Notes Toward A True Gospel Of Prosperity

I haven't decided yet whether to make this an essay, a book, a video, or an outline for a discussion group. But while I'm figuring that out, fell free to rattle these bones:

1. God is infinite. 
2. God is generous.
3. God created the material world to reflect His infinitude through abundance.
4. God gave humans the capacity, and the mandate, to manage abundance for greater abundance.
5. Sin has made everything harder, but there is still enough of everything we need for everyone.
6. When the Holy Spirit quickens faith in Jesus Christ, humans receive the life of God in all its fullness.
7. God really, really wants to use His people to show off.
8. Christians in particular should manifest the wisdom of God in cultivating the abundance of creation, and the generosity of God in distributing that abundance.
9. Christians are to provide for themselves, their households, their extended families, fellow members of the ecclesia and the poor generally.

That's my view. What's yours?

WANTED: Brains for Haiti - UPDATE

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post, "WANTED: Brains for Haiti," which outlined a idea for an initiative that might lift Haiti out of poverty. The idea was inspired by the work of Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto, head of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy, on formalizing informal economies, and Mark S. Miller and Marc Stiegler, chief technology officer and chief operating officer, respectively, of Combex, Inc., a software firm focused on the development of secure distributed computing systems, who wrote a paper about using "smart contracts" to implement Mr. de Soto's ideas.

This post is to report that I have emailed those three men to inform them about that post.

That is all. 

WANTED: Brains for Haiti

I would like some people's help in thinking about something. About 10 years ago, in a feverish bout of writing, I sketched the outline of an initiative to lift Haiti out of poverty. I would like help in thinking about whether or not any of it makes sense, or is in any way doable.

The outline was based on fragmentary knowledge of two things:

1) The work of Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto, the founder of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy. I learned about de Soto through an article in Forbes magazine in May, 2000, titled "Waking Dead Capital." The article outlined de Soto's belief that the key to the development of poor nations is the establishment of universal property rights - that such rights make prosperity possible because they enable people to use land ownership to access capital. The economic growth of the U.S., for instance, was largely driven by the fact that a farmer could use his land as collateral for a loan to buy a tractor that increased his productivity and his profits.

Reading the article immediately placed de Soto in my personal pantheon; reading his book that came out around the same time, "The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else," strengthened his position there - especially because of what it said about Haiti: that the poor of Haiti held informal ownership of assets worth $5.4 billion, more than the total of all the aid that had ever come into the country. But the value of those assets was trapped in a legal system under which it took 19 years to gain legal title to property. If a more efficient system of property ownership were developed, Haiti might rise out of poverty.

2) de Soto's work had already transformed my thinking when I came across a paper, "The Digital Path: Smart Contracts and the Third World, by Mark S. Miller and Mark Stiegler, in which the authors propose implementing de Soto's ideas by using "smart contracts" - "contracts as program code, where the terms of the contract are enforced by the logic of the program's execution."

The introduction to the paper alone was enough to set my neurons on fire:

Because binding contracts for ownership transfer lie at the heart of capital formation, what if traditional contracts were supplemented and/or supplanted with smart contracts? Smart contracts will enable cooperation among mutually suspicious parties, often without need for legal recourse. Could such a jurisdiction-free contracting mechanism, accessible over the Net, dramatically increase capital liquidity, spawning a flood of new wealth in the poorest areas of the world? (emphasis added)

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As the January 1, 2004 bicentennial of Haiti's independence approached, I received invitations for a celebratory cruise to the island. Cruises have never appealed to me - the glowing testimonies of everyone I have ever known who has gone on a cruise have never overcome my lack of interest in spending days at a time on a big boat. But I thought seriously about going on the Haiti Bicentennial cruise, for one reason: to convene a meeting to discuss the possibility and feasibility of implementing smart contracts in Haiti.

That meeting is what I wrote the outline about. I listed the parties that I would want to have present:

• Hernando de Soto and members of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy,
• leaders of the Haitian government,
• Miller and Stiegler, and computer programmers familiar with smart contracts, and
• American bankers

I listed the sub-meetings that I thought should happen, and the desired outcomes of each:

• ILD/programmers - an agreement to work together to produce the needed software - not just for smart contracts, but for the titling of land.
• ILD/Haitian government/programmers - an agreement for the Haitian government to use the software produced for titling land
• ILD/bankers/programmers - an agreement for the banks to use the software produced
• Haitian government/bankers - an agreement for the banks to lend in Haiti, based on newly-created land titles

And commitments for people to make publicly, to everyone:

• Programmers: We will develop smart contracts for implementation in Haiti and grant the Bankers an exclusive license if they pay us.
• ILD: We will provide the underlying social research for the development and implementation of smart contracts in Haiti if the Bankers will pay us.
• Bankers: We will pay the IT people if they will grant us an exclusive license on banking software for smart contracts in Haiti.
• Bankers: we will pay ILD if they will provide the underlying social research for smart contracts in Haiti.
• Programmers: We will provide the Haitian government with an exclusive license for the government software if the Haitian government will pay us.
• Haitian government: We will pay the programmers if they give us exclusive license to the government software.
• Haitian government: We will allow the Bankers to do business in Haiti, if they will lend to our people on favorable terms.
• Bankers: We will lend to the Haitian people on favorable terms if the Haitian government will allow us to use smart contracts there.

I drew a chart to show how implementing these agreements could produce money for everyone involved (the oval at the upper right says, "Combex people" - i.e., Miller, Stiegler et al):

I even imagined what I might say to the different parties to induce their participation:

• To Bankers: "You can create a lending market so big that you won't be able to make loans fast enough to service it, and you can have exclusive control of that market for five years or longer."
• To the Haitian government: "You can increase your tax revenues by $50 million a year or more. Your development of land law can leapfrog. Technology can enable better results more quickly than ILD's other projects have produced."
• Haitian citizens: "You can receive the financing you need to rise from poverty."
• Miller, Stiegler and programmers: "You can apply your theory and validate it in the real world."
• deSoto and ILD: "Your work can produce even more dramatic results in Haiti than it has in other places so far."

