 
### An Idea Nation Global Think Tank presents:

### 

## Crowd Power in the Age of Human Potential

###

**Creator:** Joy Case, Masters of Education from University of British Columbia

**Collaborative Editor:** Brian David, B.Sc in Economics and International Relations from University College, London University
Crowd Power in the Age of Human Potential

Smashwords Edition

© Copyright 2015, Joy Case

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be produced or utilized, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without prior permission in writing from the author or publisher.

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

## Table of Contents

Foreword

Preface

Section One: Living in the Past

Section Two: Change is A-Coming

Section Three: An Idea Nation

After Thoughts

Appendix

## Foreword

Open your mind to the power of co-creating our best future. With the global growth and success of crowdfunding and crowdsourcing, it is becoming clear that the power of human potential is realized when we accept that many small contributions from a large number of people really add up.

The World Bank report 'Crowdfunding's Potential for the Developing World' stated that crowdfunding is expected to overtake venture capital in the finance markets within 10 years; this is evidence that the power of human potential in collaborative groups is real. There is global acceptance of this means of raising capital to fund all kinds of ideas and projects.

Now, importantly, as a result, we can make agile commitments to innovation when coupled with the instant effect of online connectedness. This book helps readers to not just visualize that but to walk away with an understanding of how they might play a significant role in co-creating the future.

As co-founders of the Crowdfunding Investment movement, CCA uses its unique perspective and methodology to help professional investors and institutions (local, state, national governments and NGO's) build crowdfunding ecosystems to support innovation, strengthen businesses and create thousands of new jobs.

Sherwood Neiss, Principal

Crowdfund Capital Advisors, LLC

Miami.San Francisco New York Washington D.C. Hong Kong Dubai

Web: http://www.CrowdfundCapitalAdvisors.com

## Preface

Welcome to An Idea Nation, and thank you for taking the time to stop by and see what we are all about. Yes, that's correct, what _we_ are all about, because An Idea Nation includes everybody. Nobody is excluded. Whether you like it or not, you're a part of it because we all live on the same planet and we all have to get along together if we are to thrive and survive. Now, before you run away with the thought that An Idea Nation is just another in a seemingly endless stream of well-meaning books that's going to preach gloom and doom about our future, STOP! Pause for a few moments to consider why you are reading this at all. What made you decide to select this book and turn back the cover? What exactly attracted you to the book? Was it the imagery on the front? Does the title intrigue you? Or perhaps you've previously heard of An Idea Nation and want to learn how you can be a part of the difference An Idea Nation is making? Whatever your reason, it has led you to a book that will not only ignite your innermost feelings, but also inspire you, and change your life and the way you view your everyday existence.

### Why This Book Is Important

The world is changing at a faster pace than at any other period in its four and a half billion year existence, and although many of us are doing quite nicely, thank you very much, too many of us are suffering from malnutrition, a lack of adequate shelter and clothing, a scarcity of work, poor or non-existent education and ill health. On top of that, the actions of humankind have brought us to a point where the very host upon which we all depend for our existence is being abused and poisoned to such an extent that at a time when we should be toasting our prosperous future, we are continually racked with doubt and worry about how it will all end.

But does it have to be that way? Think about it. If something isn't working, what do you do? You try something new. And that is what this book is all about. We've already stated that we're not here as harbingers of catastrophe and ruin, although we will have to touch upon certain happenings in the world to illustrate our points, rather we are here as prophets of joy and light, to demonstrate how not just you, but everybody, can become involved in the prosperous future of our beautiful planet.

This book explains what An Idea Nation is all about. It tells you why it exists, how you can become involved and make a real difference to not only your life, but also to the lives of people you'll probably never ever meet. And that's to say nothing of the widespread benefits such action can bring to the whole of humankind for generations to come. It isn't a crusade or a charity, more a self-help program for a brighter future. It's a new way of thinking. It's a new way of tackling today's problems in a positive manner. As such, this book is an important statement, a jumping off point for our future.

### Why The Book Has Been Written

Quite simply, An Idea Nation has been written because the time is right. We live in a fast-changing world, a global society that has outgrown its governing institutions and systems. Instead of the patchwork piecemeal top-down reactive approach adopted by today's world leaders, where big is good, we need a new bottom-up approach, where small is beautiful, to make the most of the opportunities and exploit the resources of planet Earth in a sustainable manner that gives everyone the opportunity to not only live a comfortable life, but also to fulfil their potential.

We live at a time when humankind is altering earth's natural cycles, and the relentless pressure exerted by us on our planet may well lead to irreversible destabilization. Unless we apply ourselves to finding a safe and sustainable way forward, life will deteriorate for everyone, and as for future generations.

Likewise, too many people are being denied the right to exploit their skills, to the detriment of self and the wider society. The wastage of human resources is one of the most appalling features of today's world. An Idea Nation not only draws attention to it, but also proposes how to overcome it and make everyone feel that their life is worthwhile. An Idea Nation illustrates how hope can be created for even the currently most disadvantaged and despairing sectors of world society, and how from that hope will spring accomplishment and achievement for the benefit of all.

### How This Book Has Been Written

An Idea Nation is passionate about its cause, and wants you to share that passion and carry it forward. To that end, this book has been written in accessible language. An Idea Nation has an important message to send, and we want you to read it and spread it further. To make our mission easier to comprehend, the book has been divided into three sections.

Section one looks at where we are today, living our lives through systems and institutions that were devised in a different era for a different time. The world has changed and is changing faster than we realize, and what served us well (ish) back then, no longer meets the needs of the majority of people.

The pattern of life is dictated by governments, narrow national political systems (republican vs democrat, conservative vs labour), financial institutions, big business, corporate media, and legal systems laid down for the advantage of the few (the rich and powerful) to protect vested interests and positions of power. Just as history is always written by the victors, so societal and political systems are always devised by those in positions of power. While what we have has served part of the planet arguably well to date, countless millions of others have suffered. They have been left behind and subjected to wastage through a denial of opportunity and the chance to exploit their true potential.

Old battles, for which the system was set up, have been fought and won, fought and lost, or are still being fought with no end in sight, which suggests to us that the old machine needs replacing.

Section two looks at how things are already changing. Technology, in particular, has catapulted change to the top of the agenda. The inter-connected world means that everyone can now be more aware of what everyone else is doing than at any previous time in our history. Everybody can now not only see the pie, but also the size of the pie and the size of the slices others are taking for themselves. The pie tastes good and they all want to share.

This is occurring because of the Internet and social media, which are democratizing communication and media. No longer are we dependent upon our TV network and daily paper for news. We can communicate instantly and, as is now often the case, the traditional media are actually behind in gathering stories etc., and their role is changing to one that sums up events rather than 'breaking' them. To fill their airtime and space, they resort more to opinion pieces etc., which allows more points of view to be aired, and not just those of the elected, the celebrity and the so-called expert.

Everyone has something to contribute and is being allowed to do so. However, we must guard against complacency, as there are those who would sabotage this new found freedom. Prominent among them are the current but fast-being-outdated political order, religious groups, corporations, banks and lawyers, all of whom have done very well out of the current system and may fear for their advantageous positions in the future.

But they have no need for that fear. These new changes are not a threat to them; they are an opportunity for all (including them) to increase the size of the pie so that not only can they retain and increase the amount of pie they have, but also allow those who are currently languishing with little or no hope to carve out a slice of pie of an equal size if they so choose.

Democracy must be preserved and strengthened, and the way to do that is to wean the power away from institutions and those who run them and give it back to the people, in smaller, more manageable units. Of course, there will still be governments (elected) etc. like today, but their role will change, as will their methods of revenue gathering and distribution, which will become more geared to allowing everyone to work in the way they choose and not as society, through government, dictates. British MP Douglas Carswell has written about how British democracy is dying and being replaced by a smug, self-serving technocracy. But Britain is not alone in this. Consider your own government. Carswell points out that the "machine" now runs the state's affairs and that "ministers are little more than departmental mouthpieces".

While representative democracy was invented to contain the excesses of the selfstyled elites, they have now discovered ways of subverting the democratic process, resulting in big and bloated public administration, noteworthy for its ineptitude and ineffectiveness, which is having a damaging effect on society, particularly in the middle-class and poorer sectors.

The EU frighteningly talks about being in a post-democratic age. How can we change this mindset? How can we have a new democracy a true democracy if we are now post-democratic? What forms can it take? What are its safeguards? How can we bring everyone together to minimize or eliminate terrorism and other threats?

Pressure groups and lobbyists abound, and are now given more credence than they were twenty to thirty years ago, as many eminent people lend their support and are not afraid to be seen doing so. No longer can protesters be dismissed with a few derogatory words like 'tree-hugging hippies'.

Trust is of vital importance. How can we cultivate it, re-enforce it? How do we keep dissident elements from destroying or hindering the new order through individual or collective greed? We are all human beings. We all have to live together and share. There is enough to go round and more can be created. Is constant economic growth viable? Can we persuade those who 'have' to give to those who 'haven't'? It's already happening with people like Bill and Melissa Gates, Bill Clinton etc. The change is definitely a-coming.

Section three examines the new global think tank that is An Idea Nation, a new and powerful force for the change that's needed.

We look at why we need An Idea Nation and what An Idea Nation can do that other global organizations can't do or aren't doing. In other words: What does An Idea Nation bring to the party? What is its purpose and reason for being?

We explore the eight priorities that An Idea Nation has identified as being fundamental to the maximization of human potential and development in the future: distribution, education, energy, environment, freedom, food/water, health and justice. They are elements that affect everybody, no matter where they reside.

And having laid before you our vision, we'll tell you how it all works. Yes, what you have to do to join in, and how An Idea Nation is structured to help you take full advantage of your own ideas to build a better future for not just you and your loved ones, but also for society in general, through the successful exploitation of your ideas.

You'll learn exactly why An Idea Nation works, and how it fits in to the bigger picture through the encouragement and promotion of impact investing, social enterprise solutions etc.

### What You Will Take Away After Reading An Idea Nation

Your journey through the pages of this book will see you visiting ideas and thoughts you may not have paid much attention to previously. You'll become aware of a wider society while, at the same time, being posed salient questions. They aren't questions that demand immediate answers, but questions to make you think; questions that will elicit more questions and drill down into your mind to wake up the slumbering giant within. Maybe you'll experience some eureka moments, maybe not. It doesn't matter. But whatever you do experience, it'll change the way you think and the way you look at the world in which you live. You will truly understand why An Idea Nation is called what it is and what it means. But above all, you'll come away feeling uplifted and full of hope. Humankind hasn't got to where it is today by giving up. It has survived as long as it has because it has met challenges head-on, adopting and adapting ideas that have provided the solutions to problems that have faced society at any given time, and overcoming the most horrendous wars and natural disasters.

And it's going to be the same in the future. As we move into a new era and encounter new threats to our wellbeing and existence, you are being invited to be a vital part of the new solution. It's not only possible, it's happening now. It's all around you, and after reading what An Idea Nation has to offer, you'll want to play a full and active role in planet Earth's glorious future.

An Idea Nation is a movement open to all, irrespective of color, creed or race. It assists the use and development of existing knowledge and ideas to help more people flourish. It's essentially a team of volunteers' people who are willing to share their expertise and skills with others in return for a financial reward if their idea or innovation is successful. We don't condone the re-appropriation of wealth from one person or entity to others, or advocate change through any other method than those that are peaceful and legal. To quote John Lennon from Revolution: "If you want money for people with minds that hate, all I can tell is brother you'll have to wait." Ours is an amicable, quiet revolution in both thought and deed.

Harmony and prosperity for all through An Idea Nation.

## Section One: Living in the Past

"Our present problems cannot be solved at the level of thinking at which they were created."

—Albert Einstein

This section looks at how the world is currently run along lines and systems drawn up in the past, and postulates that while they have got us to where we are today, they have not done so without leaving large swathes of the world's population behind; a sizable minority which doesn't share in the prosperity enjoyed by the majority. Consequently, their relevance and value to a society which has changed out of all recognition since they were formulated is being questioned. Can we make progress towards a fair and more equitable world using yesterday's model?

In this first section of An Idea Nation, we take a look at the various bodies and institutions that rule and influence our lives and show how they are failing the many to enrich the few, concluding with the thought that the world would benefit from a new approach if it is to prosper in the future.

While you'll read much criticism of current governments and institutions, we don't advocate their destruction, but rather their adaptation to the requirements of today's and tomorrow's people. There's a lot of good that must be retained. It's only the bad and corrupt, gnawing away at the very foundations of our world, which we seek to eliminate and replace.

### The Nation State

We live in a world of nation states, the only world we've ever known. As such, we accept the situation without question and go about our everyday lives. However, the world wasn't always ordered in such a manner. The nation state is a relatively new phenomenon, having only evolved during the nineteenth century. Prior to that, the world map was composed of Empires, replete with internal diversity. And, of course, as we go back through time, through the different Ages, humankind organized itself into whatever groupings suited it best at the time; groupings that were usually born of necessity and need.

As for the future, no one can tell for sure, but commentators, scholars and various experts argue that the nation state, too, will pass into history, and that globalization and the increasingly interconnected world in which we find ourselves will first blur and then eradicate borders as we currently understand them. Such ideas have been expressed in terms of a World Government or, at the other end of the spectrum, the collapse of society as we know it into communal anarchy.

As previously stated, the future is open to conjecture, but the point being made here is that a world society comprising nation states is not carved in stone. It hasn't always existed and it doesn't have to exist in order for the human race to progress. In fact, the current trend towards internationalization is already changing the way that we look at how life is being lived today and how it should be lived in the future. Never before has communication and the dissemination of ideas been so easy. Never before has the population of the world been in a position where it can make its voice heard and demands listened to. Slowly but surely, a momentous axial shift is occurring. The tectonic plates of society are beginning to move.

This isn't the platform to argue about the merits of the nation state or, indeed, to discuss theories of where we go from here. Whatever has happened in history has happened. It cannot be changed, and neither can the reasons for those happenings. We have to assume that the political, economic and social systems that came into being did so because they were adjudged by those in a position to make them happen to be the most beneficial to society at that time. Of course, any cursory examination of history will show that statement as fallacious, given the unequal distribution of power, wealth, freedom, education and opportunity that can be found everywhere in all societies, but the point is that people didn't know any better and went along with what was, just as we have done with the nation state. We are aware it isn't perfect, but is has, after a fashion, served as a reasonable model for co-existence on this planet for the past 150 years.

Just as change occurred in the past when people began to travel more and make new discoveries, so it is occurring today. The major difference is the speed at which it's happening. In the past, as change occurred, it was possible for the governing norms and institutions to alter to accommodate the new expectations and demands of the population. Admittedly, nothing happened without a tremendous amount of struggle, but nevertheless, change resulted. In our modern world, events are moving so fast, the old model of the nation state is struggling to adapt and keep up to such an extent that it's becoming increasingly obvious it cannot cope.

Technological advances, which are the undoubted drivers of this change, have created a society that's totally alien to the one the nation state was built to serve. Cheap mass communication pays no heed to borders and boundaries. For example, where a government could once maintain secrecy or suppress information about a major internal disturbance, we now see images of that disturbance on our computers within minutes of it starting. And that leads to people in other countries, thousands of kilometers away, getting involved and demanding that their governments take some action. That, too, has knock-on effects in the sphere of diplomacy and international relations. In other words, people are now empowered to take action and not wait to be told by their government what's right and what's wrong. We are now our own opinion formers. The nation state is losing its influence over the very people it governs.

The response of the nation state to the modern world appears to be the formation of trading or political blocs, such as the European Union, along the lines of the USSR, and we all know how that turned out. Why is this? A quotation widely attributed (but disputed) to Albert Einstein says: "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Bearing that in mind, here's a phrase for you to complete: Our leaders are banding together with others (not always natural partners) to form even bigger, more bureaucratic entities because...

### Government And Bureaucracy

Think about how your life is touched by the various levels of bureaucracy and government, from a village or parish council up through the layers of local and regional government to national government and beyond. One thing is for certain; they all have to be paid for. And who pays for them? Mr and Mrs Muggins, aka you and I. Now ask yourself if your tax dollars or euros are giving you what you need. Does all that expenditure allow you to live in a world that brings health, wealth and happiness to all? Does it fulfil you? Could that money be better employed? Does the system really understand both your and society's wider needs?

You could be excused for thinking that the collective ruling bureaucracy exists to serve itself and to protect its own. While throwing out crumbs to keep the majority of the taxpaying population onside, their prime concern lays a lot closer to home. There are examples in just about every country of public servants building their own little fiefdoms, and always at a cost to the greater good, as they squander hardearned money that should be diverted elsewhere. And all because the system allows them to get away with it. And it doesn't just apply to governing bodies, but also to public institutions and bodies set up by governments to 'investigate' and 'oversee' various aspects of policy.

Assuming you are fortunate enough to be employed, what do you do for a living? What qualifications did you need to acquire the post? What courses do you have to attend in order to keep your knowledge up to par? Of course, everybody wants to be as good as possible and improve their skills, but shouldn't that be a voluntary choice or something done in agreement with your employer?

Too often these days, governments (or if you live in Europe, the EU) impose training schemes and standards on all sectors of work, despite those same people having little or no knowledge of the area in which they are interfering. For example, the EU likes to tell private companies that they have to provide a certain number of training hours a year for all their employees. The cost of many of these courses is met by the taxpayer and administered by third-party agencies within individual countries. A typical course lasts forty-five hours, taking place over a period of four to twelve weeks, and is nothing more than a box-ticking exercise in bureaucracy and unnecessary and unwanted interference.

As any teacher can tell you, the amount of learning that can be done over that period of time is very little, especially if done during the working day, or after, when the employees are tired and want to go home. No matter, the show must go on, and that's exactly what it is a show; a show that is supposed to tell us how much our governing elites care about us plebs, whereas they're just using our money to line the pockets of themselves and their friends under the guise of providing useful training skills.

In modern-day Europe, governmental bureaucracy imposes itself on private individuals and companies everywhere, stifling thought, ideas and enterprise, while at the same time pretending to nurture all three.

And just who are the people who impose the straightjacket of excessive regulation? What are their qualifications for the job? What is their training? Look at your own government and ask the same questions. Are they governed by the same principles they impose on you? In other words, are they professionals, in the true sense of someone performing a task for which he or she is fully qualified, such as a teacher or doctor, or are they amateurs?

And yet this is the model we are using to further our lives; a model which has benefited the few at the expense of the many. Wasteful decisions about future actions and policies are still being handed down by governments to swathes of their population, who only ever experience a trickle-down beneficial effect of such distant decision making.

### Tax To The Max

The infrastructure that we all take for granted has to be paid for and maintained. To that end, it's only right that we contribute towards it via taxation. However, it's an unfortunate fact of life that those in charge of levying and spending the tax dollars or euros are not always to be trusted when it comes to maximizing the return on the taxation investment. In other words, funds are wasted. Some mysteriously disappear, never to be seen again, while others are diverted to favoured projects and causes run by friends and acquaintances of those in charge, irrespective of whether they provide the best value for money. And still more is wasted through sheer incompetence, as plans are not thought through or even implicitly understood by those charged with making the final decisions.

It's a given that nobody likes paying taxes. However, if choices and decisions were better explained, and consequently better understood, some of that hostility may abate. Governments and blocs like the EU have become so far removed from the dayto-day lives of ordinary people that they are simply no longer trusted.

Another consequence of that distance is that populations are roughly divided into arbitrary income groups and taxed accordingly. However, in the modern economy, life is not that simple. For example, in Portugal, as soon as a person declares themselves to be economically active, they have to pay social security no matter how little they earn. While that is not a problem for those on a regular salary from an employer, it can and does present problems for the independent worker.

The system is very complicated, but works along these lines. Social security for independent workers is payable at the rate 29.6% on the portion of income calculated to be subject to social security. So far, so good, but it is complicated by the fact that there is a scale of earnings, divided into eleven bands, and everyone in a particular band pays 29.6% , based on the figure at the top of the band, irrespective of whether their taxable income lies at the top or bottom of the said band. The result is that those at the lower end of the band actually pay a higher percentage of the income in social security, meaning that less well-off independent workers are unfairly penalized by the scheme. But the worst of it is that the lowest applicable band (up to monthly earnings of €4I9,22) means a minimum monthly social security payment of €124.09, and that anyone who earns less than that per month is, in fact, paying the government for the privilege of working.

It may be thought that such a situation is unlikely to exist, but in a country that has a crippling unemployment rate, deflation, severe austerity imposed by others and ever higher taxes in order to repay its bailout, it is quite the norm. Because of the shortcomings in the social security system, those who become unemployed find themselves with little or no safety net, so as every little helps, many unemployed people take on little jobs for friends and neighbours, such as digging the garden or washing a few windows, for five or ten euros a week. That may only total twenty to forty euros per month, but in accepting payment and not declaring it, that person is performing a criminal act. The alternatives are to either declare it or have their benefits, such as they are, stopped and pay social security as previously outlined, or to turn it down and possibly starve or lose one's home. Yes, it's that bad.

It would appear that the government is forcing people into a life of crime just to survive while, at the same time, destroying employment opportunities, and all because the person concerned can't earn enough to register themselves as being legally employed! Apart from the sheer stupidity of the situation, which should never have been allowed to arise in the first place, people's talents are being wasted to the detriment of the whole society, to say nothing of the fact that they cannot move forward in their life.

The above may be an extreme example, but the fact that it even exists illustrates that taxation systems appear to have lost touch with reality and need to be rethought and restructured. As well as raising revenue, a taxation system should encourage everyone to work and to be the best they can at their chosen endeavor. Taxation systems such as that in Portugal can only put the brake on enterprise, the very thing required to lift the country out of the economic mire. They are both regressive and repressive.

Still in Portugal, the government, along with the EU, often announce training schemes to be financed with taxation money, but those don't create jobs, or even the conditions to create jobs. They create a pool of people who could do a job if it existed, which it doesn't, which is why they are unemployed in the first place. Further to that, the newly skilled labour force, resulting from the training schemes, is only duplicating the skills of those who are sitting around through enforced idleness, and so they are not required.

It's people who create jobs, and more so now than ever before. People have to be given freer rein to find themselves employment to improve not just their well-being, but that of society as well. However, governments can play a positive role by taking down obstacles and creating fertile conditions through well thought out tax legislation, which they are currently not doing because they are floundering with the new realities of the job market. Their thinking is back to front. If they create favourable circumstances, the jobs will follow, not the other way round.

