We will own everything.  We will be prosperous.  The world will be at peace.

  As together we choose, together it will be.

we-the-people.earth

Whitepaper

This outline lists the key components of the we-the-people.earth digital-platform along with the vision and purpose for its development and utilization.

01. Abstract.

The aspiration of we-the-people.earth is to become a member-owned and operated global organization structured to stimulate, enrich, and regulate - the economic, cultural, and governmental affairs of humanity at scale.

To attain this, we-the-people.earth will combine a public-benefit corporation with a non-profit cooperative coordinated through the utility of a multifunctional and augmented, digital-platform specifically designed to encourage civic engagement and contribution, vigorous public discourse, and the submission of concise, intelligent proposals oriented towards the combined interests of its local, regional and global memberships.

The objective of this organizational structure is to actualize the various prioritized goals sought by the cooperative membership and, concurrently, to enhance the overall health and vitality of the communities in which it is operative.

More specifically, the agency of this digital-platform is designed to aid in the determination of membership priorities; assist in the development of related proposals; augment reasoned and constructive deliberation; facilitate the polling of submitted proposals by ballot; and, when requested, structure funding and investment opportunities for those proposals approved by the majority of the active membership.

02. Introduction.

Managing the economic, cultural, and governmental affairs of a community at any scale is a complex undertaking. A variety of interests are frequently at play in each of these arenas and resolving differences successfully can be burdensome, time-consuming, and will often waste valuable human resources in the process.

Our presumption in developing the we-the-people.earth platform is that, in leveraging certain technologies to assist in managing the affairs of these distinct, tripartite spheres, we can go a long way towards resolving the conflicts and the inefficiencies inherent within their process.

In addition, implementation of this carefully designed platform could potentially influence the collective creativity of any given community through its utilization, thus deepening civic participation in dynamic and heretofore unknown ways.

03. Priorities, Proposal, and Process.

Determining Priorities:  Our modern society has been led into a labyrinth of polarity by forces not kin to our general well-being - an ever entangled snarl of, often times, intentionally orchestrated opposition in our public discourse - right vs. left, liberal vs. conservative, black vs. white, native vs. non, and so on, with just about any divisive contrivance one can imagine. It could be construed that we are at a crossroads between the controlled demolition of an existing paradigm, and the embryonic awakening of what comes next. Whether this is a good omen, or an untenable predicament, is up to the current generations of humanity to decide.

Setting mutual priorities based on our common needs is the first step in a long process of reclaiming our birthright as individual, sovereign citizens of a collective, cooperative, and determined, “We the People” of the world.

Developing Proposals:  Working together to summon the inspiration for our effort to build a better world will likely take many forms. In addition, the creative act of establishing the aforementioned awakening will issue forth through a multitude of individuals and communities from around the globe. A stable and transparent mechanism therefore must be developed and utilized for the gathering of subsequent ideas, experience, visions, and intention into succinct and practicable documents that can be readily presented to the various memberships participating in the effort.

Facilitating Process:  A moderated forum that promulgates wise and reasoned input from all sectors willing to work towards the synergistic development of optimal outcomes through the submission of intelligent and concise proposals is the mandate, to be directed through the process, of this global digital-platform.

04. Premise and Purpose.

Exercising and actualizing *The Will of the People* is a noble effort that can only be achieved through a Direct Democracy. Representative Democracy has been the interim method of legislating and protecting our rule of law but, as is recognized by all but a very few, our political class of “representation” has been captured and transformed into a single “Uni-Party” where the vested interests of the 0.01% now rule the day. It is our opinion that anyone who is still denying this is just not paying attention.

But how do we go from an entrenched, self-serving, and captured political class to a “…government of the people, by the people, and for the people…”? This is the paramount focus of the Mandelbrot cooperative endeavor. Our purpose is to unite humanity in a collective campaign to build a better world, indeed, to optimize the outcomes of our endeavor together in such a way as to bring about the foundation of a global peace, a recognition of the commonality of interests we each possess as one human family.

Achieving a Direct Democracy, particularly at scale, will be difficult if not impossible without some form of technological augmentation. Our goal is to provide a platform that will do just that; one that will end the controlled demolition of that which we hold to be inalienable in order to unite humanity in moving toward an awakened and creative evolution.

