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Will Rushkoff & Co. Put Their Money Where Their Mouths Are?

In response to my on-going posts on Douglas Rushkoff’s Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus, Matthew Moore sent to me the following insightful e-mail.  I share it with you in full and with Matt’s kind permission.

It occurs to me when reading your excerpts from Rushkoff’s book that none of his desired outcomes require any sort of policy intervention, or even mass movement.

I can’t imagine that ‘human-scale’ local economies require more than about 200 people. I’m sure he can easily assemble such a number of like-minded souls from among his readership and take them off into the forest or wherever.

He needn’t worry that we unfortunates who are left behind will suffer from the absence of his proselytising. Surely the wild happiness of his new and prosperous society will make his case for him.

Yours sincerely,
Matt

Matt is correct that most of Rushkoff’s desired economic institutions can be easily achieved by him and a relatively small handful of like-minded folk, without forcing the rest of us to play along.  But Rushkoff does offer a few policy proposals that require the use of force by some people on other people.  For example, Rushkoff calls for a minimum guaranteed annual income.  And, presumably, Rushkoff will not object if most of the net recipients of these income transfers have their transfers financed out of money taken from producers who are not part of the same local communities as those who receive them.

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