RIPE Community Resilience: Economy of Care

The need for commu­nity actu­a­li­sa­tion is equi­va­lent to the finan­cial Layer 8. The COVID-19 pande­mic offers a path to alter­na­ti­ves to capi­ta­lism: ecofe­mi­nism, degrowth, unions, and the circu­lar economy. Caring and main­te­nance are resis­tant to para­digms of unli­mi­ted growth and disrup­tive inno­va­tion.

The exten­ded versi­ons of the OSI networ­king model and Maslow’s pyra­mid have addi­ti­o­nal layers. When discus­sing RIPE Commu­nity resi­li­ence, I consi­der Layer 8 to be:

• The Finan­cial Layer, as defi­ned by Evi Nemeth, and
• The need for commu­nity actu­a­li­sa­tion, as seen from The First Nati­ons pers­pec­tive.

While “the Inter­net” star­ted as an acade­mic, not-for-profit project (the story about its mili­tary origins is a topic for anot­her time), it has quickly become commer­cial, and now it is an inte­gral part of the globa­li­sed, neo-libe­ral economy. Tech­ni­cal workers are still workers, and their labour was both cele­bra­ted and exploi­ted during the pande­mic; clas­si­cal and alter­na­tive econo­mies have «the Inter­net» as fertile soil for expe­ri­men­ta­tion; and caring for our health, each other, for commu­ni­ties, and for the planet is price­less – as in, it cannot be accoun­ted for by finan­cial instru­ments only.

That’s why I see Layer 8 as a need for contri­bu­ting, sharing, and prac­ti­sing parti­ci­pa­tory altruism.

Tech­ni­cal Is Finan­cial

People in tech­ni­cal commu­ni­ties — engi­ne­ers, program­mers, desig­ners, hackers — are passi­o­nate about tech: we use it to be educa­ted or distrac­ted, to help us with physi­cal disa­bi­li­ties, to make friends. But on some level, we also work in tech because we are getting paid: to “earn a living”, to make money (some­ti­mes lite­rally, with digi­tal coins), and to “get a job”.

Here is some finan­cial and career advice from fellow techies:

• «Fantas­tic People and Where to Find Them: Making Layers 8 & 9 Work for You», by Julia Free­man at NLNOG 2019 (video, PDF)
• «The Econo­mics of Open Source», by C J Silve­rio | JSConf EU 2019 (trans­cript & video)
• «Career Deve­lop­ment & Money», by Bert Hubert at NLNOG 2020 (video)

And here’s an alter­na­tive view on the digi­tal economy by acade­mics, artists, and philo­sop­hers: «Money­Lab Reader: An Inter­ven­tion in Digi­tal Economy» (2015), Insti­tute of Network Cultu­res.

 

Remote Workers of the World, Unite: During the Pande­mic!

Even before the COVID-19 pande­mic, many techies were alre­ady “tele­com­mu­ting”/“working remo­tely”. Howe­ver, in Febru­ary 2020, the Inter­net became an “essen­tial service”, with everyo­ne’s econo­mic and health acti­vi­ties depen­dent on “being online”. Most tech­ni­cal workers had both the duty to keep the inter­net up and the privi­lege to “work from home”. For some, «lock­down» was help­ful in balan­cing home care and employ­ment expec­ta­ti­ons; for others, it brought a shar­per focus on exis­ting inequa­li­ties.

At the start of the crisis, seve­ral voices poin­ted out the oppor­tu­ni­ties to make lasting chan­ges:

• «After the Pande­mic, We Can’t Go Back to Sleep», by David Grae­ber
• «The Catalyst Effect of COVID-19», by Heat­her Marsh
  • «We have never in the history of huma­nity had an oppor­tu­nity like we do now to be free of endo­so­cial extre­mism.»
• «The Lock­down in our Minds will be the Last Restric­tion to be Lifted», by Rafael Behr
  • "Repai­ring the damage done by this dise­ase will be a project of cultu­ral recon­nec­tion, not just econo­mic redis­tri­bu­tion. We will need new ways to feel joined for as long as we cannot take each other by the hand."