05. Some Informative Background.

In the U.S. large transnational corporations wielding enormous powers have become the unelected and unaccountable agents driving our executive, legislative, and judicial functions. The pre-eminent example of this is perhaps the following historical sequence of decisions made by the U.S. Supreme Court:

     -     In 1886 an attorney for the Southern Pacific Railroad, former Senator Roscoe Conkling, deceived the Supreme Court into accepting the premise of a forged document stating that the 14th Amendment’s ‘Equal Protection Clause’ was intended to cover corporations, as well as living citizens of the State.

     -     In 1978 the above Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad decision was used to extend 1st Amendment freedoms to corporations in First Nat’l Bank of Boston v. Bellotti.

     -      In 2010 the notorious ‘Citizens United’ case built on the concept of corporate  personhood with 1st Amendment freedoms by broadening a corporations ability to influence our political process through the formation of ‘Political Action Committees’. 1

Since these decisions became law, transnational corporate interests have become the illiberal superintendents of our democracy while the average citizen is left wondering why our freedoms and quality of life are so quickly disappearing.

[Today,] the average personal wealth of people in the top 1% is more than a thousand times that of people in the bottom 50%… [and] during the COVID-19 Pandemic the wealth held by billionaires in the US increased by 70%.

Essentially, the wealthy possess greater financial opportunities that allow their money to make more money. Earnings from the stock market or mutual funds are reinvested to produce a larger return. Over time, the sum that is invested becomes progressively more substantial. Those who are not wealthy, however, do not have the resources to enhance their opportunities and improve their economic position. Rather, “after debt payments, poor families are constrained to spend the remaining income on items that will not produce wealth and will depreciate over time.” 2

Unregulated political and financial influences can be incredibly harmful to the security, prosperity, and general welfare of their native populations. Communities, whether local, regional, or global, are often at a loss as to how to organize themselves in order to successfully mitigate the impacts of these malign influences.

The preponderant dilemma we have before us is this: How do we confront these growing assaults on our welfare and prosperity - where are the trim tabs…where is the leverage? This is the inquiry we must now embark upon, together, at this signal moment in the evolution of our human species.

05. Methodology.

With the recent advent of Security Tokens and decentralized finance, it is now possible for those of modest means to invest in asset-backed securities and multi-owner real estate ventures. Firms like INX, Securitize, and Polymath have made it possible for small scale organizations of investors to do so within the regulatory framework of the SEC.

The supposition of our effort at we-the-people.earth is that in providing our membership with simple and direct access to capital (monetary, as well as social), within a steady and secure progression of prolonged development, we can leverage one of the most powerful tools available for re-building our intrinsic economic, and moral social order.

Coupled with an augmented digital-platform to prioritize and organize our undertaking, an assortment of opportunities open up for the citizens to invest their time and money locally, in a range of projects and acquisitions that were unimaginable just a few years ago. This is important because now it gives us the ability to buy back our rights to own and control the commons, in a very straightforward manner.

In an era when billionaires and multinational hedge funds are procuring real estate, farm acreage, and industry at an alarming rate, we now have a means of anchoring our own stake in the soil and substance of that which we will need to survive and thrive in the potentially difficult times ahead by supporting the prioritized development of our local and regional neighborhoods.

06. Some Hypothetical Examples.

Example #1.

At the current fixed rate of 7.188% (3/24), a 30 year loan for a home priced at $425,000, with a 20% down payment of $85,000, excluding property taxes and homeowners insurance, yields a net a monthly payment of $2305.12. Over the 30 year span of the loan the buyer will pay $829,800 (plus the initial down payment) for a total of cost of $914,800. Double the selling price, plus $64,800.

Total cost of loan = $489,8000.

An investment co-op can purchase the same home through a sale of security tokens to its members for the price of setting up the sale on a security token exchange, the cost of which is currently less than $20,000 for under 100 investors (plus a small fee for each additional). They can then rent the home out to someone in the community at a reduced monthly rate and still achieve a modest ROI on the deal (depending of course on a number of variables like location, deferred maintenance costs, price relative to value, etc.).

If this type of purchase is repeated 2 to 3 times a year, over several decades, a member-owned investment co-op could acquire and manage a significant portion of the local residential real estate thus providing a potential solution to the availability of low-cost housing for low-income residents.

