In another discussion the following issues were raised and addressed:

I read David's dialectic on bridges and the value of labor. It very much reminds me of bartering.

by using the words dialectic and bartering you categorize what I am saying into that which you already know. I am not offended by that - but the reason that I used the name Self-help corporation is to try to get people to think outside the box. The purpose of an SHC is not an alternative currency supplement to the existing market economy - which is designed to maximize the efficiency of financial resources. It is a different kind of organization designed to maximize the utilization of labor - and as such, it has the capacity to produce an abundance of basic goods and services - and anyone in the community could earn a share of that abundance - and still hold a job in the market economy. That is converting financial resources back into living resources - in an organization owned by all those in the community that contribute to the organization.

The sticky part in all of this is power. Even now there is a tension between proponents of different organizational or economic models. Resolving this tension is a very important and challenging task. Where does the buck stop on a global level?

This type of community organization can bring the power of choice back to the community level. Humans will still need a mechanism to make choices on a planetary level - but, if every community were self-sufficient in food, clothing, shelter, education and health care, there are fewer choices that need to be made at that level and more choices that will be made at the community level.

At the community level, I would think that we would want to use the best information -> knowledge -> wisdom available. I do not like consensus models or extreme democracy for the reason that it produces decisions from the lowest common knowledge - and because most people cannot be troubled to educate themselves about the issues involved in a decision. For that reason, I like the corporate model, in which the community - based on the number of shares that they own - elects a board of directors - to oversee the best talent that can be found - to oversee the operation for the purpose of:

The more favors you give and receive, the more you get to know your neighbors and the higher your quality of life. We only need a way to keeps track of those favors, creating an incentive to do more of them, and accumulate tools and assets to make those favors easy to perform (convert financial resources into living resources).