### Welfare

We all expect our governments to spend our tax dollars wisely. Whether they do or not is often a matter of conjecture and opinion, but even if there is some wastage, at least they look after the poor and disadvantaged through their welfare schemes. Right? Wrong!

A video entitled Who is Dependent on Welfare?, made by the Blum Center for Developing Economies at the University of California, Berkley, has recently been aired on the Internet. It analyses the situation in the USA and exposes state welfare as one of the biggest confidence tricks of our time. Although the study is based on the American model, much of the analysis will undoubtedly be applicable to many western nations.

The following details the findings of Ananya Roy, who teaches at the University.

Her students, a representative sample of the American population, are concerned about the welfare dependency of the poor, but are blissfully unaware that they themselves are dependent on welfare through "a host of hidden government subsidies that buttress opportunity and mobility". Ananya Roy, too, benefits from subsidies, as she lives in what she terms 'public housing' because "the tax deduction I enjoy on my mortgage is a more a substantial handout than any money spent by the U.S. government on what has come to be stereotyped and vilified as public housing." And to illustrate her argument, she points out that millions of other Americans enjoy the same perk. In 1999, while the U.S. government spent $24 billion on public housing and rental subsidies for the poor, it spent three times that amount on home ownership subsidies for the middle classes and the wealthy. Such subsidies are never considered to be welfare, and carry no stigma. On the contrary, they are viewed as an entitlement.

The American welfare state was created after the Depression, being divided, from the very beginning, into social insurance programs made available as entitlements and public assistance programs made available as welfare.

In the video's search for welfare dependents, they looked for 'the usual suspects', but realized they should have been looking for corporate people, and in particular, Walmart, the nation's largest employer. In 2011, Walmart made a profit of $16.4 billion, while the six Walmart heirs, the family, had personal wealth of $100 billion, which is more than the bottom forty per cent of Americans. But despite making all that money, Walmart depends on colossal handouts from the government in order to make its business model work.

Because it pays its employees so badly, the government has to step in with public assistance just so that they can survive. It's no coincidence that Walmart's workforce as a whole is the largest recipient of federal aid.

Such levels of inequality have not been seen since the Depression. The top one per cent of American households now accrue massive, almost unimaginable, economic gains, which is something the Occupy movement has brought to the public's attention. And it isn't necessarily the result of capitalism. It's been brought about by the policy of giving welfare to Wall Street hedge funds and corporations like Walmart.

That's what's happening at the moment. Do you think it's fair? Is it just? How does it make you feel? What do you think the best course of action is for the future?

Subsidies also extend to the rich and powerful when you look at salaries and profits. Apart from the numerous legal, but morally questionable, tax avoidance schemes, applicable to both individuals and companies, what about public officials who benefit from advantageous tax rates? Because of the position's diplomatic status, the head of the IMF, pays no income tax on the inflation-linked salary of close to $500,000 per annum. In addition, the incumbent is also given an allowance of nearly $85,000 to be paid without 'justification' and additional expenses for entertainment. And that's just one example. In the EU, MEPs can claim receipt and tax-free expenses and allowances for offices, entertainment and travel, and a daily tax-free subsistence allowance of several hundred euros. Members of the EU Commission and other dignitaries also pay a 'community tax' rate which is lower than the tax rates levied on similar incomes earned by ordinary citizens within the EU. Is this the kind of system you feel comfortable with?

### Don't You Feel Small?

If you do, it means you've fallen for society's Big Con, a trick that would have even David Blaine foaming at the mouth with envy, and you're now just one of society's faceless herd. It's all to do with the way we're brought up and taught to see the world. To quote Cat Stevens from his song Father & Son: "From the moment I could talk, I was ordered to listen." That's the way it is for many, from the cradle to the grave. Shut up and know your place.

We all have ambitions and dreams, or at least, that's how we start out, but how many times have you been slapped down and crushed? Thomas Edison said: "Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits." Well, good luck with that. That message is the opposite of what society teaches you. Society says that only the genius should dream and that the rest of us should get that nose on the grindstone and keep it there.

But how do you know whether or not you're a genius unless you're allowed to try? Why do your ideas and dreams carry less value than those of the famous or celebrity? This book is littered with pertinent quotes from famous people, but if you or I'd made the same comments, would anyone have listened, let alone recorded them? Would they carry less validity? That song you wrote last summer is just as good as the latest You Tube phenomenon, so why didn't it end up in the same place? Answer: because that You Tube phenomenon was the brainchild of someone who's not scared to step outside society's norms and then turn around and give its nose a good tweak.

It's a difference in attitude, born of upbringing. Some people always appear to be more confident than others. They possess more swagger and verve in their personality and manner because they refuse to conform wholeheartedly to the framework constructed by society to keep the majority in their place.

From the moment your entrance on to the stage of life to the time you make your exit, your existence has been planned and mapped out. Attend school at as early an age as possible to begin your social conditioning while at the same time starting to acquire sufficient knowledge to contribute to society when you go out to work. After school, study at university or some further training establishment. Throughout the whole educational process, you pick up your 'good behaviour' awards in terms of certificates that show you've attained a certain level of adequacy in a particular discipline, which theoretically qualify you for the job of your dreams. And once you've landed a job, in a rapidly diminishing market, keep your nose clean or you'll be out on your ear. You have arrived at the normal default state, which is very nicely summed up by Ellen Goodman.

"Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it."

Once in the rut, it's difficult to climb out. But not impossible. All it needs a different way of thinking and the ability to keep your nose to the grindstone. But in that instance, you'd own the grindstone! However, we all still need encouragement and help to see us along our chosen path. After all, we now have responsibilities such as a family, a mortgage, a loan for a car the list is endless and all those things must be serviced. And it's that thought that currently puts people off ploughing their own furrow right down the centre of the yellow brick road in pursuit of their dream.

There are so many steps to take on what can be a lonely journey, even if you are prepared to buy that ticket to ride. Where do you start? What about finance? How do you make a business plan? How do you hire people whose skills you need? How do you do all this and meet your current commitments?

There is so much doubt that you begin to doubt whether your doubts are real doubts or pretend doubts. And once you've decided, you doubt that as well!

Add a generous splash of fear and keep stirring, and you have the perfect recipe for inaction. Just the way society likes it. Maintain the stability of the apple cart at all costs, and too bad if you don't like apples!

### Shriekonomics

Taken at its most simple, Economics is the study of how to manage scarce resources to achieve the best outcome for the participating parties. Over the centuries, many theories have been advanced. Some have stood the test of time while others have fallen by the wayside. But what we now have is a body of theory, together with models, that can be referenced to explain and extrapolate more or less any given situation that involves resource allocation.

Economic models are, by and large, useful tools, but unfortunately, like most tools, their usefulness depends upon the skills of the people using them. We all use economic theory in our day-to-day lives, making choices on how to spend our money, how much we can put away as savings and so forth. In other words, we make a budget. It may not be large and formal, probably not even written down, but the mental processes involved in allocating our finite resource of money definitely come under the heading of budget. And the amazing thing is that most people are unaware that that is what they are doing.

The same applies when we decide how to utilize our skills. We allocate our labour to the job that will give us the greatest return in the market place as it currently stands. If the market improves, we seek to better our position and re-allocate our labour to a higher paying role. If the market worsens, we seek to retain our job at all (legal) costs. But sadly, in many cases, the reality is the loss of the job and if lucky, acceptance of a new one, but at a lower wage.

Similar decisions are made by those who own land, property and the many and various forms of capital wealth. When the market is up, they look for higher returns, when the market is down, they begrudgingly accept the possibility of lower returns. We do all that by subconsciously following sound economic principles and models, and yet there are many people who say that economics is hokum, that it is not a science and that it is a waste of time. And the reason they say that is because of politicians.

Politicians receive their mandate by being elected to their local council or national parliament. They are usually aligned with a Party whose name embodies the basic principles of their raison d'etre, such as the Green Party, or the Socialist Party. The election is fought on the basis of a manifesto, or a list of things the Party will do if elected to power. But there is a problem with that. Just because someone casts a vote for a particular party, it doesn't mean they support everything the Party stands for. Yet, once elected, the representatives of the Party believe they have carte blanche to proceed as if they have support for everything they stood for. In an attempt to fulfil all their plans, they subvert and twist any number of economic theories and models. You can hear the pain; hence the term 'shriekonomics'.

If everybody who stood for election had to be independent and submit their own manifesto to the electorate, what would be the outcome? Would it result in more democracy or less? The people's representatives would really be on the hook, unable to hide behind a Party machine. It's worth thinking about, because it could well be a way forward for truer democracy, giving everybody more say in their future. At the moment, the Party behemoths control everything, behaving very much like Japanese knotweed as they crowd out and suffocate smaller rivals, leaving little to no space for new ideologies to emerge. The resultant shriekonomics makes us a whole lot poorer.

### The Banking System

We all have to use money in our daily lives, but what do you know about the banking system that issues the folding stuff in your wallet or purse? The role of money underpins everything we do in life, yet very few of us know how it's created or how the banking system works. Consequently, when a major financial crisis occurs, the vast majority of people are left in the dark, not having the first idea about what went wrong, if it could have been avoided etc., and rely on banks and politicians to fill them in on the details. But do they tell it like it is, or are they economical with the truth?

Here are some items that should give you cause to pause and think.

In the USA, the Federal Reserve issues all currency, yet it isn't owned or controlled directly by the US government. The Fed is a privately owned institution that's controlled by the large private banks. Think about that! Private concerns being responsible for the world's reserve currency. And here's something else to keep you awake at night. The US government's only influence over The Fed is to remove a board member, yet private banks, such as JP Morgan, have been able to wield power and control over US monetary policy because of their power within the Fed. Congress's influence over this incredibly powerful institution is virtually zilch.

Furthermore, at any one time, the Fed only carries only between three and ten per cent in reserve bank notes (known as fractional reserve banking) to cover all the credit it issues. So not only is the federal reserve not federal, it isn't a reserve either.

Both of the above points raise serious questions about the way our lives are shaped and governed. In addition, they cast doubt on the stability of the very foundations upon which modern society operates. We all remember the Argentina banking crisis in 2001/2, which featured runs on banks and social unrest due to a loss of confidence in the currency and the system, but imagine that multiplied a few thousand times if the same happened to the dollar. Is this really the most secure way forward for a prosperous future for all? Perhaps it suits the bankers and their friends the lawyers and politicians but what about you, me and our children?

And what have we observed since 2008? A financial crisis, not just in the US, but all over the world. Where it actually began is still open to debate, but it was those paragons of financial probity who required bailouts from the taxpayers' pockets to remain in business. In Ireland, the government took on the debts of the Allied Irish Bank and the Bank of Ireland and plunged the whole country into a financial and economic abyss. The UK, too, was also quick to shell out billions to keep banks that were rotten to the core in business. When asked where the US bailout money had gone, Thomas Kelly, a spokesman for JP Morgan Chase said, "We've lent some of it. We've not lent some of it. We've not given any accounting of, 'Here's how were doing it.' We have not disclosed that to the public. We're declining to." JP Morgan Chase received $25 billion dollars in emergency bailout money, all of it taken from the pockets of ordinary Americans.

And to add insult to injury, while millions of people throughout the world have been thrown on the scrapheap because companies were forced to close in the aftermath of such breathtaking incompetence and failure, the bankers have continued to reward themselves with huge unearned and undeserved bonuses every year. Are these the sort of people to be trusted to take us forward?

For further reading about such financial atrocities and corruption, which affect every single person in the entire world, those of you with strong stomachs might care to log on to  http://www.wanttoknow.info/bankingfactsinformationcorruption.

Ask yourself what would have happened if the failed banks had been allowed to go to the wall? In other words, what would have happened if the banks had been treated the same way they treat their defaulting customers? Would it really have been close the door and goodnight Vienna? Would those who are suffering have suffered more? Perhaps we'll never know, but think about what you have to do to recover a debt, and what happens if the legal process fails to see you right. Yes, you bite the bullet and get on with life, and your debtor keeps what they borrowed. Now what if that had happened to the banks? Too simple? You decide.

And despite causing the biggest financial chaos since the Great Depression, only Iceland brought prosecutions against those who were at fault. Elsewhere, there was a lot of hand-wringing, gnashing of teeth and the common cry of 'lessons must be learned', but to all intents and purposes, nobody was to blame. Are these really the people and systems to rely on to lead us into the future?

### Big Business

For better or worse, all our lives are touched by big business. Even if we manage to avoid direct contact, their tentacles reach out into all spheres of society. They are unavoidable. Many household names are companies owned and controlled by these mega-giants, while the majority of people are blissfully unaware of how much they control the 'free' market place. Their control of vast resources brings them influence and power that can not only make governments bend to their will, but also enable them to influence taxation law so that they can legally avoid paying the kind of taxes that the rest of us must suffer at will.

In many cases, they avoid paying any tax at all. In 2010, Forbes magazine reported that despite General Electric generating $10.3 billion in pre-tax income, they didn't only end up paying no tax, but also received a $1.1 billion tax credit. How did it happen? It's complicated, but basically through legally sanctioned tax avoidance schemes, the like of which are not available to the average person in his or her less privileged situation.

Whatever the legality of the situation, the morality is highly questionable and those who contrive to let this happen politicians and lawmakers are to blame. Of course, the worrying thing is that the General Electric example is just one incident among the many thousands that take place every year in countries all over the world. Tax dollars being lost that could do so much good elsewhere. For further reading, try <http://www.wanttoknow.info/financialnewsarticles>.

Then there is the question of responsibility to the consumer. It's recently been noted by Ralph Nader that auto safely laws in the US need tightening up, as big auto manufacturers have, over the years, brought untold pressure to bear on the regulators for an easy ride, which has allowed them to prioritize cost-cutting over safety.

In the first four months of 2014, eleven million new vehicles were subject to safety concerns. Taking General Motors as an example, Nader shows how this lamentable state of affairs has come about. At GM, there are eighteen levels between the factory floor and the CEO, which Nader says "... is eighteen levels of potential passing the buck, evasion, covering up, minimizing, et cetera. The incentive at each one of these levels is to keep costs down. You get promoted at companies like General Motors by shaving a few cents off a tire. You get promoted by controlling costs. You don't get promoted by controlling what they consider to be hypothetical casualties."

Nader is now lobbying Congress and President Obama in an attempt to give safety laws and those who regulate them more muscle. But should such a situation have been allowed to arise in the first place? It's only due to well-placed and well-connected individuals like Nader that such big business shortcomings get exposed. They are fault lines that affect us all through higher social costs.

Big business can also set prices to the consumer and bully small suppliers into selling their produce at levels that eventually cause the supplier to close. Large supermarket chains are known to do this to small farmers. And if they can't get the price they demand, they switch their source to a country with a lower cost of living and leave their original supplier high and dry, thereby causing unemployment and social problems.

It must be stressed that not all business acts in this way, but many multinationals strut about the world, parasitically feeding off host economies. And because of their sheer size and power, they get away with it. Governments love to report that XXX is building a new plant and it will create Y,YYY jobs, but they fail to tell you what type of jobs they are, what the government had to give away to secure the deal, and the fact that if the multinational did not have all the legally complex tax avoidance schemes and compliant politicians to hand, the tax it would otherwise pay would be sufficient to invest back in the economy to create the employment and better social conditions that they're promising with their new plant, so making that plant unnecessary! Big Business 1, Society 0.

If asked, most people would give Amazon a positive rating, as they have not only helped to bring down the cost of books, CDs and DVDs etc., but also been at the forefront of e-reader development, through Kindle, and modern self-publishing.

While that is to be admired, their policies have also had the unfortunate side-effect of forcing thousands of small bookstores to close, particularly in the UK and the USA. They were businesses which were well run, had been serving their local communities for some considerable time, provided jobs and were an essential part of the fabric of their local society. They failed not because of inefficiency, but because their insignificant size meant that they couldn't utilize advantageous tax avoidance measures or demand discounts over the industry standard from publishers that Amazon could and did. As a result, they were unable to sell books as cheaply and lost custom. Starbucks has had a similar effect on local cafes.

All is fair in love and war? Perhaps, but the invasion of these multinational giants, while undoubtedly bringing some benefits to some sections of society, also leaves scars on local communities and high streets. Many would argue that it's all about the survival of the fittest, and that Amazon, Starbucks et al. have just made the most of the opportunities presented to them. While there is some merit in such an argument, it's also true that big business needs to be more aware of the effects it has on the society in which it operates. In 1999, in Millau, south-west France, a McDonalds was dismantled, days before it was due to open, by protestors led by alter-globalization activist Jose Bove. Fortunately, the protest was non-violent and peaceful, but it still stands as a stark warning to multinationals to be careful where and how they tread, as people are willing to be mobilized when given sufficient motivation.

A further problem with multinationals lies in the working conditions that they often impose. As those in power bow down and sing praises to the bottom line, costs are being squeezed to such an extent that those who actually do the toil are being paid less and less to work in conditions that are not always very good while those at the top take out more and more. Since 2012, cities across the USA have seen mass protests by McDonalds' workers and labour groups for more money and the right to unionize, something which many multinationals forbid. We are moving backwards as giant corporations take over and dictate what is, with no reference to how it affects ordinary people and their lives. The policy appears to be: we pay you, so we own you. If you don't like it, leave and get another job. Which is all very well, but where are the other jobs? Multinationals and others are moving to eradicate them and turn the global workforce into slaves. We might not be there yet, but it's coming unless we stop, sit down, take stock and find a new way forward, such as that proposed by An Idea Nation.

### Maximizing Shareholder Value

In the good old days, when the summers were longer and warmer, the flowers brighter and the coffee smelled better, businesses existed to make products or provide services. Actually, I'm not too sure about the summers and flowers, or the coffee, now I think about it, but the bit about businesses is definitely spot on. A company would go about its business, maximizing profits, while ensuring a sustainable future through deft investment in its plant, tools, machinery, labour etc. As it turned in favourable results, its stock would experience an increase in demand from people on the outside who wanted a piece of the action. With that increase in demand would come an increase in price, and likewise an increase in the value of the company. All of that served to maximize shareholder value.

However, we are now experiencing a new phenomenon which has changed the way companies operate, and while they say it maximizes shareholder value, that statement has been exposed as a myth.

In a recent interview, William Lazonick, an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, Director of the UMass Lowell Center for Industrial Competiveness and President of the Academic-Industry Research Center, a nonprofit organization, explained why.

Over the past thirty years or so, American businesses have changed the way in which they allocate their resources as well as their objectives, expecting the taxpayer, via the government, to fund such things as R & D and new technology, which has resulted in a good bottom line for the businesses, but not for the American people.

Outcomes are now measured over a much shorter period than they previously were quarter by quarter and not yearly under the guise of shareholder value, or what the shareholder wants. The underlying argument for this is that the only people who take a risk in the economy are shareholders and because of that they are the only ones that have the right to say what happens to the company's profits. There are two major flaws in this argument. First, taxpayers, who the theory dismisses, are always making investments, through government spending, on technology and infrastructure without a guaranteed return, and so are taking a risk. Second, labour is viewed just as an input cost, whereas people go to work every day and make an investment in their time and skills to build a future for their careers and their families with no guarantee about what the future may hold. Corporations used to go along with that and did their best to invest in their workers through training etc. to improve their skills, make them happy and keep them on the payroll producing a good product. However, over the past thirty years, the ideology has changed to one of viewing the labour force as an input cost that needs to be minimized in order to maximize profit.

The ideology of maximizing shareholder value started affecting corporate resource allocation behaviour in a profound manner. That movement led to companies buying back their own stock, so any profit was being diverted into that rather than investing in the company's plant, labour force etc. That has led to companies in the industrial heartland of America, such as General Electric, which derives almost fifty per cent of its profits this way (or in the crisis, a source of its losses with the knockon effects to the wider economy), becoming financialised and more focused on that than their products. In turn, that has given a green light to Wall Street and influenced its behaviour.

In the last ten years, companies in the S & P 500 have spent about three trillion dollars of their profits buying their own stock to keep the price high, and as it only stays high for a limited time, they have kept on doing it. It's simply a manipulation of the market. From 2001 2012, the S&P 500 companies used 94% of their profits to either buy back shares (54%) or pay dividends (40%), leaving just 6% to be ploughed back into the companies by way of investment in plant, labour etc., the foundation for rising living standards.

With many top executives being compensated or remunerated for their time and efforts with stock options (the biggest component in their pay packages), it's led to those at the top of the tree receiving compensation beyond their wildest imaginings, while those further down the scale, the labour force, have fallen behind. As a result, the gap has grown, and jobs have been lost and not created because the money is going to the wrong area. And none of this is illegal, despite the fact that share prices are being manipulated for the benefit of the few. It is, however, accounting fraud and a great incentive to manipulate profits to influence the share price.

It has now spread around the world to Europe and China, although in Germany and Sweden, it has been questioned and legislated against.

### Barriers To Entry

Large corporations and companies maintain their position of power and influence by many means, some above board and legal, and some rather shady and teetering on the edge. One such method is the way they erect barriers to entry to prevent or hinder new or smaller competitors from entering the market. These barriers may have to do with what can be termed natural or structural barriers, such as the fact that it's too costly or difficult for new entrants to get established, or they may be artificially erected or strategic barriers. These may include such things as predatory pricing, where they lower prices to force the newcomers out of the market, influencing legislation through lobbying (see page 26) to prevent competitors getting a toehold, or even just good old-fashioned bullying, as happened a few years ago in central Portugal.

A couple of business people wanted to set up a local English magazine called Hello Portugal!, but were prevented from using that title by Hello magazine which, in a multi-page letter from its lawyers, threatened to sue if the couple went ahead using the word 'Hello' in the magazine title, claiming it could affect Hello's sales in a negative manner. In other words, Hello! was saying that it, a huge, well established and instantly recognizable glossy international publication, might be mistaken for a digest-sized magazine about local affairs circulating amongst a few hundred people within a limited region. A ludicrous claim. The owners of Hello Portugal! had no choice but to step down, and they renamed the magazine Hey Portugal! Whether Hello! magazine would have won their case is uncertain, but the owners of Hello Portugal! couldn't afford, quite literally, to take the chance. It is this type of blind and selfish behaviour that prevents many entrepreneurs from getting off the ground and benefitting society with what they have to offer and, as such, needs to be discouraged.

