3/19/10 Health Insurance Blog Posting

How about the unhappy customers of the current insurance companies form
together to create a new insurance company with elected leadership,
checks and balances, and branches of governance. We could then create a
new company that's primary goal was providing the best health product at
the best price for its customers (what a novel idea). It would be
relatively easy to create a new company (no legislative initiative
needed) because insurance companies, like banks, have none of their own
money.

What if this Collaborative Insurance Company (CIC) created Population
Care Units (PCUs). For instance, my county has 100,000 people and two
hospitals with combined budgets of $100 million. At the $500 a month I
currently pay for insurance, this PCU would generate $600 million in
annual premiums. This CIC could negotiate with the hospitals to take
care of the 100,000 person PCU with no billing, no administration, no
overhead. The insurance company could probably operate on less than a
$1 million budget.

This would take our current system, where hospitals, doctors, etc become
richer the sicker people are, and instantly change it to them making
bigger profits the healthier the PCU is. You could also get the
government to put every dollar spent on healthcare (medicare, worker's
comp, disability, etc) into the pot to drive down the costs of
premiums. From a business point of view you could say, "Move your
business to our county and you don't need to buy insurance for your
workers because we are all covered anyway". This would drive up
property values and have lots of benefit for the community.

Also, the internal pressure on the real cost saving factors like smoking
and obesity would be huge. If I knew that my chance to have heart
surgery at 70 would depend on whether my friend was over weight, then I
would be saying, "Hey, Joe. Do you want to take a walk with me at lunch?"

We need to stop thinking that government can solve these problems, but
instead we must look to ourselves and build new collaborative
corporations that are accountable and self-regulating.

Sparkplug Mike
www.Sumpeople.org

3/19/10 Michael Moore website dialog

Collectives are nothing but another form of corporation. So, maybe we
need to agree upon terms. I don't use the term collective or
cooperative because I believe they more often than not come from a
tradition of consensus decision making. This is limiting concept and
does not lead to economies of scale and division of labor, which is why
I believe that they have never become more that a small percentage of
the overall economic output despite their clear social advantages.

The problem with consensus decision making, with everyone making every
decision, is that it quickly runs up against the Movie Picking Paradox.
That is to say one person can easily pick what movie to go to, two
people have a simple negotiation, three people is actually 300% more
difficult (not 33% like you would assume), so by the time you get to 10
people deciding on a movie it is approaching the impossible. What
usually happens in that case is that one person gets fed up and says "I
am going to X movie and Y time, who ever wants to join me can".

I prefer the concept of collaborative corporation because I think that
we need something that is capable of processing more complexity in
decision making and can take tactical action more easily when a general
consensus exists on goals and objectives. In a collaborative
corporation you initially start out with a pretty standard corporate
structure with the sole addition of elected CEO, an elected Board of
Directors that is more like a legislature, and a form of Judiciary (I
personally like the idea of a Grandmother's Council because I assume the
Executive and Legislative Branches will be weighted to the Masculine and
I think the nurturing, loving, Matriarchal is important regardless of
the actual gender of the Grandmothers).

But then, the Collaborative Corporation has the general Olstrum"design
parameter" of driving decision making to the finger tips of the
corporate body. We know that corporations that resist top down planning
are more in touch with their markets, customers, more efficient, and
just better places to work.

In the Collaborative Corporation the "leaders" really make very few
decisions (the CEO of Southwest Air was proud to say he made only two
decisions in the company -- who to hire and where to have the Christmas
Party). The role of CEO in this "leaderless" Collaborative Corporation
is to be the Catalyst, the Champion, the Visionary and to encourage
everyone to work together, and most importantly to give voice to the
unifying identity of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.

I believe that a Collaborative Corporation can be this "third" way.
And, yes, this is not clearly spelled out in her work but I believe it
can be inferred from it.

Thank you for the intelligent and provocative dialectic.