 

A year and a half into the pande­mic, analy­ses of the labour rela­ti­ons­hips of remote work and of the impact locally on our health as well as globally on the economy have been plen­ti­ful. Here are just a few conclu­si­ons:

• “People’s Health and Rights – and not Inte­llec­tual Property and Profit – should be at the Centre of Respon­ses to the COVID-19 Crisis" (Joint Civil Soci­ety State­ment, APC, June 2021)
• «Winners and Losers: The Global Economy After COVID» (June 2021)
• «How Covid-19 Acce­le­ra­ted the Corpo­rate Take­o­ver of Our Economy» (July 2021)
  • Despite early predic­ti­ons that the pande­mic would be a 'great leve­ller, ' it’s incre­a­singly clear that Covid-19 has helped major corpo­ra­ti­ons incre­ase their power – and only worker orga­ni­sing can fight back.
• “A Wave of Resig­na­ti­ons” or “The Great Resig­na­tion” is happe­ning in July 2021
• «Remote Working, Manage­ment Control Chan­ges and Employee Respon­ses during the COVID-19 Crisis» (paper, April 2021)
  • "A strong moti­va­tion to engage in extra work and a fear of being over­lo­o­ked [while remote working] has the poten­tial to turn into over commit­ment and self-exploi­ta­tion, which could subse­quently lead to higher levels of stress or even burnouts."
• «Femi­nist Econo­mic Pers­pec­ti­ves on the COVID-19 Pande­mic», paper by Naila Kabeer, Shahra Razavi, and Yana van der Meulen Rodgers (March 2021)

 

“It’s the Economy, Stupid!”

Since the “Decla­ra­tion of the Inde­pen­dence of Cybers­pace”, techno-utopi­ans have beli­e­ved that the Inter­net could help “digi­tal citi­zens” escape the destiny predic­ted by “histo­ri­cal mate­ri­a­lism”: that is, beco­ming part of the domi­nant econo­mic and socio-poli­ti­cal system.

 

"The inter­net’s distinct archi­tec­ture arose from a distinct cons­tra­int and a distinct free­dom: First, its acade­mi­cally minded desig­ners didn’t have or expect to raise massive amounts of capi­tal to build the network; and second, they didn’t want or expect to make money from their inven­tion. —Jonat­han Zittrain, June 2021

 

Howe­ver, a quar­ter of a century later, we can conclude that capi­ta­lism has won: "the Inter­net” has adjus­ted itself to the major para­digm of our time, rather than chan­ging the world. This para­digm "concen­tra­tes power in the hands of a mino­rity capi­ta­list class that exists through the exploi­ta­tion of the majo­rity working class and their labor; prio­ri­ti­zes profit over social good, natu­ral resour­ces and the envi­ron­ment; is an engine of inequa­lity, corrup­tion and econo­mic insta­bi­li­ties; and…­many are not able to access its purpor­ted bene­fits and free­doms.” (Wiki­pe­dia)

 

Rese­ar­chers and acade­mics have been poin­ting out the dangers of mono­poly conso­li­da­tion, the digi­tal divide, and labour exploi­ta­tion for a long time:

• «The Inter­net’s Gilded Age» , by Geoff Huston (March 2017)
• «Rosa Luxem­burg’s Inter­net? For a Poli­ti­cal Economy of State Mobi­li­za­tion and the Move­ment of Accu­mu­la­tion in Cybers­pace», by Dan Schi­ller (2014)
• «Demo­cra­ti­zing the Network Edge» (Jenni­fer Rexford et al.) ACM SIGCOMM Compu­ter Commu­ni­ca­tion Review (2019)
  • «With conso­li­da­tion on all layers, the problem shifts from tech­no­logy to poli­ti­cal economy.» (Niels Ten Over)
• … and many more links

And, of course, the inter­play of econo­mic crisis and pande­mic brings the underlying issues in shar­per focus:

• «The Finan­ci­a­li­sa­tion of Big Tech: Engi­ne­e­ring Digi­tal Mono­po­lies», by Rodrigo Fernan­dez & Ilke Adri­a­ans (Decem­ber 2020)
• «Future Schlock: Utopia can be Found in Rejec­tion of the Utopian Dreams of Tech Compa­nies», by Jathan Sadowski (Janu­ary 2021)
• «Poor in Tech», by Meg Elison (May 2021)
• «Digi­tal Colo­ni­a­lism: The Evolu­tion of US Empire», by Michael Kwet (March 2021)

 