None of that ever happened, but it also did not disappear from my brain. When, for a time, I had substantial extra cash (gone now, alas), I considered creating a foundation to fund the development of property law in Haiti. Can't do that now, but maybe I can spark some thinking and some conversation and some connections that can refine this stuff and make it work.

Of course, the earthquake may relegate all such thinking and conversation to the realm of fantasy. Or not. By posting this, by making it public, I surrender all expectation about what will happen, and place it in the realm of pure possibility.

Could a software-based scheme of titling and transferring land, and of lending based on the validity of such titles and the value of the land, help to lift Haiti out of poverty? If so, what might it take to make that happen?

5 x 5 - A Transdimensional, Transformational Matrix

My @elwin15208 Twitter profile says:

"Level 1 = hate the player. Level 2 = hate the game. Level 3 = learn to play. I strive for Level 5."

I'm just a tiny bit disappointed that no one has ever asked me, "What's Level 5? For that matter, what's Level 4?"

But since you're here and I'm here and it's late, I'll tell you.

Level 4 = play the game really well.

Level 5 = create your own game. That can be an extension of Level 4, where you play the game so supremely that even people on the court/field with you acknowledge that while you're both in the same physical space, you are playing a different game from the one they're playing. Even a non-sports fan like me feels safe in saying, "There's basketball, and then there's that thing that Michael Jordan did."

Or it can truly be a new game, in which you write your own rules. Maybe you even invite others to play.

Level 5, you see, is the level of creativity.

I don't remember when, where or how I first began thinking in terms of Level 5. But it was some years ago, and over the years, I have become quite fond of the construct, which grew into the idea that in any endeavor, any field, any area, there always a Level 5.

Or to put it differently, that Level 5 is always available. We can choose the level from which we will operate

Such thinking has been useful; it has helped me to challenge myself with questions like, "What level am I acting from?" or "What would be a Level 5 response to this situation?"

I have even imagined that "Level 5" (tm) could become a fashion label, with designs that convey a sense of freedom and creativity that makes classics contemporary.

(Okay, that last part is my way of saying that for me, the 1940s were the peak of fashion. I want Indiana Jones's look from the last scene of "Raiders." Anyway...)

Somewhere along the way I devised a set of five 5s. I heartily proclaim them unscientific, although the "Experiencing Life" one cribs from Abraham Maslow.

FIVE LEVELS OF GAMES (all kinds of games...)
Level 1: Hate the player
Level 2: Hate the game
Level 3: Learn to play
Level 4: Play excellently
Level 5: Create your own game

FIVE ECONOMIC LEVELS
Level 1: Lack
Level 2: Sufficiency
Level 3: Excess
Level 4: Wealth
Level 5: Abundance

FIVE LEVELS OF EXPERIENCING LIFE
Level 1: Basic physiological needs
Level 2: Safety needs
Level 3: Psychological needs
Level 4: Self-Actualization
Level 5: Peak Experiences

FIVE COMPONENTS OF PERSONHOOD
Level 1: Behavior
Level 2: Emotion
Level 3: Intellect
Level 4: Will
Level 5: Spirit

FIVE LEVELS OF ACTIVITY IN THE WORLD
Level 1: Destructive
Level 2: Reparative
Level 3: Preventive
Level 4: Cultivative
Level 5: Creative

I may expound on those later; I may not. Buried in the cross-hatch are implications and notions (not developed theses) like defaulting to ecstasy, the abundant nature of the physical world and the infinitude of creativity, and the sufficiency of operating from Level 3 most of the time  - and for Christians, the extremity of redemption and the supremacy of the resurrected spirit (Level 5 of personhood; for the non-Christian, the highest level would be the will.)

But not tonight.aysl

Mitt and me

So, a Facebook friend of mine posted this piece from Salon that includes an income calculator to figure out how long it would take Mitt Romney to earn the reader's salary.

I'm not sure what the usefulness of the calculator is. Does the fact that Romney's $21.6 million income in 2010 translates to him making as much in one day as I did all year - does that equip me to do anything?

Does it help me for Slate to point out that half of Romney's income came from capital gains? I suppose that information is mildly interesting, but that's about it - unless it is accompanied by information on how I can get capital gains, too.

And that's the thing - when I learn that Mitt Romney made $10 million or so in capital gains in 2010, my overriding question becomes, "How can I do that, or something like it?"

I suspect that that's not the response the good folks at Salon were seeking (if any). But truth be told, I don't understand people not asking that question. Unless they're simply more spiritual than me. Or something. Alright, I don't understand.

Likewise, when I hear about corporate tax breaks, it makes me want to incorporate. Who wouldn't?

Nearly everyone I know, as far as I can tell. Fact is, I spend a good deal of time feeling like a weird duck because most of my acquaintances never seem to think about incorporating, or generating capital gains, and some of them even seem to think that corporations and capital gains are inherently evil.

Which leads to another thing. Ever since the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (usually abbreviated to "Citizens United") gained attention, many people have taken up the slogan, "Corporations are not people." Okay, but if that's your stance, don't reify corporations with adjectives like "evil" and "greedy." People are those things.

(And poor people can be just as greedy as rich people; they're just not as good at it.)

I think the thinking that is quick to identify corporations, capital gains and rich people generally as evil results from making politics the antecedent of economics, rather than vice versa (off the top of my head, I'd say that the appropriate antecedents of economics are theology, geology, and biology).

QUACK!!