### Institutionalized Corruption And Fraud

It's a sad fact of life that corruption and fraud exist. And they exist everywhere, from the lowest in the land to the highest. An executive who uses his company car for his own pleasure trips at the weekend and fails to pay for the petrol and other running expenses out of his own pocket is fraudulently obtaining a benefit he isn't entitled to, while a government that ignores its own laws to further its ends is guilty of corruption. Likewise, a corporation that uses privileged information to artificially boost its share price. Wherever you look in today's society, corruption and fraud are never far away. Perhaps it's something inherent in human beings and their innate drive for survival, or maybe it's a behaviour that has been learned. It's possible that one feeds off the other, but whatever the causes, society as a whole suffers. Corruption and fraud are like a cancer eating its way through a body, with the same result the host organism eventually collapses and dies. And then what?

What we should all question is the starting point for such behaviour. Does it trickle down from above? Or does it start at the bottom with individuals and spread upwards in society like some unseen osmosis? Perhaps it's now too deep-seated in society to find out, but something needs to be done about it, as its effects are negatively impacting global society in a big way, creating imbalances of wealth, power, influence and opportunity, thereby consigning millions of people to the scrapheap with no possibility of escape.

Transparency International's Corruption Perception's Index 2013 (<http://www.transparency.org/cpi2013/results>) clearly illustrates that the abuse of power, secret dealings and bribery are still destroying societies around the world, bringing in their wake despair and hopelessness.

It can be seen that the table is headed by those countries considered to be the least corrupt, with Denmark and New Zealand top of the pile (91 /100). As we go down the list, the most corrupt countries tend to be those which are also the poorest, the worst performing being Afghanistan, North Korea and Somalia (8/100). Of the European Union countries, if we look at those which required a bailout Ireland, Greece and Portugal we see that they rank 21st, 33rd and 80th respectively, with scores of 72/100, 62/100 and 40/100 respectively. Ireland, as previously mentioned, was forced into a bailout by EU pressure to rescue rogue banks, so is a different case, but the positions of Portugal and Greece (which has received two bailouts, with a third being discussed) come as no surprise, not only being two of the poorest countries within the EU, but ranking well below countries in the north, such as Germany, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the United Kingdom. Two other EU countries that also have severe economic difficulties, but which are being propped up contrary to the agreed rules and laws of the Union are Spain and Italy, and they rank 40th and 69th, with respective scores of 59/100 and 43/100.

While a keen observer can use the Index to nitpick and point to anomalies in the above argument, I would like to point out that it is not a definitive analysis of the data, but clearly shows a trend of poverty being synonymous with corruption.

Very few countries can be proud of their rating, and it's no surprise to see the majority of EU countries scoring less than 80/100. But when one considers that the bloc is anti-democratic in its structure, which is the first prerequisite for corruption and fraud to prosper, it's perhaps unsurprising. Could this be a trickle-down effect here from the EU institutions to the member countries or, as all the ruling bodies are composed of representatives taken from the member countries, a straight transfer of corrupt culture? Suffice it to say, unemployment, poverty and homelessness are haunting the continent against a backdrop of almost non-existent economic growth. Draw your own conclusions.

For a further illustration about how corruption destroys countries, read Tim Harford's The Undercover Economist, and particularly Chapter 7 on Why Poor Countries are Poor.

For anyone who doubts the corruption that is rife within the EU, Brussels Laid Bare by Marta Andreasen, MEP is a real eye-opener. The book is a first-hand account of how Ms Andreasen was appointed as the EU's chief accountant but prevented from doing her job when those who appointed her realized that she was an honest woman intent on putting the EU books in order. Unfortunately, that meant exposing all the fraudulent scams going on, and she fell afoul of the greater powers, who then hounded her from office. She was even physically threatened by shadowy figures. It's a powerful and disturbing book about those who want to rule over hundreds of millions of Europeans and will do and say anything to achieve their aim. Haven't innocent people suffered enough in the past from such ruthlessly naked corrupt ambition? The last thing we want is a repeat of Maoist China, Stalinist Russia or Nazi Germany. Incidentally, 2013 saw the nineteenth consecutive year when the EU accounts were qualified in order to allow the EU to continue functioning. In other words, they weren't signed off (given a clean bill of health) as there were major problems with them. Can you imagine any private company getting away with that?

Further grisly tales about the EU can be found in The Great European Rip-Off by David Craig and Matthew Elliot. They illustrate that the EU is not a free market where independent states can co-operate for the good of all their citizens, freely exchanging ideas and goods, but an authoritarian and undemocratic superstate that exists only to increase its own power at the expense of its people, crushing enterprise and dreams, and limiting the freedom of intellectual movement. The results are currently playing out over a European mainland mired in austerity while, at the same time, its leaders live a life of unabashed privilege and luxury, wasting resources and threatening anyone who dares to be different in thought, word and deed. And it will only get worse unless it can be neutralized from within. And that means giving the people the wherewithal to create their own opportunities and employment, free from the heavy yoke of an ever-increasing bureaucracy that strangles businesses and honest endeavour.

However, the EU is far from being alone. According to Karen Hudes, an attorney who worked in the legal department of the World Bank for twenty years, the global financial system is being dominated and manipulated by a select group of financial institutions and central banks centered on the US Federal Reserve. And to make matters worse, the group has seized control of the media to prevent its exposure. When Hudes tried to blow the whistle on World Bank failings, she was fired, but is now working with like-minded whistleblowers to bring an end to the corruption.

The group was described as an "economic super entity" by researchers on a 2011 Swiss study that was published in the Plos One journal on the 'network of global corporate control'. The implications are enormous for both policymakers and citizens alike. Hudes says that it works by something she calls "state capture", whereby government institutions are co-opted by the group that's corrupt, rendering them dysfunctional, as has happened with some of the pillars of the US government. Central banks have gamed the international financial system in a power grab. More detailed information can be found at  http://www.globalresearch.ca/world-bank-insider-blows-whis- tle-on-corruption-federal-reserve/5336492.

Although the focus has been on the corruption and fraud in public institutions and governments, it has to be pointed out that many private companies and corporations are up to similar tricks, with a consequent downside to our wider society. Both are equally evil, but corruption in a public body affects everyone more than that in a private body, and those involved in private frauds, such as those in Enron, are more likely to be found out and punished than those working in public bodies, which often try to mitigate the circumstances of the fraud and let the miscreant escape with less punishment than his or her private counterpart. However, both are far too widespread and must be reined in at every opportunity. Perhaps the solution lies in reducing the size and reach of government departments, multinational corporations and trans-continental institutions. Smaller units are easier to monitor, and therefore more transparent.

"It's politics, Jim, but not as we know it."

However, it has to be said that not all bureaucrats and politicians are corrupt. Many go into their careers to promote the genuine good they feel they can bring their constituents. Unfortunately, in our negative, backbiting media, we rarely hear about them. Jim Flaherty was such a person. Before his untimely death on April 10th, 2014, he served the Canadian public at both provincial and federal level for almost twenty years, at all times with great distinction. As the country's finance minister, charged with cutting the debt mountain down to size, he embodied many sound principles that An Idea Nation concurs with. He had a lot of difficult choices to make, many of which were unpopular, but he firmly believed that everyone should live within their means and prioritize their needs. And while he accepted that there is good debt and bad debt, he also recognized the truth that if debt is not paid back, one's ability to move forward is compromised. One of his major contributions came in 2008 when he introduced the tax-free savings account (TSFA), a measure which has been embraced by Canadians at all income levels, while he also created the registered disability savings plans (RDSP) program, which gives financial help to families on low incomes that are affected by disability.

### They Shopped Till They Dropped

All over the world, governing bodies, whether local, district, regional or national are in debt. But who are they in debt to? Theoretically, a debtor nation's deficits should equal the surpluses displayed by the rest. Unfortunately, that's too simple a way to look at matters. If governments, on behalf of the people, acted honestly and did what they were elected to do, then it might possibly work, as they would control the money supply and be able to regulate financial markets. However, in reality, governments don't control the money supply or financial markets. In fact, it's quite the opposite. The banks and financial institutions own the governments, and can quite literally make or break them. It is they who hold the purse strings, and not governments. What we see as government budgeting etc. is just an illusion.

Over the years, our lords and masters have invested in all manner of things that have improved our lives. Of that, there can be no denying. However, they have also wasted inordinate amounts of cash on white elephants and other vanities. As a result, half of the world is living very nicely, while the other half continues to struggle and be weighed down with all the problems incumbent with such a state. But if you look at the debt being carried by some of the developed nations, you have to conclude that as well off as we may be in terms of materialism, can we really afford it?

In the case of the USA, the answer has to be a resounding 'no'. The US debt currently stands at just over seventeen trillion dollars, which is equal to just over $54,000 per citizen. It's increasing at a rate of $2.41 billion a day. Forty per cent of the debt is owed to the Federal Reserve and the other sixty per cent to individuals, states, other governments and corporations. The interest alone that's payable on the debt exceeds $400 billion every year.

The USA is a massive country in more ways than one. Not only does it cover a large land mass, but its enormous population has proved to be very innovative, producing ideas and inventions that have made great contributions towards society. However, they have reached their dominant position due to the massive investments made over the years with borrowed money. Where would they be if that hadn't happened, and what would they do if somebody blew a whistle tomorrow and declared that all debts had to be repaid immediately and without fail? A truly frightening thought.

It's accepted that individuals through to nations borrow money to invest in property, consumer durables, infrastructure etc., but surely that debt has to be kept in check? The alternative, as many individuals find, is bankruptcy. Greece has also recently found out the hard way, as has Portugal, yet these two countries, with what amounts to an insignificant debt when compared to the USA, are now being bent out of shape by the bankers who are seeking to regain their money at all and every cost to the societies involved. Yet at the same time, the USA sails on ahead. How long can it last? Is such debt really sustainable? Nobody actually knows, as we have not been here before, but one thing is clear: while some US citizens enjoy a standard of living way above what they are earning, the money that's financing it is being diverted from elsewhere, where it could be used to make real products and provide real services, training and jobs, thereby eradicating poverty and all the hopelessness that goes with it. Doesn't that indicate the USA is living off the backs of the rest of the world?

At the present time, the leaders of the USA seem incapable of or disinterested in solving the debt conundrum, and it's the rest of the world that suffers. Because of the sheer size of the economy, the country is deemed to be too big to fail. Yes, the consequences don't bear thinking about, and it's certainly not what we advocate, but we must ask ourselves if this old-fashioned way of running an economy has a future. With the BRIC countries and others all clamoring for their share of the pie, unless money is used to invest rather than just pay off interest on a debt, the pie is not going to increase sufficiently in size to satisfy everyone's appetite. The result could be calamitous.

The way the world is currently operating in the financial sphere is akin to a giant Ponzi scheme. A perfect example of this comes from Detroit, Michigan, in the USA. Once synonymous with Ford cars and Tamla Motown, an innovative record label that was started with an investment of $800 in 1959 and went on to conquer the world, it's now a pit of bankruptcy and despair.

Over the years, the city attracted public service workers with promises of good wage packets and future benefits regarding pensions and post-retirement health care, but failed to set aside money to fund those future commitments, expecting to take the money from the contributions of future tax payers when the time came to dive up. That was okay as long as the economy was motoring along steadily, but when the downturn hit, unemployment grew and the tax-paying base contracted. That meant that Detroit was not only trying to pay for current projects and commitments out of a diminished money pot, but also trying to fund all those pensions and post-retirement health care programs. Unable to keep the pot boiling, Detroit went under and filed for bankruptcy in March 2013. Just over half of its $9.2 billion debt is represented by those future unfunded liabilities. But the amazing thing is that what Detroit did would be illegal if attempted by a company in the private sector, and this same scam is happening in towns and cities all over America.

A study for the National Center for Policy Analysis estimates that the unfunded liability over the country is $3.1 trillion, while another estimate places the figure at $4.4 trillion just for pensions alone. Meanwhile, property and state taxes continue to rise in an attempt to keep up, sucking money out of the taxpayers' pockets, money that would otherwise have been spent or invested more fruitfully for the benefit of all. By government putting itself above the law, a cataclysmic mess has been created, which can only end in a bad place unless we start doing things differently.

### Lobbying

Lobbying is a common method by which a person or group of people attempt to influence people in power: in other words, senators, members of parliament, officials that represent institutions and government bodies. The purpose of the lobbyist is to persuade those in a position of power to look favorably upon their cause when making recommendations and drafting legislation.

On the face of it, the fact that the decision makers can be accessed by those with something to say is good for democracy. On the other hand, with so many diverse groups, representing everyone from non-profit making charities through to wealthy multinational corporations, it isn't practically possible for a power broker to see and hear from all of them. That results in the distortion of the system, as certain bodies attempt to navigate around the rules.

Some lobbies only have a small amount of money to support their work, while others are fabulously wealthy, so straight away, there's an uneven playing field which can't but help favor the 'haves' over the 'have nots'.

Using what is termed the 'donkey' approach of stick and carrot, vast sums of money are spent just wining and dining the powerful. In Europe, for example, many MEPs find themselves going to 'conferences' or on 'fact-finding missions' to exotic locations, to say nothing of the free goods and services which are on offer. There is never any shortage of carrots to help lead the decision maker in the required direction.

Lobbying is an accepted part of political life and has grown into a huge business of its own, but if the same behaviour were applied to individuals, they would be charged with bribery and corruption.

The number of lobbyists is difficult to estimate, but there are said to be anywhere between 15,000 and 30,000 operating around the European parliament alone.

Large corporations set up offices dedicated to lobbying in the cities that house the powerful, and are prepared to pay handsomely for the privilege. It's estimated that one lobbyist in Brussels costs at least €120,000 per annum to maintain. Very often, the corporations employ people who have retired from working in the seats of power, using their specialist knowledge and contacts to further their cause over others, which may possibly be more deserving. But is this not just another version of insider trading?

However, some lobbying is open and transparent, where groups state their interest clearly and concisely, as in the case of Greenpeace, for example.

Unfortunately, not all lobbying is as honest and upfront. Some powerful industrial groups that want to influence the law don't just speak to those in power, but infiltrate the decision-making system using the 'trojan horse' technique. That involves getting their own experts placed on the relevant committees and advisory groups by disguising their real interests and origins. Once in, they can work from the inside, influencing legislation to suit their paymasters. For example, in the European Commission's Working Group on Fluorinated Gases, experts from an independent institution called the European Partnership for Energy and the Environment (EPEE) were able to persuade law-makers to vote against further regulation of F-Gases used in refrigeration, even though the gases were known to be harmful to the environment. Later on, the EPEE was exposed as a false institution set up by DuPont and Honeywell, producers of F-Gases, who had managed, through that disguise, to place their own representatives in the advisory group to protect their manufacturing interests.

The list goes on, and not just in Europe.

Another popular lobbying technique is known as 'sending in the gunship'. If a corporation feels the introduction of a piece of legislation will harm their profits, they will play what is essentially a blackmail card and threaten to move their operations abroad, or say they will have to sack thousands of workers.

Lobbying can be a very secretive affair, making it difficult to establish exactly who is doing what, how much is being spent and what is being achieved. It certainly generates a lot of controversy, and moves have been made by concerned parties to bring pressure to bear on legislators to make the process more transparent. While some voluntary regulation of lobbyists in the EU has been introduced, it's nowhere near enough to prevent the problem of laws being passed for the wealthy. The EU is, of course, just one body, but a very influential actor on the world stage. However, the problems experienced there are mirrored throughout the world, up and down the corridors of power. The US reacted to a splurge of corruption scandals towards the end of the last century by introducing a series of Acts ranging from the 1995 US Lobbying Disclosure Act to the 2007 Honest Leadership and Open Government Act. In addition, there is now a book of rules detailing what lobbyists must and mustn't do.

No one is saying that lobbying is wrong, but as it generally functions at the present time, it favors the rich and powerful over the poor and weak, and is used to prevent those further down the food chain from rising up and competing on an even basis with those at the top. It carries all the overtures of having a larger slice of a fixed sized pie, whereas lobbying should be all about introducing new ideas and making sure they are given the oxygen to breathe and the legs to walk.

### Stock Markets

Stock markets. A great idea. You want to raise money for your company, so you advertise it in the marketplace and sell tiny individual portions of it to people who believe in your enterprise and vision and are willing to lend you their support in the hope that they'll receive a return on their investment at some unspecified time in the future. That return may be a dividend, paid out when the company is doing well, or it may come from selling the share they bought when it has increased in value in line with the company growth, profitability and well-being.

Many great companies have been built in this way, and the idea of the system is to be applauded, as it makes it possible for ideas to be transformed into small businesses, and from there into large businesses. If all goes well, the sky's the limit and everybody's happy.

But all is not well in Stock Market World. It's been turned into a casino for the rich and powerful. Every hour of every day, they gamble, by trading millions of shares for the sole purpose of making money, with no thought or care being given to the companies involved and what it means to those they employ or their clients. Companies have become just another product to buy and sell for monetary gain, rather than entities that should be nurtured. As a result, share prices fluctuate, often based on factors as obscure as a rumour the chairman had a hacking cough when he woke up this morning, so he's possibly going to die and the company will be finished. Investment decisions are not being made solely on the underlying strength of a company and its produce, but more and more on how a quick buck can be made by taking advantage of share price movement, no matter how slight.

Every day, news bulletins regale us with information about the health of stock markets all around the world. We're used to hearing the headline figures from the Dow Jones, the NASDAQ, the FTSE, the Nikkei, the Hang Seng etc. but what do they really mean? If the markets are up, we're told its good news. If they are down, we hear all about the fire and brimstone that will shortly be raining down on us. But what is the truth?

Stock markets are complex entities, trading in billions of shares every day and employing millions of people worldwide, and because what emanates from the markets affects the companies consumers buy from and informs governments about the health of big business, which in turn affects the wider economy, the news about their daily trading is important.

However, do stock market indices really reflect the underlying strength of economies, or are they just an indicator that some very rich people have had a very good day at the office?

Consider this:

A share price increases by five per cent over the course of a week, yet declines back to where it started a week later. Did that company really become five per cent better over the course of seven days before almost magically losing that increased efficiency over the next seven? Of course not. The original price rise might well have been due to a new product launch, signifying a sunnier future, but if that was the case, why didn't the share price stay where it was, or rise even further? Quite simply, those that had bought shares at the old price, sold when it rose and made a quick profit, and the fact that people were selling shares made the company stock less attractive, decreasing the share price. Money for nothing and your shares for free.

That example typifies so many stock market dealings. They have nothing to do with shrewd investment to help businesses expand and grow, but more to do with buying and selling company stock simply to turn a profit.

The stock market has grown into a convoluted and unwieldy beast, and has a major role to play in the future of business investment. That growth has seen an increase in the number and type of instruments used to not only buy and sell shares, but simply to make money by betting on future share prices. Included among those instruments are derivatives and hedge funds, and a practice they indulge in, albeit not exclusively, known as short selling. Whilst these are not bad in themselves, they are open to manipulation by less scrupulous traders and can have an adverse effect on a company's shares or a market sector. There's much debate about the morality behind such practices as short selling, as they're purely a means to make money, and although it's not wrong to do that, there is a question about whether the stock market is the correct vehicle for such behaviour. While many people make a lot of money from such financial transactions, many also lose substantial sums, albeit, in most cases, not their own. Nick Leeson and Barings Bank spring to mind. The fallout from that affected a great many innocent people, and one has to ask if such behaviour serves the greater good of society or just a few whizz kids who like to think they know how to gamble using someone else's capital.

A further example of the markets' cavalier behaviour was raised by the Environmental Audit Committee, composed of MPs, in the UK, in March 2014. Reiterating the findings of studies made over recent years, it warned that the world's financial markets could be causing a 'carbon bubble' through their overvaluation of the fossil fuel assets held by large companies, most of which will have to remain in the ground in order to combat climate change. This overvaluation poses a serious threat to economies.

Joan Walley, the Committee chair, said: "The UK Government and Bank of England must not be complacent about the risks of carbon exposure in the world economy. Financial stability could be threatened if shares in fossil fuel companies turn out to be overvalued because the bulk of their oil, coal and gas reserves cannot be burnt without further destabilizing the climate. The record-breaking extreme weather events causing chaos across the globe should be a wake-up call. The transition to a low-carbon economy will be much more painful if we wait until there is a climate crisis before recognizing that more than half of the world's fossil fuel reserves will have to remain in the ground."

Echoing the concerns was the UN's climate chief, Cristiana Figueres, who said:

"Those corporations that continue to invest in new fossil fuel exploration, new fossil fuel exploitation, are really in flagrant breach of their fiduciary duty because the science is abundantly clear that this is something we can no longer do."

She was also of the view that the world had to choose between moving to a low carbon economy through appropriate policies and businesses playing a role in investing in green technologies, or being forced by runaway climate change.

Catherine McGuinness, deputy chair of policy and resources for the City of London, said that opportunities didn't come much bigger than sustainable finance, and that by 2050, it was estimated that there would be over nine billion people on the planet, with seventy-five percent of those people, according to UN estimates, living in cities. Those cities would require sustainable water, energy, waste and transport solutions, and those solutions would require substantial investment. Green finance was an area in which the City could "truly demonstrate its social utility".

And in further bad news, this time for the UK pension sector, a report commissioned by the European Greens said the risks for that sector were higher than those for the banking sector because of the elevated exposure to carbon in the funds.

For the stability of the world stock markets and economies, perhaps the time has come to reign in the excesses of the past and return towards the basics. While more formal regulation isn't necessarily the answer, we need to find an acceptable way to introduce safeguards to nullify or minimize the casino and cavalier effect that is prevalent today. After all, there are laws about insider trading and other fraudulent trading practices, such as providing false information about a company, so why not? Especially when the actions of a few threaten the very existence of the rest.

### The Media

The media is the means by which we participate in the democratic process and through which we obtain information about what is going on in the world. An open and democratic society requires a free media. That is, a media which is free from political interference and coercion. We in the West have been fortunate to grow up with mainstream media that, by and large, has performed its functions well, although it's certainly not without its shortcomings and controversies.

This book is not the place to detail all the shortcomings, and most alert citizens will be aware of problems with their local and national media. For those whose interest extends beyond their national boundaries, <http://www.wanttoknow.info/massmedia> is a site where you can read excerpts from twenty award-winning journalists who were prevented from reporting on major news stories due to pressure brought to bear by the corporate ownership prevalent in the mass media. Those journalists have won Emmys and Pulitzers, and some of them were even fired in their efforts to alert the public to what they had a democratic right to know. For the complete stories, read Into the Buzzsaw.