I do beli­eve that utopia is possi­ble! As a coun­ter­ba­lance to the the finan­ci­a­li­sa­tion of the Inter­net, let’s look at possi­ble alter­na­ti­ves:

“Femi­nist Econo­mics: A form of econo­mics that has no rela­tion to money, but that orga­ni­zes home on the planet around the produc­tion of health and life. “http://femi­nis­te­co­no­mics­de­part­ment.com/

 

(Do Not) Follow the Money

In the early days of the the RIPE Commu­nity (and other tech­ni­cal commu­ni­ties), we reali­sed that the prin­ci­ples of free-markets, profits, and compe­ti­tion are not suffi­ci­ent for gover­ning the resour­ces that form the underlying infras­truc­ture of the Inter­net. We have used consen­sus buil­ding for making deci­si­ons and used the rules for stewards­hip of the commons as poli­cies for the distri­bu­tion of IP resour­ces, even if those poli­cies have not expli­citly refer­red to “commons”.

One of my heroi­nes, Elinor Ostrom, descri­bed these prac­ti­ces in her 1990 book “Gover­ning the Commons”, and in 2009, she was awar­ded the Nobel Prize in Econo­mic Scien­ces (lecture) for that work.

 

To address the many issues plaguing mains­tream capi­ta­lism, plenty of alter­na­tive econo­mic theo­ries have sprung up. My favou­ri­tes are those by femi­nist econo­mists. Here is a quota­tion from the recent APC Femi­nist Inter­net rese­arch report that makes a point about the inter­sec­ti­o­na­li­ties between the economy and the role of the Inter­net as they are “focu­sing on the dyna­mics of power and struc­tu­ral inequa­li­ti­es… in rela­tion to four iden­ti­fied areas – access, online gender-based violence, data­fi­ca­tion/arti­fi­cial inte­lli­gence, and labour and the economy – recog­ni­sing that often these are not sepa­rate areas of rese­arch but are inter­con­nec­ted.”

My Top 10 21st-Century Alter­na­tive Econo­mic Theory Books:

• Giving Economy, Heat­her Marsh (in “Binding Chaos”, 2013)
• Post-carbon Economy, Naomi Klein (in “On Fire”, 2021)
• Caring Economy, Riane Eisler (2007) : http://carin­ge­co­nomy.org/
• Deco­lo­ni­sing Econo­mics, Nonh­lanhla Makuyana (2021) https://deco­lo­ni­sin­ge­co­no­mics.org/
• Ecofe­mi­nism, Maria Mies and Vandana Shiva (2014) https://www.envi­ron­men­tan­dur­ba­ni­za­tion.org/ecofe­mi­nism
• Mutu­a­lism, Sara Horo­witz (2021)
• Dough­nut Econo­mics, Kate Raworth (2017 ) https://dough­nu­te­co­no­mics.org/
• Mission Economy, Mari­ana Mazzu­cato (2021)
• The Support Economy: Shos­hana Zuboff (2002) http://www.thesup­por­te­co­nomy.com/
• Enligh­ten­ment Econo­mics, Diane Coyle (in “The Econo­mics of Enough”, 2011)

What all of these have in common is criti­cism of neoli­be­ral capi­ta­lism and a focus on sustai­na­bi­lity, care, equity, and co-empo­wer­ment.

 

There is much more mate­rial about alter­na­tive econo­mies that I have collec­ted; you can find it in the “Further Resour­ces” section.

 

Caring is Labour

When looking at perso­nal needs, the clas­si­cal «Finan­cial Layer» is about the finan­cial reward for “paid work” (either wage work or gig work).

Howe­ver, the COVID-19 crisis has made us all realise the value of other kinds of work, such as care work:

• domes­tic work
• volun­tary work (on FLOSS projects; for exam­ple, care­a­bles)
• child care
• health care (and not the high-tech version)
• sex work
• crisis care
• elderly care (PDF)
• unpaid care
• emoti­o­nal labour
• mutual aid, soli­da­rity, collec­tive care

(Plus ten books about caring (June 2021) and more links)

 

Care work is labour that meets the needs not cove­red by clas­si­cal finan­cial models. It also contri­bu­tes to healing the ecosys­tems. At the same time, care work has histo­ri­cally been highly gende­red and exploi­ted along all the axes of power inequa­li­ties. That is why inter­sec­ti­o­nal femi­nism and systems ecology are good instru­ments for finding solu­ti­ons that empo­wer care workers so that care work can be appro­pri­a­tely rewar­ded.

