economic-overview-of-a-syndicalist-enclave.md

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+# Introduction
+
+> Nothing liberates us from a monopolist more readily than the revelation
+> that we don't want his wares.
+>
+> -- Yanis Varoufakis
+
+> It is the historic mission of the working class to do away with
+> capitalism.
+>
+> The army of production must be organized, not only for
+> everyday struggle with capitalists, but also to carry on production
+> when capitalism shall have been overthrown.
+>
+> By organizing industrially we are forming the structure of the new
+> society within the shell of the old.
+>
+> -- From "Preamble to the IWW Constitution", by the Industrial Workers of the World
+
+Forget, for now, about solving all the world's problems.  What does a
+solution for small groups look like?
+
+This document proposes one answer to that question: a
+co-op/startup/commune/hackspace in the model of the kibbutzim, or Amish
+communities, or Twin Oaks/East Wind.  Internally communist/anarchist,
+interfacing with the outside world via the default capitalist framework.
+
+The aim is to provide an alternative to the default life of work and
+consumption and rent and mortgages, that emphasizes freedom and life
+and joy.
+
+Make material goods that are useful, or profitable, or ideally both.
+Make things to sell, to make money, to buy the things we can't make
+ourselves yet.
+
+The work we do should either reduce our dependence on the external
+capitalist economy (how much we need to buy from them), or increase our
+value to them (how much they buy from us).
+
+Those are opposite sides of the scale of the economic interaction.
+But the goal is not to successfully trade with the external capitalist
+economy - the goal is to secede from it.
+
+
+# Goals
+
+* Self sufficiency/independence
+
+* Egalitarian
+    - radical transparency
+    - decentralization of authority
+
+* Healthy
+
+* Ecologically sound
+
+* Inter-generational
+
+* Peaceful
+
+* Prosperous
+
+* Free as in freedom
+
+* Be well positioned, socially and economically, for coming adversities
+  and opportunities (climate change, political upheaval, AI, nanotech,
+  etc)
+
+* Nurture connections to a network of like-minded individuals,
+  communities, and organizations both for social contact and for economic
+  strength
+
+
+# Physiological Needs
+
+---
+
+![](images/Maslow's_Hierarchy_of_Needs_Diagram.png)
+By Hamish.croker - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=164544166
+
+---
+
+* 1 gallon/person/day water
+* 2,500 calories/person/day food
+    * 4% carbs, 25g
+    * 16% protein, 107g
+    * 80% fat, 242g
+* Shelter/real estate:
+    * ~150 sqft bedroom/person
+    * ~100 sqft bathroom/family
+    * ~100 sqft kitchen/family
+    * ~400 sqft living room/family
+    * ~200 sqft garage-shop/family
+* Energy (electricity, fuels)
+* Clothes
+
+Higher needs:
+* furniture
+* tools
+* weapons
+* bandwidth
+* health care
+* education
+
+
+# Independence
+
+Independence means independence from capitalist coersion, not independence
+from society or ecology.
+
+Independence is a sliding scale, quantified by the measurement of
+Vitamins.  Anything you have to pay money for is a Vitamin.
+
+Independence doesn't apply just to fabrication, but to all of humanity's
+material conditions: from the basics of survival and procreation; air,
+water, food, shelter, to higher needs like education, health care, etc.
+
+Track your fucking budget.  Count your vitamins.  The revolution needs
+accountants.  See where you're tied to capitalism.  Focus on strengthening
+your independence by cutting those bonds:
+
+1. Find ways to produce what you need.  If you need an item, and the
+   default way of getting it is to buy it from an external supplier, try
+   to figure out what it would take to produce it internally.  Maybe you'd
+   need tooling and raw materials (machine X and lower-level vitamins Y
+   and Z), plus the skill and time to use this new productive capacity.
+   While the initial capital outlay of buying the tooling might be
+   considerable, and climbing the learning curve might initially take
+   longer than just clicking "Buy Now" on JLCPCB or whatever, this
+   investment might make economic sense if it can be amortized over a
+   long productive life.  The new productive capacity might serve the
+   enclave and aligned external sibling-enclaves.
+
+2. Acquire what you need by trading with your network instead of with the
+   capitalist superstructure.  This is the flip side of option 1: maybe
+   some sibling-enclave has already taken on the task of internalizing
+   the relevant production, and now we can lean on them (while supporting
+   them) to satisfy our needs.
+
+3. Do without.  This one is simple enough - but the goal is abundance,
+   not austerity.  Material conditions will determine our actions,
+   and many goods are worthless.  Be stingy by default.
+
+
+# Bootstrap
+
+Minimize up-front capital outlay!
+
+This means:
+
+* Make do with the space/infrastructure/tools I have available right now.
+  This includes my house & garage, and the hackspace.
+
+* Bootstrap while making money at a dayjob?  I sure don't want to burn
+  through my retirement savings while trying to start this up.
+
+* Generally emphasize learning & using skills over spending money.
+  This dovetails with the ultimate goal of independence and resiliency.
+  But also note that sometimes, spending money is more efficient than DIY.
+
+* When learning new skills, first review the literature of those who
+  went before.  Try to collaborate on their documentation, or start new
+  public documents with info & links to help the next person.
+
+* Fabricate open-source hardware, primarily for use by the comrades but
+  also for sale to the public.
+
+Perform wage labor in the external capitalist economy, in order to
+earn currency, to fund our existance and our development towards FALC.
+Remote software engineering jobs are an obvious target here, as it keeps
+us together and earns good money (in 2023 when this was first written).
+
+The work should both make money and offset living expenses.  It should
+scale up as you add people and capital, to provide work and/or sustenance
+for others.  The work should fit into a larger picture of diversification,
+building towards resilience.
+
+
+## Traps to avoid
+
+* Working on stuff that makes money but doesn't further the mission.
+
+* Working on stuff that furthers the mission but isn't economically
+  sustainable.
+
+* Spending down my retirement savings and having to go back to a normal
+  day job.