Richard D. Bartlett @RichDecibels 2021-07-30
I need to write about how people tend to mess up the “gift economy” concept when they’re starting out, leading to outcomes that are the opposite of what they intend
this thread will be missing some important nuance but hopefully it’s still useful…
I’ve spent about ten years experimenting with revenue models that better reflect my values
I have a complaint against wealth inequality, commodification, rampant capitalism, etc, so when I sell things I don’t want a lack of money to be a barrier to people accessing them
so I started, like many others, with a naive kind of “gift economy” model:
you can use my software / download my book / join my workshop and all I ask is that you “pay what you want”
I’ve come to the conclusion that this approach to “pay what you want” sucks, basically
the intentions are good but the outcomes are shitty
maybe your experience is different, but it doesn’t work for me
the intention is to ameliorate the effects of wealth inequality, making my product more accessible to people without money
BUT “pay what you can” events seem more likely to attract trustfund kids who just don’t want to get a job, rather than actual poor working class people
I mean the incentives are optimised for freeloaders who are low on cash, not poor people who are structurally excluded from economic participation
sustainable economic flows are an essential part of accessibility
if you’re not earning enough to justify the effort of making your product, you’ll give up, and then it won’t be accessible to ANYONE
when you ask freeloaders to “pay what you can”, they don’t pay much!
as a producer it’s your responsibility to ensure you’re getting enough income to be able to keep producing
it’s wacky to offload this responsibility to the people you’re serving, how should they know what you need or what your product is worth?
now please note I am not “against the gift economy”, I’m complaining about a specific naive interpretation of gift economics
[I usually avoid the term “gift economy” because I think so much is lost in translation when appropriated outside of its native (tribal) context]
I’m not an anthropologist but I understand that traditional gift economies operated in a context of bounded social relationships, thick social fabric that enables rich multidimensional information flow
these are exchanges mediated through extensive shared context & mutual understanding, governed by social norms that reward prosocial behaviour and sanction freeloaders
[yes that’s right folks it is a commons management problem] https://prosocial.world/post/act-the-core-design-principles…
so what’s the alternative? I’ll tell you what I’ve learned so far…
1. it’s kind to set clear expectations
it’s hard for people to accurately evaluate the invisible effort you put in to making a product. is this about as valuable as an espresso? or a holiday in Malta?
2. the more shared context, the less control is required
if this is a one-off encounter between strangers, then I’ll give you a price and you can take it or leave it
if you understand my economic situation then I’m happy to give you more freedom in your decision
3. you can increase context by sharing more information
e.g. these days I sell events with 3 ticket prices: Standard, Lower Income, and Higher Income
I share my context (lower income is less than about €22k/yr), ppl are free to choose what’s right for them
4. set a default, but give people the option to pay less
all my products have a link somewhere on the sales page essentially saying “if you want to buy this but you can’t afford it, fill in this short form (share your context), and we’ll make it work”
5. you can increase shared context through longer relationships
one-off transactions are not well suited to gift economics; so design for ongoing relationships, with a calendar of repeated encounters
as evidence to back up this rant, I submit this tweet which has earned me about €4000 this week
https://x.com/RichDecibels/status/1418569072359395329…
sales are evenly spread across all the options: high price, mid price, low price, and free
nobody is turned away, and I can afford to keep doing it
2021-07-23
in September I’m running a practical short course in community building: the Microsolidarity Practice Program
this is the 7th iteration of the course, so I want to do this one a bit different - I want to fill the room with twitter friends
1/x
if you want to reliably increase access for people who are systematically marginalised by our economic systems: make friends with them and invite them!
there’s nothing more effective than genuine dignified relationships of mutual respect
https://x.com/marialavis/status/1421158496490319873…
daily reminder to self: it is not my job to solve all the injustices and heal all the traumas of capitalism, it’s my job to find the most beneficial / least harmful way to keep showing up and offering my unique contribution to the world
I think the people mental categorise things into “free” or “paid”
once your product is categorised it is very hard to move it
so better to have “I was given this paid product for free” than “I got a free product and was asked to optionally pay for it”