Sparkplug Mike
www.sumpeople.org

3/18/10 Letter to Michael Moore

OK, do you get it now Mike? We are in the age of the corporate state.
Your efforts need to be focused on the democratization of capital.
Jefferson, Adams, Paine, and friends did not throw out government
because of the abuses of the Kings. Royal Capitalism is the problem, not
capitalism itself. Socialism is just government capitalism and it
doesn't work very well, does not have sophisticated checks and balances
on power, and will never work in our country given our traditions and
history.

Come join the great movement of our generation Mike, stop trying to
destruct and create, build, and work towards the creation of
corporations of the people, by the people, and for the people.

The Evolution of our times is the democratization of capital, but we
don't need to storm the castles on this one, we just need to aggregate
our power to build new corporations worthy of us as honest, hard working
corporate citizens.

If just 10,000 people, the population of my small town, were to commit
$10 a month, that would generate $1.2 million a year in salaries to
start a Liberation Bank. If we then took our money out of the Royal
Banks at an average of $1,000 each, that would create $10 million in
assets, we could lend out $9 million to buy good existing business to be
owned by a combination of working and investing partners, thus instantly
creating $19 million in assets, and so on.

Now imagine if the Liberation Bank had branches in every town in the
country. We could have bought your favorite company GM cheap and then
turned around to the workers and said, "Here, this is your company now."
We will appoint an interim CEO but you will start an election for the
new CEO, you will also elect your board of directors and they will act
like a legislature and make the laws of the company, then you can
appoint or elect the Judiciary branch of your company to rule on the
constitutionality of your laws. Good old check and balances, branches of
governance, and elected accountable leadership so that community of the
people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the Earth.

If we can nation build in Iraq, surely we could build a democratic
economic nation in the heart of Detroit among the good, hard working,
corporate citizens on Michigan.

The only catch is that they make their loan payments before they pay
their salaries and benefits just like any small business person has to
do. Then when they pay back the loan we go and look at another fragile,
hierarchical, monarchical corporation to scoop up at pennies on the dollar.

This is good old fashion capitalism where the benefit inure to the
people who do the work and not the freeriders who take our money to buy
the companies we work for and then fire us to make even more money.

I believe in you Mike, but please open your mind and imagine that you
could fall in love with the right type of corporation.

We have started a group called Sum People to move these ideas forward,
it is less than a month old, with no funding, but a dream and a plan
that we believe can change this F'ed up system. Sum People will be like
Wikipedia and not Microsoft's Encarta. It will be created by the people
who join with us to make it happen. It has no concentrated capital yet
(neither democratic nor undemocratic) so don't expect fancy graphics or
detail proposals. We are starting with an idea and are willing to let go
of where it goes and allow that to be decide by the Whole. Come be a
greater part of Sum People and lets all stop whining and get to work
building the just economy our children deserve.

We are the people, the time is now!

March 10, 2010

I am wondering if you would be open to a refinement on the premise of
your conference?

Sometimes the questions we ask effect our ability to properly understand
the issues. I would suggest that some very interesting dialog could
come from asking if, in fact, the question should not be "Failed State,
or Dying Industry?" Over 20 years ago, Akido Morita, the founder of
Sony, said that government is a "dying industry" and that corporations
are the structures of the future. After the recent Supreme Court ruling
in Citizen's United v. Federal Election Commission, corporations now
have complete, unrestricted constitutional rights. Our body politic has
become the battleground for competing corporate interests and narrowly
focused special interests to the detriment of common sense and the
common good. NPR recently identified the individuals in a congressional
hearing room where the debate on Health Care was taking place and
someone asked, "Who is there representing me?" and unfortunately the
answer was no one.

It is the historic rise of the Corporate State that is threatening our
democratic mechanisms and the recent Supreme Court ruling is an
effective Coup d'Etat completing the transfer of power. However, just
as a few forward thinking individuals in the 1770's gave birth to idea
that a Nation could become the embodiment of a people, now is the time
for us to think about a Corporation as the embodiment of a people, with
all the sophisticated design parameters of civil accountability at play
(i.e. check and balances, separation of powers, and accountable elected
representatives).

This new concept is being called Corporate Peoplehood and works with the
body of law around the doctrine of corporate personhood, but instead of
fighting it uses its full force behind the needs of community.