Mind you, corporate interference is only one part of the problem. In Europe, the EU goes to extraordinary lengths, using the largesse of taxpayers' money, to squash stories that it considers to be damaging to 'the project', and makes generous grants to newspapers and television stations in return for favourable coverage of EU matters. According to The Great European Rip-Off, the BBC is reported to have borrowed £141 million from the European Investment Bank, in three low-interest loans, and has also been the recipient of at least £1.4 million in EU grants. While claiming it doesn't affect its editorial impartiality, the reality is somewhat different, as every pro-EU story is trumpeted and anything that might rock the boat is ignored. In France, Radio France has taken €5.8 million, and all the Danish newspapers receive grants. In fact, throughout Europe, EU money is granted to TV, radio and press for them to make proEU programmes. For example, in Austria €836,000 was given to the main TV network to make a programme called Everything You Want to Know about the European Union. And there are countless more examples.

Another valid point to be raised at this juncture is the content chosen by the media monopolies, whether they are state or privately owned, as is the case with the Rupert Murdoch and Silvio Berlusconi empires. So much of what is reported and goes into opinion-led and discussion programmes carries negative overtones. Indeed, Prince Charles himself has had occasion in the past to lament the trend. Think about the TV or radio news you heard today, or the news stories that dominated your newspaper, and you'll find that the national dialogue centres around scandal, war, crime, civil unrest, the latest crisis, doomand-gloom warnings about health and the environment, and so forth. Very little, save perhaps for one minor item towards the end of the bulletin or buried somewhere in the middle of the newspaper to produce a feeling of uplift and hope.

But is the world really like that? Are there no positive upbeat stories about people striving and achieving in their everyday lives? What a difference it would make if we were fed a diet of positivity, success and individual achievement. Psychologically, it just has to be inspiring, but in the meantime, we are ground down with a relentless daily diet of events, which may well be important and affect our lives, but hammer away at the psyche, leaving the vast majority of people feeling low, hopeless and disempowered. Could it all be just part and parcel of the way society keeps us in our place, destroying our will, so we won't rise up and try to do something different?

### Pension Schemes

People coming up to retirement age look forward to the day when they can draw their hard-earned pension and go about their business without the pressure of 9 to 5. From early in their working lives, they are told to save in whatever scheme is available so they'll be able to enjoy a good standard of living in their twilight years. And so, the fortunate ones, those who had jobs that allowed them to invest the residual of their income once living expenses had been deducted, do exactly that.

But as they approach 'pay out' time, it would appear that all in the garden is not rosy.

In many countries, the vast majority of people have not saved for their old age (some because they couldn't be bothered, but most because they couldn't afford to) and will rely on any savings, the state pension (if still provided) and the money they will receive if they sell their home (if they have one) and downsize, or take out a loan against the value of equity in the property, which will paid back out of their estate (usually by selling the property) when they die.

But that's only half the problem, because in many countries, just like in Detroit (see page 25), the cost of public sector pensions is not only becoming prohibitive, it's causing great friction with those who have only worked in the private sector, made similar contributions and now find themselves as poor relations to public workers who they have subsidized through their taxes. Part of the challenge is caused by falling birth rates and rising unemployment, which in turn means less money finding its way into the pension coffers to pay for commitments made in the past, while another part of the challenge is that people are living longer and therefore taking more from the diminishing pot. The situation will soon become critical and unsustainable, as illustrated in the following example.

In Canada, over the past few years, there has been a marked shift from defined benefit pensions (DB) to defined contribution pensions (DC), which has resulted in Canadians having to work longer before being able to retire and a huge controversy between those in receipt of DB pensions and those on DC pensions.

Defined benefit pension plans are a type of plan in which an employer or sponsor promises a specified monthly benefit upon retirement, irrespective of an individual's contributions. The amount is arrived at through a complicated formula based on length of service, earnings and age, but essentially both the formula and benefit are known in advance. This type of pension has been particularly popular with government bodies (local and national) and other public concerns. On the other hand, defined contribution pensions pay out on a formula that's known in advance, based upon both employer and employee contributions, while the actual benefit to be received remains to be determined. DC pensions are sensitive to the market (as that's where the contributions are invested) and can go one of two ways. Either the markets perform well or the retiree benefits, or they perform badly, with the result that many people who have worked hard and paid in their contributions every month find the pension pot coming up short of what is required for a financially secure retirement. This latter scenario has hit the Canadian pension market due to a combination of falling stock prices and low interest rates, meaning that many are now having to reduce personal spending or defer retirement to make up the shortfall. Consultants Towers Watson estimate the new retirement age to now be sixty-seven (an extra two years). They also point out that it has consequences in the labour market because as people have to work longer, employers can't be sure who is going to retire when, making it difficult to manage staff levels and needs, while for every older employee who stays on, it's another opportunity denied to a younger person, giving a boost to the unemployment figures.

According to Pension Ponzi, a book published by Wiley Canada, Canada is operating a system of pension apartheid which favours the twenty per cent of workers with union-negotiated DB pension plans at the expense of the majority who underwrite those pensions with their future taxes. In other words, the DB pensions are not affordable unless the taxpayers of the future make good the difference between what is in the pot and what is required. Presumably, taxes will have to increase to pay for that, or public expenditure decrease, both options with obvious unpalatable economic and social consequences.

In Great Britain, in March 2014, the Institute of Economic Affairs said that within two years, tax increases equivalent to seventeen per cent of GDP (more than £300 billion) would be required to fund future pensions and healthcare promises of the country's aging population. The alternative is to cut expenditure by a quarter. And all because successive governments' blinkered 'short-termism' meant that future requirements were not factored in to budgetary plans. The report said that just this year, "the government took the assets of the Royal Mail pension fund and gave the workers promises of government pensions in return. The explicit government debt was reduced but future government liabilities in this case contractual were increased."

How much longer can this state of affairs be allowed to continue before it collapses? It's already happened in Detroit, and it's a pattern being repeated throughout the western industrialized world.

What started out as a well-intentioned scheme has started to unravel and now sits in the middle of society as a huge ticking time bomb. It's yet further proof that the old models employed by society are not what are required in today's world and that new models will have to be constructed for people to be able to retire in relative comfort in years to come. Or will it be a case of work till you drop? Under the current schemes, that's probably a 'yes', but with new thinking and new ideas, it need not necessarily be so.

### Justice

The judicial systems of the free world were no doubt set up with good intentions, following sound principles. However, along the way, they have become corrupt. While that isn't to say that justice is never seen to be done, it isn't as easy and as straightforward to obtain justice as it should be in a fair society. The system has become prohibitively expensive, with the result that most people cannot contemplate any form of legal action in the event that they are subjected to a form of wrongdoing.

Wherever you live, the legal system is a closed shop. It's purportedly been devised and run on behalf of a country for the citizens of that country so that they may pursue their everyday lives in a secure and safe manner. However, the reality is very different. Quite simply, the justice you receive is equal to the money you can pay. The law is for the rich and wealthy, not for the population at large. Indeed, it's always been the same. Even in these days of legal aid and other associated schemes, the poor get a rough, if non-existent, deal.

The law of the land is made in sovereign parliaments on behalf of the population, and the legislation is drafted by legal minds in such a way that not only is it incomprehensible to most people, it requires the use of a lawyer should one be unfortunate enough to get involved in a legal wrangle in the first place. The legal profession charges such extortionate amounts of money for its services that it isn't surprising why the law is considered to be the preserve of the wealthy.

If people do not have equal opportunities to access the law, there can never be true justice.

A legal system is a given for the smooth functioning of society, but it must be made more affordable and accessible to a greater number of people. Without adequate access to the law, how is a penniless would-be entrepreneur going to protect his new product? As soon as word gets out, the idea may be hijacked by a large organization and stolen. The entrepreneur would, in all honesty, have no chance of legal redress when faced with the might of the company's legal team.

A further consideration is the number of laws in place. We are always told that 'ignorance of the law is no excuse'. Okay, when there are perhaps a couple of dozen laws in a very elementary society, perhaps that sentiment just about holds. But in today's very complex, interconnected world, is it really that simple? How can anyone individual keep track, except with the services of a highly paid lawyer?

As an example, the EU has turned itself into a law-making factory and now produces at least twelve new ones every day, according to The Great European Rip-Off. Are they all necessary, and why don't they ever repeal old ones? According to EUR-Lex Access to European Law  http://eur.lex.europa.eu/Stats.do?context=legislativeanddate=2012, the total number of new EU decisions, laws and regulations is now 112,140. As a result, Europeans are required to submit to more and more regulation in their daily lives, most of which appears to be in place solely with the aim of sapping the individual spirit and squashing enterprise, fresh thinking and ideas.

And there's also the question of how democratic it is. When you consider that the unelected EU Commission has the sole power to propose, repeal and enforce laws, you have to wonder. At an EU-sponsored Citizen's Dialogue in London, in February 2014, Viviane Reding, vice-president of the European Commission actually boasted that seventy per cent of UK law is now made in Brussels. Draw your own conclusions.

And if that isn't a sufficient insult to the democracy the EU claims it is, EU law states the following: "In the territory of each member state and whatever their nationality, officials and other servants of the Communities shall....be immune from legal proceedings in respect of acts performed by them in their official capacity, including their words spoken or written. They shall continue to enjoy this immunity after they have ceased to hold office." From protocol /n° 36) on the privileges and immunities of the European Communities 1965 continued in the Constitution Protocol 7 Article 11(a).

So European citizens are not all equal before the law. Nice democracy.

A further slap in the face of democracy came with the 2002 introduction of the European Arrest Warrant (EAW). The British Home Affairs Committee of MPs says it is "flawed", and MP Keith Vaz said that it "has led to a number of miscarriages of justice with devastating consequences for those involved." One such case involved a British man who was sentenced, in his absence, in 2004, to 19 years in prison, by an Italian court, for a murder he could not possibly have committed. The first he knew about the case was when he was arrested in 2009, through the use of an EAW, in the UK, and hauled off to Italy to serve his time. The man was acquitted in 2010 when the Italian court withdrew the EAW and admitted they'd made a mistake. Further details about this case and others can be found at  http://www.fairtrials.org/documents/EAW_-_Cases_of_Injustice1.pdf.

Such laws limit the freedom of the individual and cow them into a submissive and compliant state, even when they have no intention of committing a crime, all of which flies in the face of democracy and basic justice. The EAW means that anyone can be arrested at any time, on any charge, on the say-so of any person with the legal authority to grant the EAW, or the power to get an EAW granted. It's terrifying.

A free and fully functioning justice system is necessary in order for democracy and freedom of opportunity and choice to operate. Unfortunately, the systems now in place do not serve the interests of all the people equally. The systems have been corrupted, and one could be excused for thinking that they exist solely for the financial benefit of lawyers and their paymasters at the expense of the wider society they are supposed to protect and represent.

Indeed, following the Building Trust in Justice Systems in Europe forum, a press release from the European Commission on November 21st, 2013 told us that as many as 47% of EU citizens distrust the legal system in their own country, albeit with variations of 15% in Denmark and Finland and 76% in Slovenia. The system needs to change to meet the demands of the modern world: to become more open and transparent and accessible by all. Many observers worry that without such a transformation, opportunity for both individual and societal progress could be limited and subjected to strangulation at birth by those who hold the balance of legal power through their wealth or position in society. And, as the examples from the EU clearly illustrate, the law is moving rapidly to reign people in and control them, in much the same way as Mao did in China, Stalin in

Russia and Hitler in Germany.

### Final Thoughts

It seems apparent that in today's society, politicians and bankers are working together in their cozy little club to orient the world their way, while lawyers draft the legal framework that keeps the whole structure bound together. The result has been a gross distortion of the free market, with the result that millions of citizens, all over the world, have been condemned to a life of poverty and drudgery, filled with ill health, hunger and hopelessness, while those who pull the strings grow fatter, richer and more powerful.

Wouldn't that wealth and influence be better employed elsewhere, to give each and every person the opportunity to follow their dreams? The resources are there, it's just up to us to act. If we don't, the situation will get worse and worse. Already the supposedly comfortable middle classes are being squeezed, so how does that make those who are in what is now becoming an underclass feel?

We are now facing a democratic deficit, even though the Economist, in its essay What's gone wrong with democracy? (http://www.economist.com/news/essays/21596796-democracy-was-most-successful-political-idea-20th-century-why-hasit-run-trouble-and-what-can-be-do), states: "Democracies are on average richer than nondemocracies, are less likely to go to war and have a better record of fighting corruption. More fundamentally, democracy lets people speak their minds and shape their own and their children's futures. That so many people in so many different parts of the world are prepared to risk so much for this idea is testimony to its enduring appeal."

The facts remain, however, that in the twenty-first century, still only forty per cent of people live in countries that hold free and fair elections, and that 2013 saw the eighth consecutive year of decline in global freedoms.

### What is the answer?

There has been much discussion of the Chinese model and the benefits it can bring to business, as shown by its speedy economic growth, but its human rights abuses and a lack of free speech make it a non-starter in democratic terms. Sir Richard Branson in an article published on linkedin.com (http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140324230543-204068115state-of-government-can-developing-democracy-change-business-for-good?trk=prof-post) wonders if there is a way to combine Chinese efficiency and growth with democratic freedom.

He puts forward for discussion the hypothesis that there should be fewer politicians and leading businessmen, but that they should be paid more and given more power, quoting research that shows paying politicians more improves quality. He argues that powerful politicians running countries like businesses could achieve so much more than they do now and make countries more efficient, more productive and more effective and yet still retain the benefits of democracy.

It's certainly another point of view worth debating. We'd all probably welcome fewer politicians, especially career politicians, but pay them more and give them more power? The jury's definitely out on that one. What do you think?

## Section Two: Change is a-coming

"Be the change that you wish to see in the world."

—Mahatma Ghandi

After reading section one, you may be feeling a little dispirited. On the other hand, it may have galvanized you into thinking that you should do something about the problems that exist rather than just accepting the current situation as a fait accomplait. Just because the self-appointed so-called global aristocracy think that way, it's no excuse for the rest of us. Indeed, things are already changing. The smug governing elites may have found ways to subvert the democratic process and suffocate representative democracy, but people everywhere are refusing to accept such a vision. It may seem like a David vs. Goliath mismatch, but remember who came out on top there!

Across the globe, people from all walks of life are affecting change in unique and unprecedented ways. This section looks at what's already happening, and focuses on the beacons that shine and give hope for the future. It's a quiet revolution, although we don't like using the word 'revolution', as it has violent implications, and that is not what An Idea Nation is about. In fact, An Idea Nation is at the complete opposite end of the spectrum, championing and helping people who have ideas that will improve the world, without bloodshed and war. Those two soul mates have to be seen as belonging to the past, banished from our lives to remain there forever. Violent uprisings, such as those in Venezuela and Ukraine, are only made possible because of the existence of the very things that An Idea Nation seeks to eradicate.

If people are content, they are more likely live together in a state of peace and harmony, as they have no desire or reason to upset the status quo, and An Idea Nation believes that bringing about such contentedness through the eradication of want and poverty is the only way forward for a truly sustainable society. War and violence only ever bring destruction, both of ideals and infrastructure, and place power firmly in the hands of the very people who shouldn't have it, people who learn nothing from the ravages of conflict and see it as the only way forward. Their shortsightedness has blighted this beautiful planet for too long. Now it's time to give the 'dreamers' a chance, those who have ideas that can transform the way we all live into something so much better and so much more equitable.

At the 44th World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in DavosKlosters, in January 2014, the thematic focus was: The Reshaping of the World: Consequences for Society, Politics and Business.

Hundreds of speakers from all over the world, including politicians, business people, environmentalists and many others of great influence in their spheres, discussed and debated the political, economic and social forces that are transforming our lives, institutions and communities. Their aim was to develop the insights, initiatives and actions that will be needed to respond to both the current and future challenges: challenges that have been thrown up by the shift in power and influence from traditional to networked hierarchies. Detailed information pertaining to the speakers and what was said can be found at  http://www.weforum.org/events/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2014/about.

Furthermore, the World Economic Forum's 2014 Report on Global Risks (ninth edition) states: "Our lives are changing at an unprecedented pace. Transformational shifts in our economic, environmental, geopolitical, societal and technological systems offer unparalleled opportunities." However, it did go on to warn: "... but the interconnections among them also imply enhanced systemic risks. Stakeholders from across business, government and civil society face an evolving imperative in understanding and managing emerging global risks which, by definition, respect no national boundaries." In other words, in order not to make the same mistakes that have blotted the world's copybook to date, we must all be aware of potential downsides and work to minimize or eliminate them.

The WEF Report, which can be downloaded at <http://www.weforum.org/reports/global-risks-2014-report>, goes on to identify ten areas that it sees as being of the highest concern, and in which new conceptual models have to be evolved in order to manage and measure such risks so that we move from urgency-driven task management to more collaborative efforts to strengthen risk resilience for the benefit of global society. At the same time, it emphasizes that it's the responsibility of not just government and business, but of civil society as well. The ten areas are: fiscal crises in key economies, structurally high unemployment/under employment, water crises, severe income disparity, failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation, greater incidence of extreme weather events, global governance failure, food crises, failure of a major financial mechanism/ institution, and profound political and social instability.

To put it another way, long-term thinking and collaboration are musts if we are to overcome the systemic problems inherent in the world as it currently stands. It's these very problems that drive An Idea Nation and other bodies in their search for solutions, many of which are already up and running.

In order to overcome our present troubles, we need a new approach with regard to how we think about others. The philosopher Roman Krznaric says that we live in an age of hyper-individualism, in which we believe the best way for us to live a good life and achieve happiness is to pursue our own narrow self-interests and personal desires, as expressed in the question: What's in it for me?

Krznaric says that we need to get away from that mode of thought if we're to sort out the wider problems, and that what we need is an empathy revolution. That means walking a mile in someone else's shoes or, if you prefer, looking at the world from their perspective and trying to understand the thoughts, feelings, ideas and experiences that make up their view of the world and dictate their responses and actions in any given situation.

He says empathy can create radical social change, and we need an empathy revolution because levels of empathy are declining at an alarming rate, even though, according to neuroscientists, ninety-eight per cent of human beings have the ability to empathize. For example, in the USA, empathy levels have declined by fifty per cent over the past forty years, with the steepest decline coming in the past ten years.

This increasing global empathy deficit has occurred over the same period of time that has seen an increase in social divides. The gap between rich and poor, in two thirds of western countries, is wider now than it was in the 1980s, while over one billion people exist on less than one dollar a day against a background of growing tension due to such causes as religious fundamentalism, ethnic tension and immigration brought about by people seeking a better life.

Empathy is the social glue that holds everything together, but it's drying out, and cracks in society are getting wider and appearing with greater frequency. We need more empathy to erode the toxic us-versus-them mentality which is at the root of so much conflict.

Tim Ryan, CEO and founder of Vestiigo.com, says that self-interest is killing our dreams and that we should start to see ourselves as more of a collective than a collection of individuals pursuing our own agendas. What served us well in the time of Adam Smith, who championed self-interest as a way to jump-start productivity, has now gone too far the other way. Times have changed and we need to replace 'me first' with 'we first'.

Fortunately, many people and organizations from all walks of life are on the case, such as <http://unify.org/earthday>, empathizing with others, teaching and showing others how to empathize, and already making a difference. At the end of the day, people are resourceful. Humankind has evolved to where it is today because of our inbuilt survival instinct. Innovation and change are everywhere, even though as an individual you might not agree with everything that's done in your name, and we are now moving into an age where ideas are being given the oxygen and resources to flourish in order to tackle the global problems of today, irrespective of governments or borders. With the right backing and encouragement, the future looks bright.

### Social Entrepreneurship

Ultimately, it's people and ideas that change the world. Social entrepreneurs are ordinary people who have ideas that will solve some of society's most pressing problems. They display both ambition and persistence in tacking social problems with innovative ideas that can lead to wide-scale change. Instead of waiting for governments and/or big business to come up with solutions, social entrepreneurs find out what's not working, discover the reasons why and then solve the problem by creating a new system and persuading society to move in a totally new direction through the natural spread of the solution. Social entrepreneurs are full of ideas and may be seen by some as dreamers, but in reality, they are realists who are concerned with the practical implementation of their ideas. They are change makers who garner support from their wider society as a direct consequence of their vision. They know how to communicate their ideas to gain acceptance by the many, and show that a person who can channel his or her ideas into action can achieve almost anything.

While entrepreneurs change the face of business, social entrepreneurs change the face of society by improving systems, looking for new approaches and angles, and implementing inspired solutions to change society for the better. In terms of how performance is measured, social entrepreneurs focus on creating social capital to further social and environmental objectives, while traditional business entrepreneurs look solely to profit and focus on a financial return on investment. However, although social entrepreneurs are usually associated with notfor-profit and voluntary ventures, the making of a financial profit is also part of their formula.

Patricia Hartigan, founding partner of Volans Ventures and the founding managing director of the Schwab foundation, as well as one of the most influential people in the sphere of social entrepreneurship since the early days, gave her view of social entrepreneurs in an interview with the Danish magazine Grasp. According to her, social entrepreneurs are not like ordinary people. They are "... unreasonable. And the unreasonable one is the person who refuses to accept no for an answer. It is a person who refuses to think that it can't be done." She expanded further, adding: "Social entrepreneurs have to be crazy and unreasonable, and the successful ones are incredibly stubborn and they know how to 'read the signs'. They know when they need to change their business model. They are flexible enough to know when it works and when it doesn't, and how they need to tweak it. It's an art. Which is why it is so hard to teach. There are very few entrepreneurs in the world. I wish we would get over this idea that we're all entrepreneurs. We're not! Most of us don't want to go out there and start a thing and run out and hustle the money. Most of us want to work for a living and do some good for the society and we want to make changes. But we don't want to be the ones with all the responsibility. Only crazy people would do that!"

She goes on to say that the fundamental skill of a social entrepreneur is understanding business. "Learning the hardcore skills of finance, accounting, marketing etc. is really important. I don't believe in this alternative MBA. We need to combine much more practical hands-on learning and peer-to-peer learning.

Right now there is too much theory. Too much Foucault and not enough practice. In order to create new social entrepreneurs, we need to stop this epidemic of social entrepreneurs. We have to understand that social entrepreneurship is an approach. Instead of teaching the youth how to be social entrepreneurs, we only need to teach them the tools that are important in order for them to make changes as an entrepreneur. There is a great difference between the two."

Although social entrepreneurship is somewhat of a modern buzz phrase, social entrepreneurs have always been with us. For example, Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, who established the first nursing school and fought hard for better hospital conditions. In India, Vinoba Bhave, who founded and led the Land Gift Movement and was instrumental in more than seven million acres of land being redistributed to his country's untouchables and landless.