 

Care work also contri­bu­tes to commu­nity actu­a­li­sa­tion.

 

Sustai­na­ble Commu­ni­ties

Maslow’s theory was influ­en­ced by First Nati­ons philo­sophy. Accor­ding to the First Nati­ons, beyond the 7th layer lies the need for commu­nity actu­a­li­sa­tion. This was descri­bed in the 2014 book by Dr. Sidney Stone Brown, “Trans­for­ma­tion Beyond Greed: Native Self-Actu­a­li­za­tion”.

 

There are plenty of instan­ces where the ethics of those who are buil­ding «the Inter­net» reso­nate with the preser­va­tion and advan­ce­ment of commu­nity values:

• A book: «Tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons Reclai­med: A Hands-on Guide to Networ­king Commu­ni­ties» (2018–2020)
  • «prac­ti­cal know­ledge illus­tra­ted by seve­ral hands-on expe­ri­en­ces – a set of 32 real-life stories – as well as legal, tech­ni­cal, gover­nance, econo­mic and policy mate­rial extrac­ted from netCom­mons, a three-year-long rese­arch project suppor­ted by the Euro­pean Commis­sion. Its goal is to guide the reader through a set of acti­ons aimed at setting up and foste­ring the growth of a commu­nity network, but also, for policy makers, local admi­nis­tra­ti­ons and the gene­ral public, to create the right condi­ti­ons to let commu­nity networks bloom and flou­rish.» (APC announ­ce­ment)
• The story in IETF Jour­nal about RFC 7962: “Alter­na­tive Network Deploy­ments” (2016)
  • “RFC 7962 presents the soci­o­e­co­no­mic aspects of networ­king, thereby obtai­ning the atten­tion of commu­ni­ties seeking to create and manage compu­ter networks for the people by the people.”
• «Commu­ni­ties Rene­wa­ble Energy Projects», by Centre for Alter­na­tive Tech­no­logy, May 2021 (webi­nar recor­ding)
• And the oldest (2005!) well-docu­men­ted project I know of: «Wire­less Networ­king in the Deve­lo­ping World», a free book about buil­ding low-cost wire­less network infras­truc­ture, with a website full of resour­ces! WNDN.net

 

Beyond tech­ni­cal solu­ti­ons, there are projects where commu­nity values are prac­ti­sed for their own bene­fit:

• Open Collec­tive – Make your commu­nity sustai­na­ble. Collect and spend money trans­pa­rently: https://open­co­llec­tive.com/
• SPIRAL: Soci­e­tal Progress Indi­ca­tors for the Respon­si­bi­lity of All
  • TOGET­HER is an asso­ci­a­tive network of terri­to­ries, collec­tive actors and citi­zens acting in their place of life (terri­to­ries, compa­nies, etc.) to promote co-respon­si­bi­lity for the well-being of all now and for future gene­ra­ti­ons.
• A plat­form for change makers: Commu­ni­ties for Future https://commu­ni­ti­es­for­fu­ture.org/
  • “The world now faces anot­her unpre­ce­den­ted challenge – the COVID-19 pande­mic. Econo­mies are grin­ding to a halt. Milli­ons of people’s lives have been shat­te­red seemingly over­night. Global capi­ta­lism is expo­sed like never before."
  • «Histo­ri­cally, pande­mics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no diffe­rent. It is a portal, a gate­way between one world and the next.» – Arund­hati Roy
  • "For deca­des ecovi­lla­gers, perma­cul­ture prac­ti­ti­o­ners, and those in the Tran­si­tion Network, have been imagi­ning the world anew. More impor­tantly, they have been expe­ri­men­ting with and demons­tra­ting sustai­na­ble and rege­ne­ra­tive ways of living.”
• Euro­pean Day of Sustai­na­ble Commu­ni­ties takes place on 18 Septem­ber 2021; it is a time to cele­brate local commu­ni­ties taking action for a healt­hier, fairer, rege­ne­ra­tive Europe

 

The Holo­gram

“Health is not an indi­vi­dual posses­sion but a commu­nity respon­si­bi­lity.”