Undemocratic concentrations of corporate capital are the greasy fast
foods we are shoving down the gullet of our democracy, and we can do all
the open heart surgeries we want, but we will always find ourselves back
on the same operating table if we don't change our diet.

With Hope and Determination,
Michael Rogers
www.sumpeople.org

3/8/2010

I am wondering who to contact for a topic for Insight? My name is Michael Rogers and I am the elected Philosophy Officer of SumPeople.org.

I would be interested in participating in a show based on Citizen's United v. Federal Election Commission -- Corporate Personhood versus Corporate Peoplehood.

This profoundly significant ruling has granted unfettered constitutional rights to corporations, even though our founders wrote "We the People of the United States of America" not "We the Corporations of the World and other unorganized citizens of the United States of America" This ruling is an effective Corporate Coup d'Etat of our democracy and it is based on the legal doctrine of corporate personhood (i.e. a corporation is a legal individual).

But there is good news. Instead of fighting this reality, we can instead embrace it. SumPeople.org is educating and organizing in California based on the concept of Corporate Peoplehood.

The idea is simple. In 1770, the radical idea that a nation could be the embodiment of a people transformed modern society and laid the foundations for the prosperity and abundance we enjoy still to this day. Well, in this age of the corporate state, the idea that a large, powerful, profitable corporation could become the embodiment of a people offers the same prospects.

New internet based collaboration tools have placed us at the apex of opportunity. Social Networking is exploding and Economic Networking is next. Decentralized collaborative organizational structures are having incredible success in this new environment, from Wikipedia, Burning Man, to Linux and open source, to name just a few. The opportunity to create a complex, decentralized collaboration of highly autonomous economic units that also are highly coordinated in their actions is a real and immediate opportunity to solve many of the challenges of this increasingly complex modern society.

SumPeople.org is applying these concepts to the Western Slope of the Central High Sierra. A highly resource rich and environmentally vital area that is struggling with a host of issues from overgrown forests to a struggling economy.

Using the work of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Economics winners Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson, SumPeople.org is putting on a conference this Summer called Dreams of the Western Slope where their work on Common Pool Resources and Corporation as Governance Structure will be the basis for formulating a vision for the Western Slope that blends long term environmental sustainability, long term economic sustainability, and long term social sustainability.

If any of this interests you and you have more questions, please contact me.

12/28/09

Dear Agnes Pilgrim,

Thank you so much for writing back to me. The things you write are true. And I believe they are the symptoms of the disease and not the cause. They are the heart attack, not the over eating and fatty foods that caused the heart attack.

For me, the thing that is causing all this sickness and "dis"-ease is the modern way of hunting. Most of us no longer hunt in the old way as human beings, and we have therefore lost our knowledge and understanding of the interconnectedness of life. Today we hunt money, as individuals, and in doing so we are also hunting the land, and the water, and the air, and killing all of it in our mad quest for survival. Also, we are not hunting as free interconnect peoples, we are slaves on the plantations of the companies that own everything and have taken away our ability to survive without them. We have also lost our knowledge of ourselves as people, as tribes. Strong, powerful tribes capable of defending ourselves and all that we hold sacred.

But it does not have to be this way. We can create companies that help us live in the modern world, but with reverence and respect for all of life. Companies modeled on the Iroquois Confederacy, the Nez Perce nation, the Aniyunwiya. This is nothing less than the rebirth of the tribes, but in a new form, in a corporate form, with the respect for elders, the sophisticated methods of resolving conflicts, the mutual care, the role for each member of the community to play, that the First Nation peoples pioneered and refined.

I believe that the healing of ourselves, so that Mother Earth will love us again as people living in harmony, will only come with the healing of corporations. Today they are like medieval kingdoms run by greedy and cruel lords, but it does not have to be this way. Corporations can be like the Great Nations of this land, and the Great Indigenous Nations of other lands. They can be fair and just and formed for the good of all and not just to serve the greed of the few.

This is the vision of the old and the new that was given to me by the Great Peacemaker of the Iroquois. This is the path I am told we must walk.