Laura Morano is a social entrepreneur. She set up Green Safari, which specializes in volunteer-tourism packages to Tsavo East, Kenya. Tourists not only experience the lush flora and fauna, and rich wildlife of the area, but they also get to engage with local communities and social enterprises that contribute to the communities' infrastructure. The ultimate goal of Green Safari is to run a business that is kind to the environment at the same time as pulling the indigenous population out of the rut of poverty. Those who holiday there experience sustainable tourism at first hand, undergoing a unique experience which allows them to give back and contribute while enjoying a fabulous vacation. For more about this exciting venture, and to make a booking, visit http://green-safari.com/. While the prices may currently be a little steep for many, Laura wants to open Green Safari trips up to all, irrespective of a person's abilities or their needs.

In David Bornstein's book How to Change the World, the author relates many further inspiring stories of social entrepreneurs throughout the world. In America, J.B. Schramm has helped thousands of low-income high school students get into college, while in South Africa, Veronica Khosa developed a home-based care model for AIDS patients that changed government health policy. In Brazil, Fabio Rosa helped bring electricity to hundreds of thousands of remote rural residents and, back in the USA, James Grant is credited with saving twenty-five million lives by leading and 'marketing' a global campaign for immunization. Yet another, Bill Drayton, created a pioneering foundation, Ashoka, which has funded and supported thousands of social entrepreneurs like those mentioned, leveraging the power of their ideas across the globe. The many and varied social initiatives, intertwining personal stories, anecdotes and analysis show how one person with sufficient vision and drive can change the world as others see and experience it.

Those incredible stories serve to highlight a major transformation in the way the world is operating, yet remain largely unreported by the mainstream media. All around the world, millions of ordinary people are turning into social entrepreneurs and stepping in to make good the failings of governments and bureaucracies.

Social entrepreneurship is on the move. A recent Harris poll showed that ninetyseven percent of Generation Y (a term applied to those born between 1978 and 1989) are looking for work that allows them to have an impact on the world. Courses and centers of social entrepreneurship are increasingly being set up in universities and colleges, such as the Harvard Business School and the Yale School of Management, while in the past two years, the Acumen fund, which supports social entrepreneurs who solve major problems through business solutions, was oversubscribed sixty-seven times for its fifteen fellowship positions. Furthermore, many of the world's top businessmen and women are turning their attentions to social entrepreneurship. Well known examples are Bill Gates, who left Microsoft and set up the Gates Foundation with his wife; Warren Buffet, who donated $30 billion to the Gates Foundation; and Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the Google founders, who have raised in excess of $1 billion through Google.org, which was set up to support social entrepreneurs. In 2006, the Grameen Bank, which was conceived by Muhammad Yunus to allow impoverished people to utilize their skills and prosper through the granting of microcredit without corresponding collateral, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Quite simply, governments and traditional business models are not equipped to solve the world's problems. In fact, they even create many of them, so it's necessary to look further than the traditional social and business paradigm. That's where social entrepreneurs come in. Stephanie Schmidt, managing Director of Ashoka Europe says: "The private sector has been the missing player in the evolution of social entrepreneurship. Its potential has largely been untapped. Philanthropy and CSR are really only a drop in the ocean when it comes to the actual potential a company has to change the world."

But it's a two-way street. Companies, not countries, comprise nearly sixty per cent of the 150 most important economic entities in the world, which means there's a lot that social entrepreneurs can learn from them. Their key strengths are scale, efficiency, product development, distribution and innovation. On the other hand, social entrepreneurs also have lessons to teach. Schmidt says: "In times of crisis, social entrepreneurs have demonstrated their capacity to turn traditional business logic upside down, decrease the cost of their solution as much as possible, operate on a shoestring budget and be extremely 'client'-focused. All of these things could be very valuable for companies."

Social entrepreneurs focus their energies on what may be termed in business as market failures. They take what's broken and turn it around by creating new products, services and solutions, and reach those sectors of society that have been left out or ignored, such as the differently-abled, aged and homeless.

Working together, companies and social entrepreneurs could detect potential market failures early on, solve the problems and get ahead of the game, and the positive effect on the morale of workers who are looking for meaning in their working life would be a big plus.

This type of co-creation has been explored by Ashoka's first Fellows for over ten years now, but major barriers still exist between both parties, as social entrepreneurship appears to be covered in a cloak of invisibility to most corporations.

However, where they have got together, the co-operation has been marked with great success.

In France, for example, a social entrepreneur runs a charity for those in debt, but instead of fighting the creditors, he works with them to identify customers at risk and offers budgetary help and support.

Scmidt says: "Co-creation is an emerging model across sectors. We see it happening among our Fellows and partner companies, but it is still in very early stages. What needs to happen now is to give visibility to this trend. We want to identify the pioneers in co-creation in Europe and highlight their work, support them so they can go even further, and of course inspire others to start co-creating as well."

For further information about Ashoka and how you can join in, log on to http://www.ashoka.org/.

### Social Enterprise

Social enterprises are businesses or organizations that are driven by their desire to achieve social and/or environmental goals through the use of market-based strategies. In doing so, they may also achieve a financial gain. Taken together with the other two goals, that's often referred to as the triple bottom line. The difference between regular commercial businesses and social enterprises is that whereas regular commercial businesses may believe they have social objectives, their primary goal is profit, while social enterprises place the social and/or environmental gain at the very centre of their being. It's for that reason that multinationals find it very difficult to also be social enterprises. It's not impossible, but in order to be so, they have to exist to serve a purpose, with the business being the tool through which they achieve that purpose, rather than existing to make a profit, using social responsibility as a means of attracting that profit.

Social enterprises approach economic and social problems in a manner that cuts across sectors and disciplines, and they are all grounded in similar values and processes. It's that approach which sets them apart from other well-meaning organizations and bodies that dedicate their efforts to social improvement, such as charities, which ask for a donation of money and/or time. Social enterprises allow consumer choices and actions to make the difference.

The idea of social enterprise isn't new, and while many now accept financial support and other aid from the state where they are based, they are really entities that seek to be independent of both government and private finance through strategies that develop social economies. However, in practice, many do ask for funding through private means, although they don't rely on it. Social enterprises are often regarded as non-profit organizations, but while that may be true of many, it isn't true of all, and such a definition is erroneous. For example, an organization with private membership can be non-profit, but a social enterprise is characterized by its open membership and goals that benefit the community or wider public. Furthermore, it's generally accepted that it's good practice for social enterprises to incentivize workers and investors by way of dividends, although the distribution of profits or payments should not impinge on the enterprise's social objectives or value statement.

In 2011, following a review by fourteen experienced social enterprise consultants across four continents, Social Enterprise Europe put forward the following three factors as those that frame the business philosophy of social enterprise:

  * Its declared ethics and values regarding the goods and services it produces, together with its production processes

  * Its declaration of its social purpose(s), and how it measures its social impact

  * The way in which it democratizes its ownership, management and governance of its human, social and financial capital with regard to its primary stakeholders (producers, employees, customers and service users)

So, according to Social Enterprise Europe, a simple definition of a social enterprise is: a business whose prime purpose is social, which operates ethically and is democratically owned and governed, although slight variations can be found from country to country.

Me to We is an example of a social enterprise that provides better choices for a better world. It exists to further the work of Free the Children, its charitable partner and best friend, and measures its bottom line by the number of lives it changes and the positive social and environmental impact it makes. It makes a social and environmental difference in three ways. Firstly, it provides products and services that are environmentally friendly and socially conscious, secondly, it gives half its profit to Free the Children and reinvests the other half in Me to We, and thirdly, the people who buy their products and services carry forward the philosophy of the enterprise to help improve the world. The financial contribution from Me to We enables Free the Children to lower its administration costs, and it hopes to get them down to zero, which means that more will be available to spend on their charitable projects. To date, Free the Children has been responsible for building over 650 schools and schoolrooms, enabling 55,000 more children to receive an education every day. In addition, it's funded water and sanitation projects, medical resources and alternative income programs in countless communities.

Further information about Me to We and Free the Children can be found at http://www.metowe.com.

PetSmart, a well-known retailer of pet food/supplies and services throughout North America, is another business that's demonstrated exceptionally strong core values. Back in 1988, the founders made a conscious decision not to sell dogs and cats because they wanted to see a reduction in the eight million unwanted pets living in shelters in the US and Canada, about half of which are euthanized at a rate of 11,000 every day.

To start with, they allocated space in their stores for pet adoption agencies to utilize to help address pet overpopulation. Then, in 1994, they founded PetSmart Charities, a non-profit animal welfare organization to save the lives of homeless pets. And they are making a real difference. They regularly collaborate with thousands of animal welfare agencies across the US and Canada to create innovative solutions that they share with other animal-welfare organizations.

Their goal is 'a lifelong home for every pet', while their mission is 'to improve the quality of life for all pets by creating and supporting programs that save the lives of homeless pets and promote healthy relationships between people and pets'.

Every year, they find homes for 400,000 pets, and they're the largest supporter of animal welfare efforts in North America. In 2012, they granted more than $27 million to communities in all fifty states and Puerto Rico to increase pet adoptions and fund spay/neuter surgeries, and used ninety cents of every dollar directly to help pets in need. During times of natural or manmade disasters, PetSmart jumps in to provide funding to treat injured pets and purchase food and supplies.

PetSmart is just one example of the unsung heroic social enterprises living in our communities, and if you would like to read more about their successes and work, or you would like to help out, http://www.petsmartcharities.org is the place to go. Capitalism is a word that provokes strong reactions, and in many quarters is subject to aggressive verbal and written outpourings. But as with everything else in life, it isn't a black-and-white concept. In reality, it's composed of multiple shades of grey, the colour depth of each one being dependent upon the input of the people involved. Yes, it can be taken to extremes, just like any political ideology, but doing that doesn't make it or them any less worthy of our attention. Every creed, culture and philosophy has something to offer. It's just necessary to pick your way through and extract the parts that are useful and discard the rest. In the West, we live in what's known as a capitalist economy. However, in reality, all economies are mixed economies, fusing together diverse political elements to form our societies and give them direction. Stop and think about the country where you currently reside, or even just your local community. No matter what political party is in power, take a look around and observe the elements that exist within that do not conform to the ethos of that party. What do you notice? Shades of grey?

Nothing lasts forever, and political trends ebb and flow, but throughout it all, life goes on, changing and adapting. Society hones ideas and smoothes off the rough edges, all the while molding those ideas into useful flexible shapes that can be used to help solve societies' problems. And so it is with Conscious Capitalism.

Conscious Capitalism is a web-based organization (http://www.consciouscapitalism.org) that invites everyone who is interested in the philosophy of social enterprise to enter into an ongoing dialogue in which best practices and insights are discussed with the aim of producing greater understanding of how capitalism can aid the work of social enterprises. The movement is based on four principles: higher purpose, stakeholder orientation, conscious leadership and conscious culture.

Conscious Capitalism recognizes the role of profit, but encourages businesses to focus on deeper purposes beyond that. While profit may be important, going beyond that level is necessary, as every business needs a reason to exist (a purpose for its everyday operations) to energize stakeholders, customers and employees and promote trust and love in the business. Without that, a business is no more than a hollow, soulless shell that will ultimately fail. As for stakeholders, Conscious Capitalism encourages businesses to be aware of, and take account of, the whole ecosystem within which they exist. Everybody who comes into contact with a business, from suppliers to customers, is a stakeholder, and they must all perceive a real value in order for the business to thrive. Leadership is promoted as a 'we' not 'me' ideology. Business leaders are encouraged to serve the organization, giving support, providing inspiration and adding value, rather than sitting at the top, issuing orders. Finally, the business culture is seen as a unifying force that builds trust and fosters love and care between a company's team members and its other stakeholders. It is the omnipresent adhesive that brings the enterprise to life.

Another organization that encourages business to look beyond profit is http://www.bcorporation.net.

Started in 2006, it's a non-profit organization staffed by successful people from a wide variety of backgrounds and market sectors, and funded by donations. Its mission is to see a day when all companies will compete to not only be the best in the world, but the best for the world. There are already over nine hundred companies from twenty-nine countries on board, turning it into a global movement that redefines what success means in business.

The companies are known as B Corporations, and use the power of their business to solve social and environmental problems. For example, Better World Books recycles second-hand books and uses the funds to help local libraries and improve global literacy, while Revolution Foods serves over one million meals to poor public school pupils every week. B Corporations all have a certificate, which helps consumers identify them as change makers, and their investors not only make money, but they make a real difference. They are a new type of company that serves society and shareholders, creating a win-win situation.

A dilemma facing social enterprise as it becomes accepted more and more throughout the world is the role of government. The rise of the phenomenon has occurred in spite of government policy and not because of it. In fact, government policies have contributed to the problems that many social enterprises have been set up to solve. Now, however, as social enterprise becomes 'sexy', and politicians, ever hungry for a good photo opportunity, spot a vote winner, the movement has to beware of being hijacked and subsumed by the very entity which unwittingly aided its birth through its own inefficiency and incompetence. A good example of this comes from Ontario, in Canada, which plays host to 10,000 social enterprises, all developed without government or banking help. In September 2013, the Minister of Economic Development, Eric Hoskins, released his government's social enterprise strategy, which not only seeks to get involved, but also to try to take the lead. While his government's support is welcome, what he doesn't appear to comprehend completely is that the sector doesn't need a leader, it already has them leaders who understand what they are doing and who are achieving their goals very successfully. And neither does it need some kind of master plan. According to an article written by Carol Goar on www.thestar.com, dated September 26th, 2013: "It has blossomed without targets or timelines. It has grown in uncharted ways and invented new tools such as crowdfunding and social impact bonds. It has changed the urban landscape; think of the Evergreen Brick Works, Bullfrog Power, Eva's Phoenix Print Shop or the Centre for Social Innovation on Spadina Ave. (it has two offshoots in Toronto and one in New York)." The article goes on to concede that Hopkins' interest in the sector dates back to a time before he was elected, but stresses that his government has arrived ten years too late on the scene, and should facilitate and not try to steer. Politics aside, Hopkins' paper does contain some good ideas which fit nicely with current happenings and represent a shift from previous one-off measures to sustained commitment. However, it seeks to lead, which goes against the collaborative no-leader ethos of the sector.

With large anti-democratic blocs like the EU also taking an interest and flexing their muscles, the social enterprise sector needs to heed the warning or risk being swamped and killed by a tidal wave of bureaucracy that epitomizes the inaction of such political monoliths. Support yes. Interference and meddling no.

### Social enterprise is definitely growing, but is it mainstream?

An article in the Guardian, in January 2014, posed that question about the United Kingdom. Research by the Social Economy Alliance, conducted in December 2013, found overwhelming support from consumers, and the government's Autumn Statement even promised the creation of tax breaks to encourage further investment in the sector, which is very welcome, as a recent study by Social Enterprise UK concluded that access to financial investment is the biggest single barrier to growth and sustainability. Furthermore, the average turnover of UK-based social enterprises dropped from £240,000 in 2011 to £187,000 in 2013, some 22%. So the battle has not been won yet.

However, it's certainly not a case of sackcloth and ashes, as shown by companies that picked up awards from the Royal Bank of Scotland, in 2013. The RBS runs the RBS SE100, which is an index of more than 850 social enterprises in the UK. Among the winners was Right Track, a company situated in the East Midlands that provides education and employment training. Set up in 2009, its revenues increased by 97% in 2011-12 and by 146% in 2012-13. Another social enterprise, Patchwork People, which works with young people interested in fashion by helping them design and make clothes and accessories for sale through retail outlets and markets, saw a similarly big increase in revenues in 2012-13 of 112%. In fact, during 2012-13, the average revenues of the companies in the RBS SE100 index showed an average revenue increase of 97% over the previous year.

The SE100 companies also perform well when looking at other criteria, such as the percentage of women in senior management positions, where they score fifty-nine percent, which far outstrips other companies in the private sector.

The management of social enterprises, such as Right Track's chief executive, Stuart Bell, often complain that they are patronized as businesses that lack the commercial know-how but have a good heart, which indicates that a change of attitudes by the rest of the business community is required.

Having said that, not all private sector businesses are so short-sighted. In late 2013, Wates, one of the UK's largest construction firms, pledged to spend £5 million with the social enterprise sector by 2015. Along with many other forward-thinking private sector companies, they are now responding to growing pressure from consumers to show they are more than just money-making machines and that they add value to society in other ways. Supply chains are being looked at with a view to how social objectives can be realized. This represents a big challenge as well as a lucrative opportunity for social enterprises as they devise ways to interact with, and benefit from, the private sector. Wates' aim is to see every one of its UK construction sites trading with social enterprises by 2015. And with Social Enterprise UK acting like a one-stop shop of social enterprises, Wates has a ready-made central source from which to contract the services it requires.

### The Future of Social Enterprise In Europe

The British Council is the world's leading cultural organization, working in more than 110 countries to encourage citizens everywhere to make a contribution to a more open, inclusive and prosperous world. They are great supporters of social enterprise because of its innovative ideas that produce solutions to social and environmental issues while delivering sustainable economic growth for a positive long-term change.

They launched their Global Social Enterprise programme in 2009, and rolled it out into fourteen countries with an array of initiatives based on UK best practice and innovation to build connections across borders between social entrepreneurs, intermediary organizations, investors and policy makers. The results to date are impressive. For example, they have provided more than 4,000 social entrepreneurs with advanced training, formed partnerships with over 100 organizations and corporations, advised governments about creating ecosystems to support social enterprises, and raised awareness.

Whereas the UK is recognized as a global leader in the field, the rest of Europe, South Asia, Africa and the Americas are still some way behind, and the British Council is looking for opportunities to expand and further its programme in those areas.

As part of the British Council's Global Social Enterprise programme, they have created a vision for social enterprise in Europe called What Will Social Enterprise Look Like in Europe in 2020? It isn't meant to be seen as a definitive prescriptive document, but more of an opinion piece to be discussed and debated. The document is considered to be a starting point for anyone who wishes to get involved. It can be accessed at  http://www.socialimpactconsulting.org.uk/uploads/1/0/1/8/10187028/socent2020.pdf, as a summary of the contents would not do the arguments justice. However, the conclusion is as follows:

"There may well not be a recognizable 'social enterprise sector' by 2020. Certainly any attempts to confine social enterprise to specific legal structures or models of governance will have ceased. But the concepts and ideals of social enterprise will be spreading rapidly into all corners of society, becoming mainstream. All organizations, whatever their ownership model, will be judged on a spectrum of social impact. Social finance will create new opportunities and with it new threats; driving organizations towards models that deliver a social and financial return. Investment will move from innovation towards replication of proven models; from short term outputs to long-term impact. Complex networks will lead to cross-border collaboration and the rapid spread of successful ideas.

"And social enterprises themselves? They will be where they should be; working at the margins but no longer marginalized; creating and shaping markets; pushing boundaries; building nations; and creating the space for governments, charities and for-profit businesses to follow."

### Social Franchising

#### What it is

Social franchising enables a business model that has proved its worth as a social change project to be replicated quickly wherever it is needed, as a franchise. If you think of Body Shop or 7-Eleven, you get the idea of franchising. The outlets all follow the same tried and trusted formula of a central blueprint that has proved to be commercially successful, enabling new ones (franchises) to be set up with the minimum of fuss while supplying the same quality product that consumers expect to find. It's profitable for the franchisor and takes the risk factor away for the franchisee. Everybody wins.

However, social franchising, while following the same principle, puts benefits to society above any profit it may earn.

This model can be applied to all social enterprises and, like commercial franchises, is strongest when established using a common brand name, as it commands trust and respect from day one. Furthermore, because there are now a number of highly motivated franchisees tackling the same problem in different areas, rapid innovation often results, which influences the policy of the franchise model.

#### Why is it needed?

Quite simply, not everyone is an innovator, but those same people are quite willing and able to work to solve societal problems if they are given the right tools. Social franchising fits the bill perfectly.

Social franchising is also a great way to scale up successful solutions to society's ills to satisfy a greater need over a wider geographic area. In addition, when grants, philanthropic funds etc. are thin on the ground, it can fill the gap so long as the solution required can be found in an established social enterprise model.

Social franchising boasts many success stories, such as Child Line India, which provides medical assistance, shelter and counselling for children in dire need of help. Foodbank, in the UK, trains churches and communities to set up and run foodbanks, while OneFamilyHealth works in Kenya and Rwanda, setting up Child and Family Wellness (CFW) Health Posts to provide medicines for diseases such as malaria, respiratory infections and dysentery, as well as health education and prevention services.

If you'd like to know more about these three social franchises as well as the invaluable work being done by others, log on to the International Centre for Social Franchising at http://www.the-icsf.org/members/.

### Co-Operatives

Co-operatives are an excellent example of sustainable business practices that work well in a spirit of collaboration and cooperation while remaining within the parameters of a market economy.

The Mondragon co-operatives, in particular, are real poster children for the movement. They began in 1956 with one co-operative of five employee-owners making paraffin stoves. Today, they are the seventh largest business group in Spain.

In all, they comprise an interconnected group of eighty-seven industrial cooperatives (organized in eleven industrial groups), with seventy-one subsidiaries in Spain and sixty-nine plants abroad (largely in Europe and Latin America); a major grocery and retail cooperative, which is the second largest retail chain in Spain; a financial group that includes a credit union/bank (the Caja Laboral with nineteen billion euros in assets and 1.1 million members) and a mutual insurance company.

The Mondragon co-operative group includes numerous secondary co-operatives that have been established by the primary co-operatives to provide economies of scale.

These include a dozen joint R&D centres to support the industrial cooperatives, a number of training co-operatives, consulting and accounting co-operatives, a consulting engineering company, a co-operative university with close to four thousand students (about half in engineering), and more.

Together the Mondragon co-operatives employ over 100,000 people and have sales of more than fifteen billion euros. They are highly innovative, as illustrated by the facts that Mondragon's R&D absorbs about five per cent of the value-added in the industrial cooperatives and twenty-eight per cent of the industrial group's sales in 2008 were new products that weren't sold in 2004.

The Mondragon co-ops put money back into the cooperative sector and exceed the statutory minimums to put more money into education and individual co-operative reserves.

Margaret Bau from the US Department of Agricultural rural development said: "As a co-op developer, making the pilgrimage to Mondragon was like I had died and gone to co-op heaven. Mondragon and the Basque area put serious resources into co-op development and the region is rewarded with an eighty-five percent success rate of new business startups. Mondragon co-op organizers are quite savvy about keeping abreast of market trends, utilizing cutting-edge technology, nurturing competent management, incubating the business idea, and securing ample funding. What a refreshing alternative to expecting a solitary entrepreneur to shoulder the entire burden of starting a new business and then lamenting the high failure rate."

