Someone recently asked “How is production of goods and services regulated to avoid over and underproduction [in Copiosis]?”
It’s a good question and something distinguishing Copiosis from other systems currently used to manage resource distribution. The way Copiosis manages distribution results in an abundant world for people and the planet.
In capitalism, and to some degree, other economic models such as socialism and communism, overproduction and underproduction create problems. Too much of something creates a surplus which causes certain cascading problems. Not enough creates scarcity, creating other cascading issues.
How it works today
Both overproduction and underproduction present problems. That’s why economies strive for a balance or equilibrium between supply and demand. These two problems, overproduction and underproduction, affect consumers and producers alike.
Too much of a good or service makes that thing’s price go down. Lower prices mean paychecks go farther. For consumers, that’s not so bad, right?
But overproduction tends not to last. That’s because lower prices can influence producer activity. When prices get too low, producers will stop making things because production costs and lower prices shrink profits impossible. Slowing production reduces surpluses, thus raising prices and making production profitable again. But that means paychecks don’t go as far.
But more producers will make that thing, seeing more opportunity to profit. And they’ll keep making more until some kind of balance happens between production and demand, price and cost. Economics classes illustrate this with the supply and demand equilibrium graph or curve.
So price and cost signals control production and demand, thus keeping the two in equilibrium. All economic systems that use money today control overproduction and underproduction through such price and cost signals.
As mentioned, overproduction produces lower prices, making producers less willing to commit costly resources to things where profit margins narrow. Underproduction causes limited product availability and higher prices. If people want something in short supply, they must pay more for it. That increases producer profits. And THAT causes producers to make more of the thing until, once again, a balance occurs between consumer demand and producer supply.
Generally speaking, that’s how today’s economic systems keep production in check, or in an equilibrium of supply and demand. It mostly works.
What overproduction?
Copiosis is based on abundance, not price and cost. Abundance is the natural order of the Universe. So Copiosis accords with how the Universe works instead of worrying about production.
Have you noticed pear trees or dandelions, plankton, or any other facet of nature concerned about “overproduction”? Does the universe carefully dole out the number of asteroids or planets that exist? How about the sun? Does it hold back on energy it spews into our solar system?
Of course not!
Look at all those leaves in fall. That abundance turns to soil, aided by bacteria, worms and other natural functions. Look at one tree. Notice how many freaking seeds one tree produces!
Now look at how many of just one tree type exists. How many of those seeds from all those trees actually become more trees? Comparatively little.
So does nature concern itself with overproduction or underproduction? Decidedly not! Seeds that don’t become trees become food for all kinds of things. Some seeds, embedded in fruit, animals take great distances aiding in varietal distribution. They’ll eat the fruit, then later, maybe miles away, poop these seeds out which may end up sprouting another tree.
In the olden days so many buffalo existed in the US, the hills were as “black as the eye could see” according to one account. Somewhere between 30 and 60 million of them existed at any one time.
Salmon, as large as Golden Retrievers, once filled North American rivers so thick witnesses said “you could walk across the river on their backs.”
The universe doesn’t care about overproduction or underproduction. It produces abundantly. Same with Copiosis.
Overproduction in Copiosis?
In Copiosis, we ask: “overproduction?” What is that?
Copiosis worries not about overproduction. Or underproduction. People must worry about such things today because inflation, deflation, unemployment, surplus goods and all that other stuff “economists” worry about, affects people’s pocketbooks.
Nothing like that happens in Copiosis.
Instead, building blocks of goods and services (called capital goods) are owned/stewarded by individuals. Those people, with the help of the Copiosis Organization, monitor what’s happening and distribute their capital goods, at no cost, to people who make things. How do they decide who gets how much?
The NBR algorithm helps them decide. Among other things, it measures how many people make a given thing, and how many want the thing people make. If not enough things people want are being made, then the algorithm awards more Net Benefit Rewards (NBR) to those who make more of those things. Such awards decrease for people making things not so much in demand.
That way, producers stewarding capital goods have information they need. They will get more NBR supporting people making things that people want, thus creating more Net Benefit Value (NBV). They’ll distribute less capital goods to those making things people want less.
In Copiosis, algorithmic and market data works alongside capital good stewards’ own self interest (their ability to enrich themselves) and society’s interests (ensuring people get what they want) too. Producers get richer distributing goods and services to high NBV producing activities.
Meanwhile, the algorithm also manages HOW things get made. By awarding more NBR to producers using the most regenerative manufacturing practices, the algorithm incentivizes planet-friendly producer activity.
Since capital goods cost producers nothing, doing the right thing not only costs nothing, producers get richer doing those right things.
Copiosis: It’s about freedom
It doesn’t matter very much how much of something gets made. What’s more important is, how the thing gets made. And, since Copiosis rewards NBV, not production, “overproduction” becomes a market for creating wealth. That’s because when someone figures out what to do with stuff no one wants in a way that creates NBV, that person gets rich.
Copiosis offers a precise and effective way of allocating resources. NOT controlling an artificial problem such as “overproduction”. Copiosis’ approach is based on abundance. Abundance of wealth for all, and an abundance of whatever people want. While providing all that abundance, Copiosis ensures producers take care of the Earth too. All without impeding anyone’s freedom.
While creating so many benefits, Copiosis eliminates many, many things keeping people stressed, uptight, insecure and afraid of each other. Those things, insecurity, stress and fear perpetuate many problems. Both individual ones, such as disease and mental illness, and societal ones, such as school shootings, wars and environmental disasters.
We’re excited about Copiosis because of all this. Abundance can exist as the foundation supporting human society. Don’t you think it’s time that become our reality?