I had the opportunity to speak with sofie malm who experienced living in a needs-based economy system! She gifted us her experience and knowledge in tremendous ways . sofie is actually working on a workshop to dive into this further and I promised to support her via conversations and early feedback!
Key learnings
We could have two different systems: one for a set income and one for a redistribution of resources. For example, let’s say Person A and Person B do the same exact role at YPC and both receive, income-wise, $60,000, but this results in excess income for Person A. Person A can redistribute this excess income, including to Person B, outside of the confines of YPC itself
We could create a savings bank to free up additional cash. When multiple people pool their risk, then less cash savings is needed to provide a safety net for the same number of people.
It’s important to make sure people have their own networks outside of a single organization for their needs to be met. For example, instead of a single organization running a Free Store, it would be better for people to access Free Stores run by other organizations.
Trust is key to making needs-based compensation work. Build trust by having study circles, being vulnerable, being transparent and reflective about all the resources we have. Do not make it the responsibility of designated people to collect needs and communicating them out because that decreases the desire to give when we don’t know who it is with those needs. And, it may lead to blame being put on people gathering that information for not meeting those needs instead of having it be a communal responsibility.
The system needs to be constantly maintained, especially as it grows. When new people come, make sure they understand, buy into, and can defend the system. And, make sure we start with the personal reflection and community reflection on needs.
Capping people’s time was healthier. People who had a cap of 20 hours/week, for example, would more accurately hit those numbers. People who were more “general” would under-invest their time because they may say yes to more things outside of the organization than they could really do or over-invest and burn out.
Have all income be shared and needs-based compensation level across all income generating and support functions whether it’s building community or consulting with high-paying customers. Else we’ll recreate inequity where support functions are undervalued and functions that have greater proximity to existing wealth can then pay its people more.
There are challenges to how different people will define “need”. And, there’s a dynamic where people may be fine with their own relationship to income (such as having a higher risk tolerance for little savings and for dumpster diving and not getting new clothes) but then feel resentment when comparing themselves to other people in the same organization who are not making the same sacrifices or who are not contributing what they promised to contribute. And, there’s a dynamic in the opposite way, where people may not be fully transparent with and reflective of their own resources and expenses and therefore may report a greater need. We need to build in accountability, balancing, self- and community-work.
Full Notes
Organizers, please see the notes in our Compensation shared folder.