If the co-op had a non-profit tied to it, it could then take advantage of public grants, private donations, volunteer work for maintenance and remodeling, a tax free status, and endowments pointed towards its low-cost housing program, thus lowering rents even further. And, nearly all of the monies involved would remain within the community.

Several generations of a community investment program as such could potentially isolate its population from the ups and downs of the housing market thus providing a very stable rental situation for it working-class citizens.

If small businesses and cottage industries were included in the mix, and if this type of cooperative venture occurred around the world, tailored to the indigenous economic and cultural landscape, this could begin to alter the global economy in a very meaningful way.

As we become less dependent on the financial industry that is moving our hard-earned dollars from local commerce to the multi-national corporate conglomerate and global banking interests, we would begin to experience the freedom and sovereignty we have so respectfully earned.

Example #2.

Maker Spaces are taking off across the country. There are now over 2,000 of these education and innovation labs in the United States. They provide access to a variety of tools and materials for development of various skills through hands-on experience targeting students and adults of all ages.

In this imaginary case, a city with a population of 25,000 has only one high school with a small wood shop and an even smaller auto shop, and not much else in the way of programs for educating students in the trades and the arts. In addition, the economy of the small city is largely dependent on tourism which has been known to fluctuate from year to year.

A proposal is being put together to build a Maker Space and Innovation Incubator on some property just outside of town. The objective is to provide an educational facility to for training in the skills necessary for employment in small industry, construction, and the tech sector, along with access to a design and prototyping laboratory for developing new products and services for the local cottage industry.

Several groups from a variety of interested sectors within the community - from woodworkers and metalsmiths, to fiber arts designers, and even young geeks from the local hacker club have convened to coordinate their planning for the project.

It’s a large undertaking that will take many months of groundwork in order to coordinate design and budgeting for their proposal to the co-op membership. The we-the-people.earth platform allows them to meet and make decisions without the constraints of having to schedule a specific time and place for getting together.

When they are ready to begin the first phase of the project, they are able to raise $1,500,000 through the sale of security tokens to members interested in investing in the project. This will enable them to purchase the site they've selected, pay for the architectural drawings and the permitting process, and to hire a grant writer as well as a project coordinator.

Example #3.

A bank with a drive-up window is about to close in a city that has an ordinance prohibiting the construction of new drive-up windows within city limits in order to prevent fast-food chains from taking over the local restaurant market share with their cheap junk food.

The bank is located in the heart of the downtown area and a group of locals have decided to preempt the likely takeover of the vacated space by some corporate franchise. In this imaginary scenario, these concerned citizens are using the we-the-people.earth  platform to coordinate the development of a collaborative proposal to the present to the local food co-op who’s very successful deli is bursting at its seams.

The group is wanting the food co-op to consider taking over the lease in order to develop a deli-style restaurant in the space that will soon to be vacated by the bank.

The building has a large parking lot out back that would accommodate a large clientele - a big plus for the downtown area. There is also a patio area in front of the building that could be used for outdoor seating during the busy tourist season, and the drive-up window would service customers who are either on the run, or prefer to eat at home.

Our platform would be a gathering place for the creative formation of a strategy including, the rough drafting of a design for the new deli; the production of an initial budget for the project; gathering the necessary partners for the enterprise; and ultimately providing an investment strategy if the board members of the food co-op found it a viable location for a much needed expansion of their current business.

07. Conclusion.

We face an enormous peril as a species.

Continual war around the globe; widespread poverty, hunger, drug addiction, and homelessness; the ongoing stagnation and deterioration of our major cities, towns and villages; indeed, the apparent demise of the very planet we inhabit - all are familiar stories in the news cycle, each and every day.

Those we have elected and entrusted to secure and protect our interests, our sovereignty, and our inalienable human rights, have been captured by the perverse incentives of a cabal that is, at best, inept at safeguarding these manifold interests.

The good news though is that we now have several powerful tools that can enable us to disempower the individuals and institutions responsible for our predicament, as well as some technologies that can markedly expand our capacity for connection and cooperation.

If these tools and technologies are leveraged wisely, and at scale, we can begin to re-build our communities from within, and perhaps, with a great deal of determination and perseverance, over time, bring about a renaissance of regeneration, enlightenment and progressive evolution that is heretofore unknown to humankind.

We will own everything. We will be prosperous. The world will be at peace.

As together we choose, together it will be!

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