The Prosumer Economy -- Being Like a Forest

Abstract

Planetary life support systems are collapsing due to climate change and the biodiversity crisis. The root cause is the existing consumer economy, coupled with profit maximisation based on ecological and social externalities. Trends can be reversed, civilisation may be saved by transforming the profit maximising consumer economy into an ecologically and socially just economy, which we call the prosumer economy. Prosumer economy is a macro scale circular economy with minimum negative or positive ecological and social impact, an ecosystem of producers and prosumers, who have synergistic and circular relationships with deepened circular supply chains, networks, where leakage of wealth out of the system is minimised. In a prosumer economy there is no waste, no lasting negative impacts on the ecology and no social exploitation. The prosumer economy is like a lake or a forest, an economic ecosystem that is productive and supportive of the planet. We are already planting this forest through Good4Trust.org, started in Turkey. Good4Trust is a community platform bringing together ecologically and socially just producers and prosumers. Prosumers come together around a basic ethical tenet the golden rule and share on the platform their good deeds. The relationship are already deepening and circularity is forming to create a prosumer economy. The platforms software to structure the economy is open source, and is available to be licenced to start Good4Trust anywhere on the planet. Complexity theory tells us that if enough agents in a given system adopt simple rules which they all follow, the system may shift. The shift from a consumer economy to a prosumer economy has already started, the future is either ecologically and socially just or bust.