I see the 13 Indigenous Grandmothers calling on all people to become indigenous again. To join the work of liberating ourselves from economic servitude, joining in a great new confederacy and taking our power away from the corporate monarchs and forming new companies to hunt together as people again. To hold sacred all that Mother Earth has given to us, in her love, to sustain us. To have reverence for the resources we need to make use of for our survival, and to use them as efficiently as possible. If we strike at the heart of how corporations are structured, we will not need to go to war over water or anything else. We will have won before the first battle begins.

You have the heart, the sense of urgency. You have given the voice to the voiceless. I believe I have the practical solution to make it happen now. We need each other to do the great work that needs to be done. I believe that the 13 Indigenous Grandmothers have the moral authority and respect to get many people to listen and hear this message and to join together to take the action needed to change things now, before it is too late.

If I were to travel to Oregon with my sister Elizabeth, would you have any time to council with me? I seek your wisdom and your vision to make my vision stronger. I wish the opportunity to show you that what you are working on, and what I am working on, will be easier if we work together. Maybe your physical presence at the Sacred Capital Conference is not needed. Perhaps we could do a live press conference that links all Thirteen Grandmothers around the world in a call for all people to become Indigenous again, to join this Great Economic Alliance for the Earth. To stop giving their power to companies that are killing the planet and to work to liberate themselves from needing them.

The time is now Aggie. I need your help.

With Hope, Determination, and Love,

Michael


agnes pilgrim wrote:
> Dear Michael:
> Thank you for your wisdom regarding our planet.
> .I'm so busy doing a lot of these things. I see a
> water war in our future we sure need to protect
> our waters keep big companies from taking over.
> Without water all life dies. Animals are being in-
> croached upon all over our planet.Their food in
> many places becoming scarce. Just came back
> from Australia some lakes are dried up and all
> you see is a big sheet of white salt! Wells coming
> up salty.Maybe Our Earth Mother is angry at us
> as we don't talk to the water and tell it IT'S Sacred.
> We know water can hear. It is not us adults who
> own the world it's the little people and we are not
> taking very good care of her. We got polution in the
> water,air it's all around us. We all have to do a better
> job. I pray people will wake up and be more sustainable
> You have a nice Holiday Love Grandmother Agnes Baker-Pilgrim.

12/23/09

Hello, my name is Michael Rogers and I was given your contact information from Elinor Ostrom.

I am working on organizing my community economically around the concepts she is working on regarding community pool resources and organizational economics. She said that you may be open to talking with me.

I own a cabin resort on the western slope of the High Sierra near Lake Tahoe. Our local economy has been devastated by the hit taken to the building industry. We had allowed a mono-culture economy to develop that was not diversified enough to withstand the "pest" infestation from Wall Street.

Specifically, I am planning a conference on "Sacred Capital" with the goal of encouraging people to think about capitalism and economics as neutral tools, (like a hammer that can be used to build a house, or hit someone on the head with). There is such a strong anti-economic perception that is taking hold in my community and I hope to bring more holistic, equitable and efficient uses of economic theory to inspire people to work together to take care of each other and embrace an interdependent economic vision.

I am in discussions with the local indigenous community to in essence "welcome" the new migrants to this land to join a coalition to build a more equitable, resilient, and decentralize (democratic) economy. I believe the moral authority of this action would serve as a great catalyst to getting people to come together. However, I hope that the meat of the conference is specific scientifically verifiable information that outlines the effectiveness of complex adaptive structures, the "design parameters" of successfully managed community pooled resources, and systemic best practices for management of forest "assets" for continued abundance in all its forms.

What I am looking for is assistance in articulating at the conference the specific "design parameters" that Ms. Ostrom has been developing, and hopefully finding someone locally who might be willing to participate in the conference as a presenter. This is a project that is being started with few resources, however we will be developing a budget for the conference that will include compensation, including a really nice cabin on 160 acres of High Sierra Splendor.

Thank you for your consideration. I eagerly await hearing from you after the holidays.

With Hope and Determination,

Michael Rogers