[pp.int.general] Should Pirate Parties include the coming Swarm Economy as policy?

[Amelia Andersdotter]

On 18.03.2011 15:46, Ikke wrote:
> On Fri, 18 Mar 2011 12:22:53 +0100, "Rick Falkvinge (Piratpartiet)"
> <rick at piratpartiet.se>  wrote:
>> In today's terms, GNU/Linux and Wikipedia count as nonvalue and
>> nonproduction, but somebody slacking off on a paid job counts as
>> production.
> Why don't we fix it whole scale while we're at it. The problem is not the
> economy, it's what we consider economic. By far the greatest portion of the
> economy is engaged in activities that produce no goods at all. 80% works in
> the tertiary sector, the service sector, and then an unhealthy share of the
> people in the first and secondary sectors (resource extraction and
> industry), don't actually produce something tangible either.

Well. It's difficult to do anything about. Wikipedia doesn't generate 
wealth (well, if you acknowledge that knowledge is property you could 
technically consider it wealth, but I don't. It's information. It's just 
there.). Wikipedia lives off of people donating wealth that they got 
elsewhere (mostly by providing a service, which again, if Wikipedia type 
"wealth" is the norm, doesn't not actually pay well).

If you're going to "value" Wikipedia and GNU/Linux, you need a "value" 
with which to do so - either by considering them property, or by 
considering them a service. Services do not generate a lot of wealth - 
deal with it. Wikipedia and GNU/Linux also don't generate any value that 
is currently compatible with anything else. Bartering systems perhaps, 
but how would you barter a Wikipedia article for food?

And slacking at a job? You sell the service of your time to a company, 
they pay you. If you sell the service of your time to Wikipedia, your 
contract with them is actually that you pay /them/ and even then, only 
just enough for them to get by.

You /could/ sell the service of making or maintaining a GNU/Linux 
system, but that requires someone being willing to pay for it, which, as 
far as I can see, no one seems willing to do. Collective licensing, 
perhaps? But no. Pirate Parties are against that. And even then, you'd 
have to solve the influx problem which - again - is generated only by 
providing the services that the collective licenses were supposed to 
support to begin with.

The proposal of including this in a political, rather than 
philosophical, progam doesn't make sense unless you're looking at 
reforming the political system into an anarchic society and I deem the 
possiblities of that as being highly unlikely and, for a political 
parliamentary party, exceptionally useless. Go join an 
anarchosyndicalist union.*

/a

* might actually not be a bad idea. they get stuff done.