At the inter­sec­tion of health, the capi­ta­list economy, and commu­nity care, we find a femi­nist art project called “The Holo­gram”. Artist and acti­vist Cassie Thorn­ton worked collec­ti­vely with psycho­lo­gists, artists, orga­ni­sers, and healers to come up with a prac­tice “to give people an expe­ri­ence of social trust and inter­de­pen­dence”.

Visu­ally, I see it as a tetra­he­dron – a trian­gu­lar pyra­mid with four vertex corners.

Prac­ti­cally, “The Holo­gram” is a person who recei­ves care from three helpers who are commit­ted to one of the three aspects of her health: medi­cal, emoti­o­nal, and social. That way, “we can attend to and track the health of people around us through regu­lar conver­sa­ti­ons (in person and virtual), close obser­va­tion, and good docu­men­ta­tion.”

Theo­re­ti­cally, it deve­lo­ped from the ques­tion, “where does the economy end, and where do I begin?”. «The Holo­gram» was presen­ted at many exhi­bi­ti­ons and confe­ren­ces, such as:

• Sylla­bus: “An open-source, peer-to-peer, viral social tech­no­logy for deha­bi­tu­a­ting humans from capi­ta­lism”
• Video: “CARING AS AN ACT OF RESIS­TANCE”, Radi­cal eXchange 2020
• Exhi­bi­tion: «An image of health in multi-dimen­si­o­nal crisis»
• Online Course for Deve­lo­ping Long-term Peer-to-Peer Health Stra­te­gies from within an Emer­gency
• Insta­lla­tion (2017): https://www.projects­pace-efanyc.org/sick-time/
• PDF book­let
• Source: http://femi­nis­te­co­no­mics­de­part­ment.com/holo­gram/

 

Its further deve­lop­ment depends on YOU and whet­her or not you choose to imple­ment it within your commu­nity!

 

Upco­ming Events

14 July, 10:00 (UTC): Open House: RIPE Commu­nity Resi­li­ence & Well­Being

10 July, 08:00 (UTC): SPIRAL, second quar­terly online meeting

29 July: The Econo­mics of Queer­ness

Further Resour­ces on Alter­na­ti­ves to Capi­ta­lism

Move­ments

• Mater­nal Gift Economy Move­ment: https://www.mater­nal­gif­te­co­nomy­mo­ve­ment.org/
• De-growth
• Social soli­da­rity economy:
  • http://www.ripess.eu/ (RIPESS) RÉSEAU EURO­PÉEN D’ÉCO­NO­MIE SOCI­ALE ET SOLI­DAIRE
• Circu­lar Economy
• Extinc­tion Rebe­llion: https://rebe­llion.global

 

Talks

• Carlota Perez:
  • “Towards a Sustai­na­ble Global Golden Age” (2010)
  • «The Second Machine Age» (2015)
  • «Rethin­king Capi­ta­lism: Envi­ron­men­tal poli­cies, tech­no­logy and inno­va­tion» (2019)
• Rachel Bots­man : «Colla­bo­ra­tive Economy and The New Order of Trust» (2019)
• Guppy Bolla: deco­lo­nise the economy, repair our ecosys­tems and address wealth inequa­lity (2021)
• World Circu­lar Economy Forum + Climate (15–16 April 2021), https://www.wcef­plus­cli­mate.com

 

Criti­ques

• Gende­red Econo­mics, Kate Manne (in “Entit­led”, 2020)
• Survei­llance Capi­ta­lism, Shos­hana Zouboff
• “'[P]atri­ar­cha­lism’ high­lights the Marxist tradi­ti­on’s proble­ma­tic view of indus­trial produc­tion and the State in the strug­gle for human libe­ra­tion."
  • “Patri­ar­chy of the Wage: Notes on Marx, Gender, and Femi­nism”, an upco­ming book by Silvia Fede­rici (Novem­ber 2021)
• Step­ha­nie McMi­llan: “Capi­ta­lism Must Die! A Basic Intro­duc­tion to Capi­ta­lism: What It Is, Why It Sucks, and How to Crush It” (PDF)
• «IT industry is a dicta­tors­hip», Heat­her Marsh’s blog post (2013)
• Rebecca McKin­non, «Consent of the Networ­ked: The World­wide Strug­gle for Inter­net Free­dom» http://consen­toft­he­net­wor­ked.com
• «Why I Am Not a Maker» by Debbie Chachra
  • «When tech culture only cele­bra­tes crea­tion, it risks igno­ring those who teach, criti­cize, and take care of others.»
• Algo­rith­mic Govern­me­na­lity by Antoi­nette Rouv­roy

