The Economics of Altruism - A System to Reward Generosity, not Selfishness
"We are called to play the good Samaritan on life's roadside, but that will be only an inital act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jehrico road must be changed so that men and women not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make they journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring." Martin Luther King, Jr.
Designed to encourage the positive, caring side of human nature,
Altruistic Economics
assumes that people's wellbeing is related to that of their friends.
Like classical economics, it assumes that people maximise their welfare.
Unlike classical economics, everyone's well being is uniqely dependent on their
sympathy for other specific individuals, so that our
self-interest is counter-balanced with concern for the welfare of friends.
Introductory presentation for Computer Scientists:
Downloads
Title
Author(s)
Date
AE404 - Constructing An Internet Gift Economy (v2)
In Altruistic Economics,
wealth is not dependent on what one has
accumulated for oneself, but by how one's actions have affected the wellbeing of
other people - by the healthiness of one's relationships.
Altruistic economics has many
innovative features, such as a
multiple value system allows all parties to a transaction to express their feelings using
independent value measurements, avoiding the damaging process of fixing a
single value as a price and thus removing pressure to hide information.
Since it is
non-zero sum, it allows proper representation of
win-win transactions and so allows its users to get
away from win-lose interactions.
Other references:
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Title
Author(s)
Date
The Nature of Human Altruism
Ernst Fehr & Urst Fischbacher
2003-09-23
AE2: A Mathematical Basis for a Networked Economy of Giving
"To improve our money system it is neither necessary nor wise to destroy our present system.
It is only necessary to produce a better product and to introduce it gradually."
Dr. Edward Popp, The Great Cookie Jar, 1978
Altruistic Economics requires a secure system of network communications, such as
Friend2Friend.