The co-operatives acknowledge a duty to contribute to the common good in the following manner:

  1. reinvesting a high proportion of their profits, including regular investments in community funds for job creation;

  2. donating ten per cent of the net profit of the co-operatives to charitable organizations;

  3. taking care of their social security, unemployment and health insurance requirements;

  4. being active in their community

The Mondragon model is not only about distribution of the profits, but also about the control of the business. Management is elected by the workers, not hired by the money men, and the managers are part of the cooperative process in the enterprise. Each enterprise has a social committee that considers issues of health, safety, environment and the social responsibilities of the enterprise. Capital is borrowed, stock is not sold for financing and all new employees become worker owners.

A new co-operative begins with a group of friends, experience of starting 120 businesses over a forty-year period having taught Mondragon that the pre-existing bonds of friendship are a good basis for building a productive working relationship. The Mondragon association provides business and marketing research and assistance, and their bank provides capital. The workers themselves must invest some of their own money, either as an upfront contribution or as deductions from wages paid over a two-year period. Their bank supports the new co-op until it can go it alone, but should the business get into trouble, interest on the loans is waived, repayments possibly suspended and parts of the loans may be forgiven. Also, the group may be assisted into another line of business or work. As a result, since 1956, there has only been one total failure of a co-operative.

### The Gift Economy

This section of the book is all about different approaches to making the future economy of the world a fairer and more equitable place, with hope and prosperity available to all. The gift economy is worth exploring because it fits into the paradigm of a collaborative society and is yet another idea that is taking hold with a significant number of people.

#### What exactly is meant by a gift economy?

Gift economies are often known by a variety of different names: pay-what-you-can, sacred economics, to name but two. Although the concept received a huge boost in publicity and popularity when it entered the collective consciousness in 2002 through the film Pay it Forward, the concept of a gift economy is much older than our money economy.

A gift economy both transcends and includes money as part of the process, but where included, money is not the primary mover. The gift is seen as the most important part of the transaction because it's unconditional and doesn't carry a fixed price in any way you may care to mention. The gift is given as a sign of care and support, and not as an exchange in the way that if you give something to someone, they expect or even demand something in return. As such, it should not be confused with a barter economy, where goods and services are exchanged so long as their relative values can be agreed upon by the bartering parties.

Some examples of the gift economy are open-source coding and Wikileaks. The only obligation that exists for participants in such an economy is that they give what they can and pass it on, creating a virtuous web. Over the past few years Panera Bread has opened five Panera Cares community cafes based on the gift economy ideal. The first of the non-profit donation-based establishments was set up in St. Louis, and it's a testament to the success of the project that four more of these community cafes have to date (March 2014) opened up in Detroit, Portland, Chicago and Boston. If customers can't afford to give a donation for a meal, they are invited to donate an hour of their time to help out instead. Panera calculated that in 2011, they served over 500,000 people, of which 60% left the suggested donation, 15 20% left more and 15 20% left less or nothing. The success of the venture depends entirely on trust and the willingness of the local community to support the initiative, and as a further part of Panera's community involvement, the cafes also provide job training internships to prepare young people for the labour market.

A variety of different perspectives on the gift economy have emerged over the years as different people utilize it in different ways. For example, a report in the Huffington Post, on February 4th, 2014, carried the story of Adrian Hoppel, a Philadelphia web designer, who gave up his traditional job a couple of years ago because he thought it was 'toxic'. Now he does the same work from home, but doesn't charge for his services. Instead, clients gift him money or some favour in return, depending upon what value the client places on Hoppel's work.

He said: "Most clients gifted me with payment, and the payment is more than I ever received in the traditional model, which was based on negotiation and the lowest bid wins, instead of the Gift model, which is based on mutual respect and fairness. "Working in the gift does not mean that I work for free, or that I give my work away without care. It means that people trust me to build them a website, and I trust them to support my work as they believe fair.

"Trust became the medium of exchange, not HTML, not money. Helping each other became the purpose, not profits or returns on investments. Establishing a community who believed in me and what I was doing became the goal, without worry over profit margins, because eventually I received the most important gift of all: a true faith in people to be honest, fair, generous, and supportive."

And if you're wondering, at the time of the interview with the Huffington Post, everybody Hoppel had worked for had gifted him. Another fascinating example of the gift economy can be found at worldhousing.ca. World Housing is the very first one-for-one real estate gifting model and is dedicated to putting roofs over the heads of those who have no shelter in the poorest parts of the world (also known as garbage dump communities). To quote from their website: "World Housing is Canada's first Community Contribution Company (CCC), a registered social enterprise that enables sustainable social change through a for-profit enterprise. By corporate charter, all of World Housing's profits are retained in the company's balance sheet and reinvested to expand our impact around the globe."

World Housing works in partnership with both NGOs (non-governmental organizations), to target the most deserving recipients, and carefully screened developers, to ensure that the projects attain the highest environmental and construction standards. The process works in a remarkably simple way.

When someone in the first world buys a property from a certified World Housing Community, the developer pays a marketing fee to World Housing that goes to fund the construction of a home in a garbage dump community. The construction is done using a certified NGO building partner that sources all labour and materials locally. When completed, the home is gifted to a needy family.

Gift economy initiatives are springing up all over as it dawns on citizens that there has to be a better way.

### Social Media

Not so very long ago, if you wanted to find out what was happening in the news, be entertained or even make your views known about anything, you had to rely on the media corporations and public bodies that controlled the airwaves and newsstands of the country. But with the arrival of the Internet, all that began to change. Out of nowhere, people were free to make their own web pages and web sites, expressing whatever they felt about anything they chose, and that was quickly followed by real-time internet forums and chat. Out of nowhere, your still small voice had a platform and could be heard.

But that was just the beginning, because over the past ten to fifteen years, the Internet has altered out of all recognition, giving rise to what is now known as social media. Sites like You Tube, Facebook and Twitter have completely transformed the way we interact with the rest of the planet. Social media has changed, and is changing, the world. It has transformed the way we communicate, the way in which we receive and give news, and the way we entertain ourselves. And having altered the way we socialize, it's starting to weave its magic over the way we do business. The global citizenry is now a global network.

"The twenty-first century tools of technology and telecommunications have unleashed the forces of globalization on a previously unimagined scale. They have contributed to a period of unprecedented innovation, making us more productive, connected global citizens."

—Barack Obama

In reality, YouTube, Facebook and their like are just in their infancy, turning amateur musicians, comedians, dancers, socialites, etc. into international phenomena and spreading the word about a million causes and helping people to connect with those of a like mind. We find ourselves in the age of the viral video, where, for example, an incident in war-torn Syria can be captured and beamed around the planet in seconds, so that within a few minutes everybody is aware of what is really happening.

That's great in so far as it goes, but what platform exists to celebrate and encourage the innovation latent in every one of us? When will we finally figure out how to harness the talents and ideas of the masses and construct a new economy unlike anything ever seen? Well, wait no longer. The time is now.

"Since becoming widely adopted just a couple years ago, social media has supercharged social action, causes, marketing, and social entrepreneurship. Indeed, the true value hasn't been the technology itself but how we've used it. Today, a second wave of innovation is defining a new era and setting the stage for change over the coming decade."

—Rob Reed founder of http://www.momentfeed.com/

With the advent of modern technology, we have become more connected than at any other time in our history, and that connection is fast growing into a massive web, where more possibilities exist for meaningful collaboration. Whether in the field of business, education, government, media or religion, the possibilities to reshape all those institutions in the next decade will be within the reach of every man, woman and child.

For millennia, individual leaders, more often than not self-appointed, have been looked up to and heralded as 'they who know everything', and they have shaped the world according to their own images. But now, with the aid of technology, we can dare to dream that our world is departing from reliance on the sole wisdom of an individual (elected or not) in favour of tuning in and opting to follow the wisdom of the masses. For the first time ever, individuals, with the help of social media, are uniting to form tight-knit coalitions, much better suited and equipped to answer the world's future growth and development needs.

We have reached a fork in the road. Do we continue straight ahead and follow the path laid down by a cabal of increasingly corrupt 'leaders' and inefficient political systems, or do we take the other alternative path where the power to shape the course of the world is in our hands, and our hands alone?

There are few better examples of the way the Internet and technology have combined in 'people power' than Linux and the whole open source code movement. Once regarded by the masses as something rather geeky, those involved have transformed the lives of many through their pooling of knowledge to build better systems over which no individual, government or corporation has control. People from all over the globe have communicated and worked together to build something rather beautiful and worthy. Ideas have been realized in a way they never could have before.

Very soon, using similar models, without waiting for months and years of trial studies or mountains of capital, individuals and small groups will be able to band together to make ideas and insights devised in Southeast Asia reach homes all across the USA.

The same platforms will be used to provide micro-finance loans at a keystroke. In fact, it's already happening with such initiatives as crowdfunding. Never have borrowers and leaders been brought together with such ease, providing the poor and middle class with access to what once was unattainable investment currency.

### Media on The Move

As far back as 1961, President John F. Kennedy, in his address to the American Newspaper Publishers Association, encouraged the press to exercise their First Amendment Right in a way "not primarily to amuse and entertain, not to emphasize the trivial and the sentimental, not to simply 'give the public what it wants', but to inform, to arouse, to reflect, to state our dangers and our opportunities, to indicate our crises and our choices, to lead, mold, educate!"

Yet how often does the media saturate our daily lives with a large diet of negative images and ideas gleaned from the latest murder, rape, war, disaster etc. rather than empowering and inspiring us to make a difference in whatever part of the world needs help the most? While most of us would agree on the importance of keeping briefed on world events, what good is it if we are merely bystanders, unable to help? Do we really benefit being subjected to so much conflict and negativity?

The answer to that question has already been given by countless millions of people voting with their fingers. Instead of flipping through newspapers and pressing TV remote controls, they're tapping laptop keyboards and touching tablet screens as they seek news, views and entertainment from the alternative sources provided by and through social media.

The younger generations, which have been brought up with computers, have been doing this for many years, but now those who left full-time education before the advent of the technological revolution are catching on fast. No longer do we have to listen to the talking heads on the BBC or wherever, we can join forums and discuss our views and opinions with people we've never met, living thousands of miles away. We can get different perspectives like never before. The same goes for entertainment. We are no longer prisoners of the large networks, as we can pick and choose what to watch and listen to online, whether it's tuning in to the latest blockbusting American series, or watching some quirky homemade cartoon put together in India. The grip of the media barons has been loosened, and will continue to slacken as we prise their sticky fingers off our means of communication.

Interestingly enough, a new website, pangeatoday.com, has recently taken the initiative in a very exciting venture to bring local news, more often than not unreported in the mainstream media, from around the globe to enquiring minds that want to gain further knowledge and understanding of the world in which they live. Currently operating from ninety-four countries, in twenty-eight languages, Pangea Today has local country editors who choose, summarize and analyze articles from the local media and present them for an international audience. With new articles about all kinds of topics appearing every day, it's a veritable goldmine for anyone seeking a different perspective on life.

Social media means that everybody can be a journalist and everybody can be a film producer. And it's happening on a computer or mobile device near you!

Social media and the Internet are levelling the playing field, connecting us all to give rise to a 'networked intelligence'. We are now able to mobilize our thoughts, resources, plans and businesses using social media.

It's meant a transformation in the way products are advertised and marketed. Small businesses now have access to the same tools as large corporations. The days of mass market TV campaigns and billboards are numbered, as advertisers realize the needs of, and see the opportunity to target, small or niche markets.

Gone are the days of shouting the message from the rooftops. Nowadays, the buzzword is 'resonate'. Get up close and pally with your customers, get to know them, find out what they want and give it to them.

Online video is fast becoming the most prolific message communicator of our time. The power of the TV is dwindling. Video entices people and can tell a story in a way that's emotionally engaging and propels customers to respond to calls to-action. Social media is an effective tool. Storytelling is paramount. Every new product or line has a story, an anecdote, a legacy, and telling it well gets that product or line noticed, adding value and helping the consumer make their choice.

Social media is at one and the same time both a personal and shared experience. Audiences can be reached more frequently in more places and at less cost than before. Never before has there been such an opportunity to leverage consumer support and let them do the work for you as they tweet and 'like' videos and products to their ever-growing networks of online friends and acquaintances. Transparency and honesty are the keys, because any attempt to pull the wool over consumers' eyes will be detected in seconds, followed by a rush of social media activity destroying a product with equal speed. But for those who 'play the game', the possibilities are almost limitless. Viral videos can make or break a marketing campaign like no other medium that's gone before. Everything that used to be hidden is now in the open. There is no hiding place. For example, an unknown doctor in Australia can prevent a person from undergoing surgery in Canada because he just tweeted about a new non-invasive treatment that recently had superior results in America.

Social media is bringing accountability, transparency and open world concepts that are transforming business and competition. Such mass collaboration is changing the way businesses are run and how they coexist, communicate and compete, as well as introducing new types of business and business models. Networked intelligence is enabling businesses and communities of all sizes to step around the crumbling old-world institutions. The way we educate ourselves and our children, and the way customers are served by institutions, business and government is altering at a speed that even a few years ago was unimaginable.

### Investing In The Future

#### Impact Investing

Impact investing is an innovative form of socially responsible investment. The Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) gives up the following definition: "Impact investments are investments made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate a measurable, beneficial social and environmental impact alongside a financial return. Impact investments can be made in both emerging and developed markets, and target a range of returns from below-market to above market rates, depending upon the circumstances."

Impact investing is often compared to micro-finance, as it has its roots in social and environmental issues, but it's different because of its deal size and its propensity for investment in equity rather than debt. Impact investors seek to address social and environmental problems through their investments, which cut across asset classes, and they look to place funds where they can harness the positive power of the enterprise to achieve the greatest impact.

Impact investing is growing. According to a recent World Economic Forum survey, while just six percent of US pension funds have made an impact investment, sixty-four per cent expect to do so in the future.

Impact investing provides an opportunity for government involvement, as it can play a vital role in driving investors towards projects that have a social and environmental impact. The combination of both public and private sectors working together to solve such problems is an awe-inspiring one, the importance of which they are already beginning to acknowledge.

In the US, legislation initiatives are already in place to help this movement. For example, the Community Reinvestment Act makes it mandatory for depository banks to make loans and investments available in areas that are currently served badly, provided the bank has a branch in the area.

Such initiatives have already benefitted millions of people, but the government can still do so much more. To that end, with support from the Ford and Surdna Foundations, Insight at Pacific Community Ventures (PCV) has collaborated with the Initiative for Responsible Investment (IRI) at the Hauser Institute for Civil Society at Harvard University and Enterprise Community Partners to form the Accelerating Impact Investing Initiative (AI3) to look at opportunities to refresh and support key impact investing policies.

Impact investing is attracting the attention of investors and governments on a worldwide scale. In 2009, research firm the Monitor Group estimated that the impact investment industry could grow from its current asset size of $50 billion to ten times that amount within ten years.

Unitus Capital recently reported that impact investing has now established itself as a key driver of private equity in the Indian economy, with both international and domestic investors being active. They operate in many different sectors, such as healthcare, education, energy, water and agriculture, and they have made significant positive impacts on the communities where the investments are based. The report concludes that it all augurs well for 2014, and they predicted a thirty percent increase in such transactions over the year.

Taking a different approach, the Skoll Foundation and other institutions run contests which give 'prize' money away to social enterprises to be used as an impact investment. While that's fantastic in one way, it isn't so in another, because it may give the impression that investment in social enterprises isn't to be taken seriously. 1000s of social enterprises have to 'compete' for one prize rather than being nurtured to become the winners they well could be. An Idea Nation welcomes all investment, but believes that rather than having ten thousand social entrepreneurs competing for one prize, the whole movement would be better off if they were mentored to be become effective business owners; the importance of impact investments can be better understood.

Impact investing is at a relatively early stage and will take a while to achieve the same acceptance and maturity as other more traditional forms of investment such as venture capital, which itself took several decades before becoming a viable alternative. But the important thing is that it leaves a trail of success in its wake so as to convince doubters and shore up support. One such success story, among many, concerns d.light solar lanterns. Thought to be too risky by traditional investors, d.light was backed by impact investors, given an opportunity to prove its worth and has been transformed from a small-scale business into a thriving global enterprise that produces 500,000 solar lanterns every month for people who cannot afford, or have no access to, reliable electricity. To date, nearly 29 million people all over the world have benefitted, with a target of 100 million penciled in for the year 2020.

If you're wondering what to invest in next, and want to make a social and environmental difference while turning a profit, you could do worse than find yourself a likely social candidate. Some examples are basic resources, sanitation, water purification, agriculture, sustainable forestry, charter schools and renewable energy. However, be sure to take advice, do your due diligence and assess the risk before choosing an investment type. Like all investments, there's no guarantee, but if entered into wisely, impact investing allows a private investor to line up alongside governments and large financial institutions to make a beneficial change to society.

#### Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is a relatively new concept online. In simple terms it means funding by a crowd, which in turn tells you that the funding comes not just from one or two sources, as has been the traditional approach, but from a multitude of different contributors.

Until very recently, if you had an idea or project you wanted to develop, you had to approach a bank or other financial institution and sell them the concept in order to receive the backing that was necessary for you to develop it to a point where it could go to market and make money. While that's a suitable model for many businesses, especially established ones that can boast a track record, it doesn't favour the 'small' person who has no business network to speak of, but may have an idea that, given nurturing, could become very successful and even change the world. Of course, we can't chastise banks too much, because they too are in business in the business of making money and they are duty bound to their shareholders to be profitable and, recent events excluded, not take unnecessary risks which may destabilize their well-being. However, that doesn't help Mr. or Mrs. Small, who have had a eureka moment and want the opportunity to show the world. And that's where crowdfunding enters the equation.

Crowdfunding enables those who are typically excluded from the usual financing procedure to finance their dream by appealing to people on a worldwide scale to participate and believe in their venture through a contribution made by way of a funding campaign. This is made possible via the Internet and social media, which can spread the word in a matter of seconds, informing those who may be interested about the available opportunity. And make no mistake, there are plenty of opportunities available for savvy would-be investors.

Crowdfunding is very much a two-way street. While entrepreneurs can see their ideas move from the drawing board to real life, investors can also see a healthy return on their money. Further to that, the world as a whole becomes richer through the implementation of ideas which bring employment and create wealth that goes back into society. That wealth may just refer to the financial profits that are generated, but many investors who become involved in crowdfunding are looking for so much more, and are keen to promote improvements in societal and environmental conditions which have also been targeted by some of the far-sighted ideas, concepts that would never have seen the light of day under the traditional investor models.

There are four different types of crowdfunding: reward-based, donation-based, equity-based and lending-based.

Reward-based crowdfunding offers real or tangible rewards to contributors, very often on a sliding scale, depending on how much they give. For example, they could involve a credit on the sleeve of a CD or DVD, a few free copies of a book or an invitation to take a minor role in a film. Anything is possible; it depends on the project and the imagination and marketing nous of the start-up.

Donation-based crowdfunding is all about putting money in because the donor feels it's a worthy, interesting or exciting venture that he or she believes in. The donor doesn't expect or get any reward other than that of seeing the project become successful.

Equity-based crowdfunding entails the purchase of part of the business or venture in much the same way as regular shareholding. As with those types of shares, the value of the equity bought may go up or down.

Lending-based crowdfunding, also known as debt funding or P2P (person-to-person) funding is a straightforward loan that's repaid over time with interest. In that respect, it's similar to a bank loan, only there are no banks involved. Quite often, as in the case of microcredit lent to extremely poor people in developing countries, no interest is charged, as the lender is more than satisfied by having done some social good. In all cases, investors also benefit from the knowledge that they have contributed towards the realization of the success of a project. While we are looking at crowdfunding and its effect on the world's economy, you should be aware that this means of raising finance has been used successfully to support all kinds of activities from disaster relief to funding political or social campaigns, scientific research and software development.

Although the term 'crowdfunding' wasn't universally coined until around 2006, the phenomenon is not new. Wikipedia reports that as early as the seventeenth century, a business model known as Praenumeration was used to finance the printing of books. Basically, it was a subscription model, and subscribers were given something like a mention on the title page as their reward.

In fact, the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, in the USA, was also financed by crowdfunding. In 1884, Joseph Pulitzer ran an appeal in his newspaper New York World and raised $100,000 in six months, from 125,000 different people.

The first online crowdfunded campaign is often quoted as being in 1997 when the fans of Marilllion, the rock band, raised $60,000 dollars so they could play in the US. The band had no inkling of this, but have since used the method to fund the recording and marketing of its music.

So, following that brief bit of historical data, now it's time to explain how it works.

Crowdfunding is usually coordinated or supported by an online platform which acts to bring all the parties together. There are currently well in excess of 450 platforms, many of which operate in specialized areas. Just as potential investors must do their due diligence before parting with money, so project creators must do theirs on which platform is the most suitable for their venture. Whichever platform is chosen, it must be able to orchestrate the required organizational systems and conditions necessary to ensure the project's successful integration with the other players.

Having chosen the platform, the project creator designs and implements a campaign on the platform which is capable of attracting curiosity and interest. That is a crucial stage, because if the project lacks credibility, it'll fail. However, if it's not only presented well, but also contains robust content, it's more likely to get picked up and sent around the various social media platforms, raising awareness and, hopefully, money. Campaigns not only state how much money they seek to raise and what for, but also within what time period. Usually, In the case of fixed campaigns, like those on Kickstarter, if the money is not raised in full, the campaign is closed and the pledges aren't redeemed.

According to Polygon Vox Media, the most successful crowdfunded project as of January 2014 was Star Citizen, an online space trading and combat video game, which claims to have raised nearly $37 million.

The Huffington Post reported that $2.66 billion was raised on crowdfunding platforms in 2012, while Forbes says that there were over one million individual campaigns in the same year. The industry was expected to nearly double in size to $5.1 billion by the time New Year's Eve parties got underway in 2013. Some of the boost can be traced to the impetus given in the USA by Barack Obama's signing of the Jumpstart Our Business StartUp (JOBS) Act in 2012. Up until then, it had been illegal for a private business to offer equity in exchange for funding to anyone who wasn't an accredited investor. Now it won't be, even though, at the time of writing, there are still some i's and t's to be dotted and crossed before the Bill receives full implementation. With the blue touch paper smoldering, private business and start-ups are now getting ready to use crowdfunding to give equity to investors in return for an actual monetary dividend, and the market is ready to soar into space.

