I never saw a wild thing
Sorry for itself.
A small bird will drop frozen dead
From a bough
Without ever having felt sorry for itself.
— D. H. Lawrence
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Even though this page has a big, impressive
title, it is about a simple idea which I hope I
can convey in a few words. Here are the main
points:
-
Economic principles lie behind many more human
activities than most of us realize. We are almost
constantly exchanging something for something
else.
-
Many economic transactions don't involve money.
In traditional societies, and sometimes even this
one, people trade using favors, influence, even
pure ideas, instead of money.
-
Sometimes money is not the best way to convey
value.
And sometimes money is so completely
inappropriate that it destroys the transaction
.
CareWare is one of those transactions.
-
CareWare
*
doesn't involve money, but it is a
transaction nevertheless. Something is delivered,
something is received. Adam Smith's invisible
economic hand moves through the CareWare economy
just like everywhere else. I can't ask for
something more than I am giving, but I can ask
for an appropriate exchange.
In CareWare,
*
the "buyer" gets something of
value in exchange for something the "seller"
wants. And what does the seller want? The general answer
is "Anything except money," but I prefer the
really remarkable transactions, which you recognize
instinctively when you see them.
Here is an example — here is a hypothetical
transaction between myself and you. I have a program
called "Arachnophilia" which is a rather nice
Web page editor and workshop, but I don't want your money
in exchange, I want something else. So I say "This
is what I am offering, and here is what I want in
return." Simple, right? I have been doing this for a
little while now, and the responses have been very
interesting. Many people think I have religious beliefs
— I don't, at least not religious beliefs recognizable
by a person of normal intellectual gifts. Others try to
push the transaction in a more traditional direction for
one reason or another — I recently received this
message:
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Careware,eh? A small price to pay for such a
great software package. My pen quivers over my
checkbook in case you change your mind.
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This response could
arise from any number of causes, and bartering about the
medium
as well as the
size
of the payment is a normal
part of economic transactions, so maybe I am picking on
this particular correspondent a little. But the funny
part is
CareWare is by no means a small price to pay
.
For example, here is a payment I will accept for a
copy of Arachnophilia --
To own Arachnophilia, I ask that you stop whining
about how hard your life is, at least for a while. When
Americans whine, nearly everybody else in the world
laughs. We have so much, and yet we manage to:
-
Overlook great examples of beauty around us,
-
Miss our most important opportunities,
-
Manage to make ourselves miserable by
expecting something even better to come along.
Every time we whine about how tough we have it, apart
from the fact that we look ridiculous, we make it harder
for people around us to appreciate how much we have. We
encourage people to overlook the things we do have, the
gifts of man and nature. We provide a context to dismiss
everything as not good enough, to be miserable in the
midst of plenty.
Don't get the wrong impression — many things are
unjust, things that should be struggled against until
they are made right. This page is for people who
can't find even one thing to take joy in, to appreciate.
These people not only make themselves miserable, but they
infect others with the attitude that the world should
right itself, by itself, before they will take simple
pleasure in anything.
So here is my deal: stop whining for an hour, a day, a
week, your choice, and you will have earned your copy of
Arachnophilia. Say encouraging words to young people,
make them feel welcome on the planet Earth (many do not).
Show by example that we don't need all we have in order
to be happy and productive.
Paul Lutus, Port Hadlock, Washington
Also see
Interview With an Extraterrestrial
on this topic.
Important Note:
if you don't like this idea, just ignore it
— you can have Arachnophilia anyway. That's one way to distinguish the world
of ideas from
the rest of human history: you can disregard an idea and no one knocks on your
door at
midnight.
Please feel free to make a link to
this page — example: <a href="http://www.arachnoid.com/careware">CareWare</a>.
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