protectionism goes, I’ve effectively described above how we need to view everything through the lens of full-sovereignty consensus. We also need to look in the mirror, actively work to dissolve our ego, and honestly reflect on how the history of racist and oppressive social structures keep people feeling entitled to areas and resources. When we view things accurately through the lens of abundance (rather than scarcity) we are comforted and inspired by the realization that we don’t need a see-saw approach to resolve the systemic inequities. There is more than enough for everyone, so we don’t need taxation and redistribution; We need a system of equitable systems building that gives immediate benefit to those most in need and helps all people in the long term. Protectionism is irrelevant in a system of love, compassion, and honesty.
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