It's expected that individuals and families will be attracted to the market and view it as a real alternative to the stock market or savings accounts with their miserly returns. Fred Wilson, co-founder of Union Square Ventures, a venture capital firm, believes the crowdfunding market will reach $300 billion dollars, which is fantastic news for all the social entrepreneurs who literally want to change the world for the better. Even though crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter have said they are not going to go down that route, it all means a lot more publicity for the sector as a whole, and with that comes further expansion.

As a sign of what's already happening in the crowdfunding arena, Kickstarter, arguably the largest platform, has reported that as of March 3rd, 2014, it passed the magic $1 billion mark in pledges, based on its 'Successfully Funded' projects and those in progress. Around forty-three per cent of Kickstarter projects hit their funding target and Kickstarter only takes its five per cent commission from those.

A fine example of the good that crowdfunding can bring comes from Tripoli, in Lebanon. In January 2014, a forty-yearold antiquarian bookshop and library was set on fire. Between 25 33% of the 85,000 books were destroyed, to say nothing about the damage caused to the old building. A crowdfunding campaign was started to raise $35,000 for the restoration. As of March 3rd, 2014, two thirds of the money had been pledged, but what is seen to be more heart-warming is that the money had come from people of all faiths, feeding hopes that the restored building will become a focal point for more tolerant and better community relations.

Launched in 2007, Avaaz is an online community with a simple democratic mission:

'To close the gap between the world we have and the world most people everywhere want'. In just seven short years, global membership has grown to nearly 34 million in 194 countries, and over that time, Avaaz has taken nearly 180 million actions. The profile of members shows that just over fifty per cent are women, while old, young and middle-aged have more or less equal representation. Some members are at school, some are retired, some are unemployed and others occupy just about every other type of job in between. It truly is a global movement. The movement raises awareness of issues and places pressure on governments to act to put right wrongs, often within a 24-hour period.

Avaaz has grown by harnessing the power of the Internet and social media. It's funded through crowdsourced voluntary donations, but takes no money from governments or organizations in order to retain its independence. It's regularly audited, and because of its structure, it's democratically accountable to its members. Avaaz attracts the best campaigners and advocates to direct its work, but has just fifty-four full-time campaigners with operational and technological support, which means the donations are not eaten up by bureaucracy, but go where they are required.

The Economist said Avaaz is "poised to deliver a deafening wake up call to world leaders," while Al Gore chipped in with "Avaaz is inspiring, and has already made a difference."

Its victories are too numerous to mention and more information can be found on their website http://www.avaaz.org/, but as an example, for twenty years, the Tanzanian government had been trying to evict a Maasai community from its lands to make way for a big game company to bring in tourists to shoot wildlife, but with the help of Avaaz, the Massai won a big victory and have been allowed to stay. In July 2013, in Brazil, Avaaz played a key role in the success of the Clean Record Law campaign, which bars politicians convicted of crimes from running for office, while one month earlier, Avaaz launched a campaign to end the savage butchery of the endangered fin whale by an Icelandic businessman who wants to export the whale carcasses to Japan and have them turned into dog food. Although the campaign is still going on, John Frizell of Greenpeace International said: "The Avaaz campaign has played an important role in stopping the whalers from profiting—bringing us closer to ending the hunt for these magnificent and endangered whales." It's clear that without the crowdfunded Avaaz, the successes outlined in the three quoted examples would not have happened. This is a new way for the people of the world to make their voices heard, to make their thoughts and opinions as relevant and influential as any self-important politician. Crowdfunding helps to level the playing field in any area it's deployed, and the benefits to humankind are almost incalculable.

The renewable energy market is also becoming a major beneficiary of the crowdfunding movement, with many small companies developing ideas that would not have been possible just a few years ago. The UK funding site Abundance Generation enables people to invest in such projects, and since its launch in 2011, more than one thousand people have invested over £5 million in energy projects that are both ethical and sustainable. In the US, another investment platform, Mosaic, has allowed people to invest $5.6 million in what are described as 'high quality solar projects', while in Florida, Crowd Energy are using Kickstarter to raise $75,000 to fund further development of their Ocean Energy Turbine, which they say "is the first renewable energy system designed to effectively harness ocean currents on a commercial scale."

In China, too, crowdfunding has taken off in a big way. In October 2013, the World Bank predicted that the Chinese market could hit $50 billion within twelve years.

The interesting thing here is that this new economic activity could well cross over and start impinging on the political sphere, fuelling greater democratic expectations of the population. Websites such as Musikid and DemoHour allow Chinese citizens to create and take part in events that were once just a pipe dream, as well as funding projects similar to those featured on their Western counterparts. They spur the creativity that has given birth to projects that have caught the eye with regard to pushing the economic and political boundaries. For example, in October 2013, Yin Yusheng, a Chinese journalist, announced that he was going to crowdfund his salary to allow him to work independently on investigative reports. It's also expected that should something like another earthquake strike, the Chinese will be able to take to crowdfunding to organize relief efforts independently of Beijing. The very democratic ideal of being able to vote for something online via a monetary investment will certainly fuel a psychology of democracy amongst the Chinese who, by and large, have never had the opportunity to participate in a free election. No doubt the ruling Communist Party is watching closely. It has previous form when it comes to censoring the Internet and its contents, but will this particular genie be so easy to stuff back in the bottle?

The democratic nature of crowdfunding means that only the best and most beneficial ideas will survive. It's the ultimate litmus test for anyone thinking of going to market with a project. As Mark Cuban, American businessman and philanthropist said in March 2013: "Anybody launching a new product should be required to launch a crowdfunding campaign first to crowd source and learn everything they need to know about the combination of the saleability of their project and their ability to properly market it."

The question that is now being asked is whether or not crowdfunding will ever replace, or become a significant threat to, traditional banking. At the current time, it's too early to tell, but in January 2014, the largest American bank measured by market value, Wells Fargo, announced a ban on its employees lending their own money through peer-to-peer platforms, citing a conflict of interest because the latter model dispenses with the need of the first. The amount of credit being extended in this way is currently a tiny fraction of that advanced by Wells Fargo, but at a time when banks are cutting back on loans, the peer-to-peer platforms are filling the gap and growing rapidly. Meanwhile, other banks, notably Citgroup, Barclays and Deutsche Bank are working on how to package the loans into bonds and sell them on to large institutional investors. Clearly a change is coming, but how it will play out is anyone's guess. However, no matter what the final outcome, more competition in this sphere has to be good for social enterprise and other small business.

#### Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing is not too dissimilar to crowdfunding in its concept and objectives. However, instead of accessing project funding through hundreds or even thousands of small contributions from investors, crowdsourcing accesses vital skills and knowledge that are needed to successfully complete a project, but which are not yet part of the team. It differs from regular recruitment in that the 'recruitee' only makes an input when required. He or she is then rewarded accordingly if they solve the problem or make a positive contribution. Crowdsourcing is now used by business, both big and small, science and research, and even government. In fact, wherever there is a problem to be solved that lies outside the skill set of the core, crowdsourcing has a role to play.

The crowdsourced knowledge can come in the form of advice, suggestion, research, creative input, specific problem solving or feedback. At its simplest level, take a family that moves into a new house with an overgrown garden that's been neglected for years. The parents want to turn it into a safe haven for their children to play, but don't have the necessary skills or money, so they turn to their friends and wider family and ask for help. Soon, they have people who know all about pruning shrubs and trees, an expert on grass seeds for lawns, an architect who can design flowerbeds and play areas for the children, plus a whole army of people willing to give up their time and labour to help clear the garden and construct the new outdoor paradise. They have all been crowdsourced. And their reward? In this case, the pleasure of helping out close friends, an afternoon of enjoyable exercise and company, and possibly something more tangible like a bottle of wine. The point is that by sharing skills, everybody benefits.

#### Crowdsourcing in Business

All businesses have a ready-made pool of talent from which to crowdsource: their employees. No matter what function a person fulfils within a business, the wise business owner realizes that people are not one-dimensional and that they possess a myriad of undisplayed talents outside their specific work brief.

By encouraging employees to feel part of the company and not just an expendable means to an end, employers can reap incalculable benefits. Employees not only have a good insight into the way their department works and how it fits in with the rest of the company and its working practices, but they also bring a different perspective to that of the owner and of the company board. They are in the perfect place to offer up advice as to how systems and roles can be changed for both the good of the company and themselves. Furthermore, employees whose opinions are truly valued feel more engaged and produce better work. They also gain far more job satisfaction, creating a better atmosphere, which can only be good news for the company.

Michael Roy, vice president of strategy and advisor relations at FirstSource is a firm believer in encouraging employees to come up with ideas through the creation of a structure that facilitates the process, and he acknowledges that crowdsourcing is "one of the greatest untapped resources" that can impact the customer experience. More and more businesses are finding that traditional hierarchies and closed-door policy making are no longer the best way forward. They are promoting intrapreneurship. As Phil Shawe, co-founder and co-CEO of business languages firm Transperfect says: "Intrapreneurship is when employees have an entrepreneurial spirit internally. It's as if [each member of your] staff is running his or her own business. They can do it on their own or within [their department]. It's all about having a good system in place."

Once a quarter, on a Thursday afternoon, Atlassian, an Australian software company, says to its developers: "For the next twenty-four hours, you can work on anything you want. You can work on it the way you want, you can work on it with whomever you want. All we ask is that you show the results to the company at the end of the twenty-four hours." The result? A whole array of fixes for existing software and a whole gamut of ideas for new products that otherwise would never have emerged.

In a similar manner, Google encourages its creative staff to spend one day a week, every week, working on personal projects. Those digital experiments are then put online so that the public can try them out. In addition, Google welcomes comments about the apps so they can determine whether to develop them further or not. It's called Google Labs and it's where Google Goggles and Google Maps were developed.

But crowdsourcing for business isn't just all internal.

Threadless.com is a website that crowdsources designs for the t-shirts it sells online. They pay a cash sum for each design selected. With sales around the $20 million a year mark and a thirty-five percent profit margin, it's blossomed since its humble beginnings back in 2000, when it was founded with just $1,000. John Fluevog Shoes has people submit their own designs under its Open Source Footwear program. Nobody gets paid, but people still send in designs. To date, at least ten have gone into production.

Another company, Zazzle, gets its users to submit designs and images for mugs, posters and shirts, and if products with a user's design are sold, the user gets a cut.

And even Lego are in on the act, encouraging their fanatical customers to design everything from robot operating systems to Lego sets.

#### Crowdsourcing In Science And Research

When Dr. Ramy Arnaout of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center was doing some research into the immune system, he ran up against a seemingly unsolvable data analysis challenge. After much thought, he decided to bypass his Harvard colleagues and fellow biologists in favour of software programmers, even though they had little or no expertise in his subject area.

His out-of-the-box thinking rewarded him with a result after he posted the problem on TopCoder, an online community of over 400,000 computer programmers who attempt to solve competitive coding challenges.

Having stripped Arnaout's problem down to an abstract computational problem, the challenge was posted, offering $6,000 in prizes. Within two weeks, 102 people had submitted their solutions, of which sixteen were more accurate than the original code Anraout had written and had been working on for several years.

Since then, Harvard researchers have posted a number of other problems to the programmers, including the search for a code that'll help predict hot spots of medical need in Boston. Arnaout's crowdsourcing solution illustrates that academic research could benefit in much the same way as business does.

#### Crowdsourcing In Government

Believe it or not, crowdsourcing initiatives have already spread to some of our more enlightened governments. While there is still a long way to go for it to be accepted as part and parcel of a truly democratic society, where the government is led by the people (which is why they were elected in the first place), and not the other way around, any progress on this front is encouraging.

From little acorns...

Once crowdsourcing government has been experienced by citizens of a country, do you think they'll want more or be content to carry on with the top-down hierarchical approach we have become used to?

In Iceland, the Constitutional Council has turned to social media sites for assistance in drafting the new constitution to make the process transparent and to collect input from the public. The Council has made a draft of the document available online and has been accepting recommendations for amending it. "It is possible to register through other means, but most of the discussion takes place via Facebook," Berghildur Bernhardsdottir, a spokeswoman for the constitutional review project, told the Associated Press. Recommendations need to be approved by local staff before being passed on to the Council and posted online for discussion, but suggestions then approved by the Council are added to the draft of the document.

According to Associated Press, suggestions from the public have been added, including points on livestock protection and a clause that specifies who owns the country's natural resources (the nation). The perfection of the Icelandic constitution will be achieved by collaboration, not by the overly romanticized fiction of individual revelation. As Steve Johnson says: "Eureka moments are very, very rare." The same country has also enjoyed success with Better Reykjavik, an open platform for the city's denizens to create and share ideas on how to improve the nation's capital.

In Finland, legislation can be created by citizens by linking their bank accounts or cell phones to the Open Ministry project accounts, and if fifty thousand people participate and sign a piece of proposed legislation featured on the project, within six months it's sent to Parliament. Only recently, as a result of the system, legislation was introduced to change the country's copyright laws.

In the United States, Representative Darrell Issa and Senator Ron Wyden introduced the OPEN (Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade) Act in direct response to the SOP (Stop Online Piracy) Act after crowdsourcing for ideas online. That action resulted in six ideas being incorporated into the Act, making it, according to Issa's office: "the first ever legislative markup truly open to the American public." Issa himself said: "...the introduced version of the OPEN Act is proof that crowdsourcing can deliver better bills and a more accountable government."

Crowdsourcers have been aware of that for a long time, but there has been little pressure on the federal government to amend its ways. Realistically, crowdsourcing isn't going to start at a federal level, it has to be tried out and implemented at a more local level, and as it becomes proven, it can move on up from there.

In any country, crowdsourcing government could bring the following benefits:

  * Better balanced legislative bills that don't just reflect the agendas of the corporate or other vested interests

  * Elected and unelected officials who will be truly accountable to the electorate and have to act on their behalf and not out of self-interest

  * A proper two-way dialogue on local, regional and national levels between governments and voters

  * An advancement of citizen-driven politics for better and more open decision making

Can there be any doubt that crowdsourcing is the future of democracy? It's going to require one almighty orchestrated effort from the industry to make it happen, because representatives of the people (particularly unelected ones like those in the EU Commission) will be scared of its impact and fight to retain their positions of power, but if the citizens of the world truly want it, then with the means they have quite literally at their fingertips, it can and will happen.

In the financial markets, http://www.meritocracy.com choose their analysts not by reading CVs and conducting interviews, but by getting would-be traders to manage a model portfolio in real time. Those who measure up are then allowed to apply their skills to managing real clients' money. It's a true meritocracy, made possible by the Internet, which rewards talent and perseverance. Since its founding, Meritocracy has discovered more than a dozen outstanding managers, and adds more every year. No matter who you are, where you live or what you do, if you think you are up to it, you can apply online. A measure of their success can be seen from the fact that their index has outperformed the S&P 500 in eleven out of the past seventeen quarters, as of March 2014.

#### Crowdfunding Corporate R & D

<http://www.innocentive.com/> was found and funded by pharmaceutical maker Eli Lilly in 2001 as a way to connect up with scientists outside the company. It now has a network of more than ninety thousand 'problem solvers' all over the world. Eli Lilly made the resource available to other companies right from the beginning, and names such as Proctor & Gamble, DuPont and Boeing soon came flocking to post their R & D conundrums online and let the scientists in the network try to come up with a solution. Each company pays a fee to join the site and offers a reward of between $10,000 and $100,000 for each problem solved. Jill Panettta, chief scientific officer for InnoCentive, says that more than thirty per cent of the problems posted have been resolved, "which is thirty percent more than would have been solved using a traditional, in-house approach."

The problem solvers come from a wide range of backgrounds, many just taking part as a hobby and working from a converted garage or garden shed, but it's the diversity of backgrounds that gives InnoCentive its strength. An internal study of 166 posted problems indicated that a solver's chance of success increased in fields where they had no formal training. Sociologist Mark Granovetter describes that as "the strength of weak ties." The most efficient networks are those that link to the broadest range of information, knowledge, and experience.

While it makes for a nice pay day for the solvers, it also helps to bring down the cost of R & D for the firms involved. Larry Huston, P & G's vice president of innovation and knowledge says: "Every year research budgets increase at a faster rate than sales. The current R & D model is broken." That was a huge problem for P & G around the turn of the century when sales were static and the stock price halved. So, rather than cut the R &D staff, Huston changed the way they worked, embracing the crowdsourcing potential of InnoCentive. As a result, R &D productivity rose and the stock price recovered. P & G also now works with other crowdsourcing companies such as YourEncore, which enables companies to hire retired scientists for one-off assignments, and NineSigma, which is an online marketplace for innovations that matches companies to solvers in much the same way as InnoCentive. Huston says: "People mistake this for outsourcing, which it most definitely is not. Outsourcing is when I hire someone to perform a service and they do it and that's the end of the relationship. That's not much different from the way employment has worked throughout the ages. We're talking about bringing people in from outside and involving them in this broadly creative, collaborative process. That's a whole new paradigm."

Amazon has a crowdsourcing engine called Mechanical Turk, a web-based marketplace that helps companies find people to perform a multitude of tasks that computers are not very good at, such as identifying items in a photograph, skimming real estate documents to find identifying information, writing short product descriptions and transcribing podcasts. The tasks are designed to require very little time, so consequently, they offer very little compensation most from a few cents to a few dollars. However, the platform has encountered several problems and the volume of work offered has dropped off, while some would-be workers use software as a shortcut to complete the tasks, but the quality suffers. Launched in November, 2005 in beta, it's still a work in progress, but nonetheless an example of crowdsourcing for the masses.

There are plenty more examples of this genre of website, joining people who have underutilized talents with people or companies that need what they have to offer. For example, Fiverr, a site on which people can advertise a skill or talent that they can fulfil for $5, and sites such as Textbroker, which provides a platform for people who require written articles for their website, blog, magazine or whatever to meet with wordsmiths who will complete the various tasks at an agreed rate.

These sites are very exciting in that they provide work for people who have none or who want to supplement their current income. They allow a person to work in their own time and at their own pace. However, while these examples are all forms of crowdsourcing, they do still involve a middleman, as buyers and sellers do not communicate directly. While the middlemen are providing a service, the next step has to be their elimination, so that the sellers can negotiate their own rates and get paid what they are worth, otherwise we could end up in a situation where people spend their days hunched over keyboards working for a pittance, as such low-wage market places favour the buyers, who try to drive down prices to little more than slave-labour rates. Trade Unions emerged for sound reasons to prevent the exploitation of workers by unscrupulous bosses so we need to work out how we can protect crowdsourced workers in the future, because the alternative will leave us worse off than we are now.

A great advantage of crowdsourcing is that small niche markets can thrive, as without it, it may be impossible for a business in one part of the world to source local skills and at the same time be unaware of those that exist elsewhere, resulting in that business's closure.

### The Circular Economy

At the current time, our economy is based upon a linear model that in turn relies upon cheap resources and fossil energy. The cycle goes something like this. We take, we make, we use and we dispose. All the while, we are using up a finite supply of raw materials and generating mountains of waste, much of it toxic, which degrades the planet and the species living on it. In addition, both resources and energy are becoming more expensive and more difficult to exploit, which begs the question: Is our current way of life sustainable?

Perhaps it's time to look at alternatives, and many people are advocating what is called a performance-based circular economy. The circular economy is the concept of an industrial economy that intentionally sets out to be restorative by relying on renewable energy, eradicating waste through careful design, and minimizing, tracking and eliminating the use of toxic chemicals. Within that paradigm, there is room for several different models, so each industrial and agricultural sector can adapt and adopt that which best fits its purpose. The circular economy is not a one-size-fits-all approach; it's a new approach to not only sustain life on this planet, but also to increase what is available for use and consumption by all.

One model sees us not actually owning the appliances we use in the house, such as washing machines, fridges, etc., but leasing them via a contract which includes maintenance and repairs, and possibly even running costs such as electricity.

The manufacturers and retailers retain ownership and are responsible for the products, meaning that they also maintain ownership of the components and materials that go into the manufacturing process.

With raw materials becoming ever more scarce and expensive, that would make a lot of sense to manufacturers, as they could preserve the quality of, and recycle, the resources so that they last well beyond the current limited shelf life of individual products. It would see a reversal of current policy that designs in premature obsolescence, as that would no longer be in the manufacturer's best interests. For the consumer, buying expensive products that can malfunction would no longer be necessary, as already happens with mobile phones and cars.

Is there any reason why this way of thinking shouldn't spread? Each appliance would have its own peculiarities and require a different contract, but surely that wouldn't be a problem, would it? The whole system could provide variety, freedom, flexibility and upgrades, just like now. If we look at cars, we could use vehicles owned by manufacturers or car-sharing companies, or join a local P2P network.

The rapid growth in communications technology is changing the way we live, resulting in us finding and exchanging services or re-marketing goods. Imagination and access are the keys, and it could work for homes and offices. It's a win-win situation. Customers would enjoy all the benefits of products without the responsibilities of ownership, while manufacturers could keep refurbishing and reusing raw materials at a lesser cost than buying new, making huge savings as a direct result.

Taking that further, if we scale up from the individual manufacturer, the reduction in energy needs would be enormous, aiding the switch to a system that uses renewable resources that works in the long-term because it designs out waste and keeps products in the circle. Furthermore, the maintenance and refurbishment/ remanufacture of such products would create jobs.

The opportunities are limitless and the shift is currently underway.

A good example is Splosh, established in 2012, by Angus Grahame, to sell household cleaning products outside the realm of supermarkets using a one-time sales model. Grahame first looked into the possibility of selling such products on line, but the size and weight of the products made it a non-starter.

Undeterred, he came up with the idea of selling a one-off starter pack that contains a range of simply designed bottles, each containing a sachet of concentrated liquid. The customer then only has to add warm water to produce cleaning materials that Splosh claims are as effective as those sold in supermarkets. When the sachets are spent, the customer simply sends off for more. Splosh also says that if a bottle is used twenty times, it represents a ninety-five per cent saving in packaging. The whole process, from manufacture of the cleaning fluids that are biologically safe right through to the packaging that carries them safely through the post in the cheapest manner possible, had to be thought about and designed from scratch.

A further example is Caterpillar, the American machinery and Engines Company, which began remanufacturing in 1973 and has since expanded to employ over 3,600 people worldwide, in nine different locations, in a business model in which component recovery is pivotal.

More gratifying stories can be found at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation website http://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/case_studies.

In 2012, the same organization stated in its annual report that moving towards a circular economy model would be worth $630 billion in Europe alone, while a new report published by the same foundation in January 2014, in conjunction with the World Economic Forum, stated that within five years, a move towards a circular economy could save $500 million in material costs, create 100,000 new jobs and prevent 100 million tons of waste. Furthermore, more than $1 trillion could be generated for the global economy by 2025.