Arti­cles

• Amster­dam is Embra­cing a Radi­cal New Econo­mic Theory to Help Save the Envi­ron­ment. Could It Also Replace Capi­ta­lism?
• The bear, the tiger, and the trade unio­nist by Julia Stein­ber­ger on Medium
• Here’s why Indi­ge­nous econo­mics is the key to saving nature by Krystyna Swiderska, 13 April 2021
• Econo­mics Through the Lens of Women—A Review of Gian­do­me­nica Becchi­o’s 'A History of Femi­nist and Gender Econo­mics’ by Ritwika Patgiri, 1 March 2021
• Jessica Green’s «Can the World’s Bankers Really Save the Climate?»
• Degrowth and the emer­ging mosaic of alter­na­ti­ves, Corinna Burkhart, Nina Treu, Matt­hias Schmel­zer, 9 June 2020
• Giving Up on Econo­mic Growth could make us Cooler and Happier by Kate Aronoff, 13 May 2021
• The emoti­o­nal labour of acade­mia in the time of a pande­mic: A femi­nist reflec­tion by Miche­lle Newcomb, 4 March 2021
• Times of greed; times of fair­ness by Carlota Perez and Andres Scha­fer, 19 Novem­ber 2020
• THE WOMEN OF RAQQA ARE REBUIL­DING THEIR FUTURE by Marg­he­rita Orsini, 30 May 2021

 

Bonus Links

• Why We Need Coope­ra­ti­ves for the Digi­tal Economy & The Humansp­here helps Perceive Abun­dance in the Anth­ro­po­cene Era by Alexan­dre Lemi­lle, 20 Octo­ber 2020
• Degrowth: New Roots for the Economy
• Re-imagi­ning the Future After the Corona Crisis
• degrowth, not effi­ci­ency by Geor­gios Kallis
• 16 answers to the ques­tion, «How can we create a success­ful economy without conti­nu­ous econo­mic growth?»
• Growth without econo­mic growth, Euro­pean Envi­ron­ment Agency, 2019
• The credit commons proto­col, Matt­hew Slater (video)
• The Limits of the “Sustai­na­ble” Economy by Kieren Mayers, Tom Davis, and Luk N. Van Wassen­hove, 16 June 2021
• Regar­ding Mutu­a­lism, Coope­ra­ti­vism, and Other (Inter­s­ti­ti­ally) Anti-Capi­ta­list Alter­na­ti­ves, by Russell Arben Fox, 14 June 2021
• Auto­ma­ting Ostrom for Effec­tive DAO Manage­ment by Jeff Emmett on Medium
• These Alter­na­tive Econo­mies Are Inspi­ra­ti­ons for a Sustai­na­ble World, Scien­ti­fic Ameri­can (link)
• What is the pay system you dream of? Beyond the taboo of money by Samantha Slade, 29 June 2017
• Econo­mic Justice and Ecolo­gi­cal Rege­ne­ra­tion by Jeremy Lent, Spring 2020
• Degrowth and the pluri­verse: Conti­nued colo­ni­a­lity or inter­cul­tu­ral revo­lu­tion? – STEPS Centre
• Tree­Co­no­mics: https://www.tree­co­no­mics.co.uk/
• Sizing up the green jobs revo­lu­tion, Fabian Wallace-Step­hens, 28 June 2021
• Economy we are crea­ting, a book
• Less Is More, a book
• Refra­ming econo­mics, by Herbert Girar­det, 27 April 2021
• THE CASE FOR A SLOW ECONOMY, Andrew Simms, 29 June 2020 in Idler Maga­zine
• 2020: The Isola­tion Economy
• Techno-solu­ti­o­nism and the stan­dard human in the making of the COVID-19 pande­mic by Stefa­nia Milan in Big Data & Soci­ety, 20 Octo­ber 2020
• Trans­pa­rent Sala­ries: Our New Remote-First Formula and Upda­ted Salary Calcu­la­tor (Caryn and Jenny, Buffer’s Finance team), https://buffer.com/resour­ces/salary-formula/
• David Grae­ber’s essay from 2013, «A Prac­ti­cal Utopi­an’s Guide to the Coming Collapse»