In recent news, Facebook and Google took a PR licking — but the two behemoths keep on ticking. They’re gobbling up your data to serve you ads, making a killing in the process. Copiosis transforms this business model, and in the process, pays you when you use social media or search online.
Let’s look at how that happens.
In short, Copiosis eliminates two things that, in some people’s minds, makes both companies evil: rigid top-down hierarchies and their primary focus on profit maximization.
It’s obvious profit maximization drives competition, which can benefit consumers, but in Capitalism, that doesn’t always happen. It doesn’t drive net beneficial outcomes, that’s for sure.
That’s why a tossed salad of districts filed anti-trust lawsuits against tech and social media giants Facebook and Google. Their complaints offer compelling arguments for breaking up the two. So do revelations of how other countries have used Facebook (at least) to meddle in U.S. elections.
It should also be said that compelling arguments bolster both companies’ perspectives on the court filings. But it’s still pretty obvious that, overall, these companies’ results when it comes to producing beneficial outcomes, are less than stellar.
A huge difference Capitalism can’t match
Both platforms and their technologies are very useful. It’s just a matter of re-directing these useful features toward making the world a better and better place. There’s no need to regulate the companies or force them in that direction. They’ll do it themselves in Copiosis because that’s how everyone in the two organizations get rich.
Copiosis doesn’t tear down or overthrow institutions like these, because once profit no longer drives business – once Net Benefit replaces profit – institutions of all kinds no longer function as profit-maximizers. They function as Net Benefit Maximizers.
That’s a huge difference.
So, if Copiosis were to happen tomorrow, Facebook and Google would still exist, but they would be as different from what they are now as raw milk is from gourmet cheese and ice cream.
They would still be high tech behemoths, swallowing up your data and using it to serve you with interesting content. But everyone contributing to both institutions would get Net Benefit Rewards when the services Google and Facebook offer make the you and earth better off.
You can bet algorithms in both companies, for example, would run much differently, as there’s no need to restrict what you see on your wall or get in your search. Some censorship would still exist, as it does now, to protect you and others from gruesome, gory or other inappropriate content — but (as is already the case on a number of websites), it will be self-imposed.
In other words, you will choose what you do and do not see — nobody will choose for you (the exception being the parent of a young child, who would receive NBR for protecting their child from such content).
One other thing would happen that likely will never happen in Capitalism: you’d get awards for value you generate by using both Facebook and Google. A growing number of people today already believe they should be paid for data their use generates. In Copiosis that’s exactly what happens.
Copiosis transforms ownership
There would no longer be Google or Facebook shareholders – their share value would be cashed out at per-share market price in NBR. Many former shareholders would still be very rich, thus being able to acquire Luxuries and live lavish lifestyles in Copiosis.
In Facebook’s case, Mark Zuckerberg would no longer “own” the company, because that legal entity would no longer exist. Instead, the infrastructure that was once Facebook, Inc. would be operated by a group of dedicated individuals, contributing to the organization by performing or stewarding most of the software and hardware that make up what Facebook is today. Mark might still “lead” the company, set direction, and policy. But he will operate under a new mandate: Steward those resources to maximize Net Benefit to all.
Zuckerberg and others responsible for creating the company still receive massive NBR streams for benefits Facebook ongoingly creates. After all, had they not done the preliminary groundwork, none of what the company is or does would exist today. The same can be said about Google.
Both companies offer benefits today that endure, certainly. But very quickly after the transition, those closer to the front lines, those actually creating the ongoing value — including users — will become much richer than they are today.
That’s because those people are more directly responsible for that value than people “at the top”. That’s something else capitalism will never be able to do.
Copiosis isn’t anti-business. It liberates business by creating room for it to address the social problems governments, benevolent societes and charities have wrestled with unsuccessfully for decades — all while enriching business leaders. However, it also enriches those in the trenches, enabling them to thrive — not just survive. So long as Facebook and Google help humanity to thrive, those contributing to those behemoths get rich.
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