At the same time, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, together with the WEF, launched Project Mainstream, with support from McKinsey and Company. The initiative aims to accelerate cross-sector engagement towards a circular economy over the next twenty-four months.

A shift from a linear to a circular economy will be tumultuous. It will affect everyone and how they live their lives, and although there will be setbacks and naysayers along the way, as long as businesses, consumers and governments play their part, the work of the pioneers will not have been in vain. We cannot possibly tell what the world will look like in five hundred years' time, except that without a programme of sustainable long-term growth, there probably won't be one. But if we seize the moment, our descendants will look back in their history books and give thanks that we were so far-sighted and courageous.

## Section Three: An Idea Nation

"Every moment wasted looking back keeps us from moving forward... In this world and the world of tomorrow, we must go forward together or not at all."

—Hillary Clinton

An Idea Nation empowers the individual to break free of the everyday confines and limits that stifle his or her creativity.

A 2006 study, conducted at Duke University, concluded that forty-five per cent of what human beings do every day is habit. In other words, we spend nearly half our waking lives on autopilot, which means no original thought or active thinking. However, don't be too hard on yourself because that's just the way we're wired. The human brain always wants to conserve energy and so looks for the path of least resistance to survive, hence the formation of habits, which by their very nature require the least effort to perform and, consequently, save energy.

For all you psychologists, both professional and amateur, we're aware it isn't really that simple, but a lot of information has been compressed into a funky little soundbite for the purposes of this book, which doesn't have as its primary focus the ins and outs of the human mind.

We're all stuffed full of habits, some good and some bad, and they help to shape the pattern of our lives. However, we're not stuck with them. We all have potential that can be exploited positively if we so desire. Looking around at successful people, they make what they achieve appear to be so effortless, but of course, all we see is the public face of their labours the tip of the iceberg, if you will. We usually have no idea what's gone on, and what's going on, below the surface. Choose any successful person you admire, in any field, and think about it.

The problem we face is that us mere mortals don't think we can ever achieve what the superstars have, and believe that they either have some special inbuilt talent or gift bestowed upon them, or they just got lucky. As a result, most people give up before they even start, tossing their potential onto the compost heap of life without giving it a chance to blossom.

But we all have the same potential for success. Whether or not it will bear fruit is just a question of how you conduct your life and the choices you make. By making good choices, you create your own luck.

It's true that some people are better placed than others in financial, political and societal terms, but there are just as many people from privileged backgrounds who have fallen short as those who have made it. So what if someone is starting from a higher rung on the ladder? At least you're on the ladder and can decide whether to go up, down or stay where you are. And so what if you have to work a little harder achieving your goals? What else were you going to do with your time? Spend the next few weeks working your way through the box set of Breaking Bad? Do you think that's what Richard Branson does? Bill Gates? The Dalai Lama?

Successful people imbue themselves with good habits, something which in itself becomes a habit. And they don't waste time. They also apply concentration and single-minded focus on what they seek to achieve, and are always open to increasing their knowledge and learning. Furthermore, when they speak, they consider all the angles first and never go in with all guns blazing.

In charting such a course, successful people put themselves in positions where they are able to take advantage of good fortune and advantageous breaks when they appear. In other words, they make their own luck.

History is littered with men and women who have manufactured their success through the adoption of positive, self-reinforcing habits, because by putting themselves 'up there', they have given themselves more possible future courses of action than if they had remained in their safe bunker. Such an attitude imparts a will to keep going when the going gets tough, and they develop a steely determination to continue (changing course where necessary) until they achieve their goal. Steely determination must not be confused with a sheer bull-headed approach, as the former represents constructive thinking to achieve the end, while the latter indicates a will to keep on doing the same thing until it succeeds, no matter how flawed the original plan, which is probably the reason why that person has developed the mindset in the first place.

Anyone can make a change in their life. It doesn't have to be big, but it does have to be for the good. One tiny change will put you on a different platform, and it's there that other changes are made possible for you to start the drive towards your ultimate goal.

And that's where An Idea Nation comes in. An Idea Nation is here to help you make the changes in your life that will lead to betterment and greater fulfilment. Leverage us and use our networked intelligence for your success.

An Idea Nation is perfectly positioned to promote and exploit the Age of Human Potential, because that is where we have now arrived.

### The Age Of Human Potential

History has seen us pass through several different Ages. Each one of them not only covered a period in time, but was also defined by the overwhelming identity and ethos that pervaded the span of years. For example, the Stone Age was characterized by the use of stone for materials and weapons, and this was followed by the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, and so on. Ideas that came to the fore during each Age are part of the Source that has led us to where we are today. Ideas that were realized and developed into useful concepts that moved society forwards were allowed to develop because of the conditions that prevailed at the time.

The Age of Human Potential will be just the same. It will be informed by ideas and the potential of the human mind. While most of us feel that we are pushing our mental capacities to the limit as we plod through our treadmill lives, we fail to see that the condition of our very existence negates the possibility of our using our brains to the full, or at least to a much greater degree. To an extent, we have already entered the Age of Human Potential; witness the great leaps forward in technology and other advances that promise to make life better. And it's that very technology which will be utilized to bring together people from disparate corners of the globe to combine their ideas to produce wonders that we cannot as yet imagine, in much the same way that our forebears of the Stone Age could never have envisioned our society that exists today, even though they were instrumental in its evolution.

The possibilities are endless. Paul R. Scheele, co-founder of Learning Strategies, is just one of the many exceptional thinkers that regularly teach people how to take advantage of the potential of their brain power through exceptional learning methods. Just like Einstein, he believes that we have the capacity to unlock and set free our tendencies towards genius (our genius capability). Experts in the field of accelerated learning have proved that we have a greater potential for learning than that exploited by traditional educational methods, and that accelerated learning relies on the assumption that we don't just learn at a conscious level. We actually possess a subconscious mind, which processes information separately from the conscious mind, and how we make use of this additional mind asset is simply an exercise in creative problem solving.

Imagine the billions of people who inhabit the planet, having been taught how to unlock their latent brain power, coming together and cross-pollinating their ideas.

That's one heck of a vision, but it's exactly that image that An Idea Nation seeks to serve. Can you envisage a workplace where the individuals are so totally fired up because they are working on their own ideas? People can become innovative creators and shed the tag of being just another expendable commodity that works to make someone else rich.

### If The World Is United

"Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success."

—Henry Ford

That is the crux of the Age of Human Potential. We are truly in this together. Gone are the days when we fought and bickered over who owns what and who did what to who. That's passed, and living in the past will only make sure that we remain there. To survive beyond our generation and into the next millennium and beyond, we now only have one real choice to work together in a network that allows ideas to flow and prosper.

Ask yourself these questions, and then answer them. Why are the rich rich? Why are the poor poor? Why are the rich getting richer? Why are the poor getting poorer? Don't look for the answers here because this isn't Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? but you can phone a friend to discuss it. While you do, consider the following hypotheses.

Perhaps the poor are poor because their ideas and initiatives don't get off the launching pad. Could it be that they are so busy just struggling to keep their heads above water that they just can't devote the time and energy necessary to fulfil their creativity and haul themselves out from under? Or could it be that because they lack social status they are dismissed out of hand?

Everybody has ideas. If we didn't, we'd be trees. And everybody is capable of innovation. What we all need is guidance in order to choose the path of greatest opportunity and exploit those ideas to the full.

Ideas are essentially always there, somewhere in time and space, and they manifest themselves when the conditions or time is apt. For example, the idea of You Tube was around long before anyone knew of its existence, but when it appeared, in 2005, the time was right. Had it been launched in 1995, before broadband and cheap video cameras were widespread, it would have probably sunk without trace.

Ideas aren't the result of a big brainstorm which causes something to appear that's totally unrelated to anything that's gone before. Rather they are the result of tiny incremental moves, each one adding to the body of knowledge that eventually begets the idea that leads to the invention. Many people have their names associated with products and are credited as the inventor, but they are actually the person who added that final increment of thought that proved to be the tipping point. Alexander Graham Bell is widely credited with inventing the telephone, but he didn't work in a vacuum (no, not that sort), and his work depended on, and was built upon, the work of others. He was just the man who held the parcel when the music stopped. Now, that's not decrying or belittling his achievement, but simply an illustration that the idea was out there and he was the one who grabbed it as it came into view. As a further example, sunspots were discovered in 1611 by four different scientists in four different countries. Each one came to the idea separately, but only as a result of work that had gone on before. So we can see that the fruition of ideas comes from the input of more than one source. As Steve Johnson, the writer, says:

"Chance favours the connected mind," and "Good ideas are built out of a collection of existing parts." In other words, the best way of encouraging and nurturing new ideas doesn't necessarily flow from carrying on about 'the spark of genius', or by locking oneself away in a Swiss mountain retreat 'to be creative', or extolling the virtues of 'out of the box' or 'blue sky' thinking, but by expanding the range of the next possible moves. Add more dice to the game, invite more minds to the conversation. Engage in discussion and argument. Subject yourself to different influences. Many creative people find they get their best ideas when they step outside their work space. Borrow, repurpose and recombine. Europe's seventeenth century coffee houses were hotbeds of creativity, a perfect illustration of good ideas happening in networks. Or perhaps good ideas are networks?

### Adjacent Possibilities

The 'adjacent possible' is a term coined by the biologist Stuart Kauffman. Steve Johnson encapsulated its meaning in The Genius of the Tinkerer, an essay he wrote for the Wall Street Journal in 2010. He defined it as being "... a kind of shadow future, hovering on the edges of the present state of things, a map of all the ways in which the present can reinvent itself." He also noted that it "captures both the limits and the creative potential of change and innovation." In other words, it's the set of opportunities that are always present at the boundaries of our current reach. Or to put it more simply, take where you are at the moment, in whatever endeavor you find yourself, and look at the range of possible next moves. Each one will lead you somewhere different, and when you've made the next move, the same pattern will occur, repeating itself ad infinitum every day of your life, moving you along the path you have selected by way of your own choices that are made from the possibilities presented to you at each and every stage of your existence. Every step you take opens up new possibilities that didn't exist before because your boundaries grow as you explore them.

It's a bit like going into an ever-expanding room. You enter and see four doors, one in each wall, and you decide which one to go through, only to be presented with another room with another four doors, and so you continue moving forward, experiencing new things and all the time getting further away from where you started, but still being connected, as one decision is influenced by the one before, and so on.

This 'adjacent possible' is what governs all human progress. Everything is out there waiting to be discovered, and whenever anyone comes upon something, it's solely dependent on the choices they've made and the doors they chose to open. An Idea Nation firmly believes in this theory and has been set up to enable all the inventors, innovators and ideas people to make the best choices and open the most beneficial doors.

### Gizza Job (Give Us A Job)

Back in 1982, Alan Bleasdale wrote a seminal television series called Boys from the Blackstuff, which looked at the way the then British government's economic policies were impacting on the poor. One of the 'heroes' of the series went under the name of Yosser Hughes, and his 'catchphrase' was "Gizza job I can do that," a phrase he uttered as he literally trudged around the city of Liverpool, looking for work. At the present time, as the cancer of mass unemployment eats its way through Europe and threatens the rest of the world, the need to embrace the Age of Human Potential has never been more imperative or relevant. Before too long, there will be countless Yosser Hugheses, as even more 'traditional' jobs are replaced by technology and even more of us become unemployed. Bill Gates calls it 'software substitution', and says: "Software substitution, whether it's for drivers or waiters or nurses... it's progressing. Technology over time will reduce demand for jobs, particularly at the lower end of skill set. . 20 years from now, labour demand for lots of skill sets will be substantially lower. I don't think people have that in their mental model."

A gloomy forecast, but definitely one to heed, as the signs are all there.

According to an article published in the Economist on October 12th, 2013 (Not Open for Business), American startups only created 2.7 million jobs in 2012, as opposed to the 4.7 million of 1999. The main reason given was that America is producing less startups. In turn, the fewer startups are due in part to the financial crisis, but American entrepreneurs also point up several other salient factors: the education system isn't producing the right kind of job candidates, there's a lack of resources to train staff, the anti-immigration laws, increasing strangulation of government regulation and taxes, and the difficulty of raising money. Because there have been fewer startups, there have been fewer companies going public, and recent history has shown that it's after going public that startups have created ninety per cent of their jobs.

In Europe, according to Eurostat, unemployment in the eurozone was at a record high of nineteen million in January 2014. That's twelve per cent of Europe's economically active people consigned to the tip. And that figure masks the frightening disparities between countries whose governments believe they have found the Holy Grail of salvation in their current economic and political models and the rest. In Spain, 25.8% of the working population spend their time looking for work, compared to just 5% in Germany. In Greece, 59% of young people under the age of twenty-five are jobless, while the figure for the EU as a whole is 23.4%. Barroso and van Rompuy fiddle while Europe burns.

Where is this going? Can it be allowed to continue? Can we leave it up to governments to guide us through? Judging by past and current form, probably not, but together, we can alleviate the potential suffering and all come out on top.

Such scenarios make An Idea Nation even more important, helping people to create their own employment opportunities.

But that's not all. As the economic and industrial development of the world hurtles forward at a breakneck pace, we are very much in danger of destroying the environment upon which we all depend. There are plenty of other books, websites and videos to expand and expound the arguments, of which I am sure you are familiar, so I won't waste space regurgitating doomsday-scenario facts and figures here. After all, this is the section where we talk about solutions. Suffice it to say, at this juncture, An Idea Nation is fully committed to preserving our environment and biological diversity through sustainable development.

Urban growth is predicted to undergo the largest and fastest period of expansion in history, over the next forty years. Such a huge advance means it's no longer possible to develop with a blatant disregard to others, no matter who has done so in the past. As towns and cities grow and become home to more and more people, we are going to need the ideas of everyone to get us through to the other side. An Idea Nation is the perfect platform to help co-ordinate and promote the efforts of all to everyone, leading to peaceful and sustainable progress that can be enjoyed by all creatures in this wonderful ecosystem we call home.

### Societal Values

Just as individual values affect the actions of society, so the values of society influence individuals. There is a continuous meshing and crossover at play, and the interconnectedness of those values has influenced the way that we as individuals and as a society have behaved.

Each Age that humankind has passed through has been marked by uncertainty and a breakdown in ethical behaviour as new problems confronted society. The old way of understanding the world changed as new challenges and realities were met. Our Age is characterized by the increased focus on the individual as being more important than the group. It's the 'me' generation. Its beginnings can be traced back to the 1960s, and over the following thirty years it became rampant. It was supported by what, in the study of ethics, is known as ethical relativism. That's been defined as the belief that nothing is objectively right or wrong, and that the definition of right or wrong depends on the prevailing view of a particular individual, culture, or historical period.

The consequences of ethical relativism can be seen in the 2008 banking crisis and the way in which corruption and morally bankrupt behaviour has become a way of life in many governments and institutions. For example, Enron and the way FIFA is run.

If society is to survive and move forward, we need to retreat from an economic system where stakeholders seek to maximize their own benefit and replace it with one in which the well being of all takes priority. In the words of Joris Claeys: "To support this ego to eco shift we need a new type of awareness-based collective action leadership school — a distributed platform that focuses on pioneering profound innovations by an approach that links and integrates all sectors (business, government, civil society), system levels (micro, macro, mundo) and all intelligences (head, heart, hand)."

That is An Idea Nation.

### An Idea Nation

#### How Does An Idea Nation A Global Think Tank Work?

An Idea Nation believes that diversity is one of the key elements to solving our global challenges, so each member is encouraged to bring new and different insights to the table in order to help us move toward a more democratic, transparent and just world. Our ultimate purpose is to accomplish a true, sustainable and accountable democracy.

We like to call our members the people's government, which is a group of self-governing community clusters that use the Internet as a forum to self-organize and carry out goals that are important to each community.

A community is any group of people, irrespective of age or any other classification that aligns with a purpose, which can include, but is not limited to, a geographic community.

Each community has the following team types:

  1. A Research & Development Team to assess current levels of performance and determine resources and methods to achieve goals.

  2. Innovation Entrepreneurs (usually centred on the three goals and top eight priorities) who take R & D to the next level and develop working models to reach goals and priorities.

  3. Correspondents who communicate within the network of teams that make up a community, and also between separate communities.

  4. Recorders who highlight the 'bright spots', and make reports about processes and events, using video, text and pictures.

  5. Crowdfund Operators who begin crowdfunding campaigns on behalf of a self-governed community on our own crowdfunding site anideanation.com.

An Idea Nation acts as a platform where people with curiosity, thoughts and opinions meet and collaborate on a new level. It's a place where businesses are formed and concepts are developed.

To ensure efficiency and fairness, each community operates under a strict code of ethics.

  * If any member has a challenge with another member, he or she should go and speak to that member first and try to work it out before engaging a correspondent to work with them towards resolution.

  * Eliminate negative talk or unproductive chatter (gossip).

  * Always source out a community's need from the broader global communities prior to crowdfunding.

  * Once teams vote and agree that they have exhausted all possible resources within their community and others, and it is found that a need cannot be filled by borrowing, sharing or gifting, use crowdfunding.

A community is self-governing and self-regulating, and it's aligned with An Idea Nation's top eight global priorities (common language).

A community chooses three goals to work towards within a time frame, using video as a primary means of communication online.

A community has working teams of no more than eight people, with sub teams automatically created when the team number reaches eight.

#### An Idea Nation's Global Priorities

We have selected eight global priorities which colour our thinking and the way we act in everything we do. You may ask: Why those? A fair question, to which we answer: Where would we be without them?

Each one of the identified priorities is considered to be essential for humankind to survive and interact, and they represent aspects of life that may be familiar to some of us, but foreign to others. The eight priorities all have the potential for further exploration to enable their better functioning for societies everywhere.

### The Eight That Resonate

#### Energy

We believe passionately in looking for, and exploiting, alternative sources of energy that are both green and sustainable, and ensuring that everyone has access. Fact: At the moment, about one quarter of the world's citizens (1.6 billion) have no access to electricity. Without energy, they will never be able to contribute to, and share in, the world's bounty.

#### Food/Water

There are nearly one billion people somehow managing to survive without sufficient food or water on our planet, and the situation will only get worse with climate change and its effects. Those who 'have' must stop wasting these precious resources and leave more for those who 'don't have'. Facts: The world's starving could be fed with just one quarter of the food that's thrown away in the USA, UK and Europe alone. The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization estimate that the industrialized world wastes an amount equivalent to the net production of food in sub-Saharan Africa. Almost 800 million people don't have safe drinking water, 2.4 billion don't have adequate sanitation and four out of five people worldwide face risk to their water security. Innovative ideas are urgently required to address these challenges.

#### Environment

Without a healthy environment, there is no hope for the long-term future, while the short term prospects also look bleak. We firmly believe that with the right choices, we can turn the situation around and sustain the physical planet for our children's children. Facts: It's estimated that between fifty and a hundred species of plant and animal become extinct every day because of human activity. Eighty per cent of the world's forests have gone, while the USA now only has less than four per cent of its forests left. Green buildings can reduce energy use, CO2 emissions, water use and solid waste. The acidity of the ocean has risen by twenty-six per cent since the Industrial Revolution. We are altering the Earth's natural cycles for the worse, risking destabilization.

#### Health

The physical and mental health of each and every citizen is crucial to a fairer and more equal society. We support both conventional and complementary medicine which leads to the improved physical and mental well-being of all, greater levels of fitness, prevention of illness and disease, and longevity of life. And in keeping with our environmental aims, we support cruelty-free research. Health systems should be based on people's needs. We need prevention, not sole reliance on prescriptions. Fact: Cleaner air is vital to a healthy mind, body and spirit.

#### Education

Traditional methods of teaching and learning are no longer adequate for the needs of our modern world. We would like to see new models of open learning and access to quality education for all. Fact: At the turn of the century, still nearly one billion people were unable to read or sign their names.

#### Freedom

People can only be truly free when they have been emancipated from all forms of poverty, which include material poverty, intellectual poverty, health poverty and location-based poverty. People need to be free of fear to progress, and we must ensure the freedom of the media to spread ideas.

"Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom; and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech; which is the right of every man as far as by it he does not hurt or control the right of another; and this is the only check it ought to suffer and the only bounds it ought to know."

—Benjamin Franklin

#### Justice

Judicial systems that are fair and not subject to corruption are crucial to well-run societies. An Idea Nation looks to put pressure on those systems that do not comply.

"Asking you to give me equal rights implies they are yours to give. Instead, I must demand that you stop trying to deny me the rights all people deserve."

—Greg Bulmash http://www.brainhandles.com

#### Distribution

An Idea Nation works to ensure an equitable distribution of both resources and knowledge, because without access to either, citizens will find it difficult, if not impossible, to take their place in the promotion and spread of their innovative ideas. Distributed knowledge leads to informed choices. Knowledge is power, so use it wisely.

An Idea Nation pursues its eight global priorities through its eight guiding principles, working closely with governments and institutions. It isn't our aim to be anything other than a force for good, and we use whatever legal means we can to cajole and persuade those in power to change their ways for the betterment of all.

### An Idea Nation's Eight Guiding Principles

  1. We see no separation between us; what you do affects me and vice versa.

  2. We first share, lend, trade and explore all resources available before outsourcing for capital.

  3. We foster businesses that are sustainable, using co-operative models.

  4. We are transparent, open and honest in our practices (accounting, books, and communication).

  5. We are accountable to one another to uphold our values and global priorities.

  6. We believe in 'people before profits' as we focus on the holistic wellness of our members first.

  7. We crowdsource and crowdfund for community and business needs.

  8. We provide exceptional quality services and products that are made to last.

### Our Vision/Mission

The short version: We aim to unite global citizens with our mission to solve global challenges.

The long version: We seek to provide a place where ideas are explored, connections made, systems and institutions challenged, knowledge shared and change achieved.

It will involve building a diversified crowd of people who will collaborate to make a difference to our world while focusing on our eight core priorities. An Idea Nation aspires to make a great impact in the way people all around the world interact by sharing their thoughts, opinions and ideas. We hope to achieve all this by enabling social entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs to gain experience and support from our platform so they have the ability to realize projects and businesses that will enhance our world. We want to create a democracy that is truly radical, sustainable and accountable.

### Why Do We Need An Idea Nation?

An Idea Nation uses crowdfunding to raise money for its own causes as well as being a platform for others to do the same. But wait, you say, aren't there several hundred crowdfunding sites already out there and aren't you just duplicating what they do and competing for a share of the market? The answer to that is a straightforward 'yes' and 'no'. Our ethos is totally different. Other crowdfunding sites do a great job, but we are different in our reasons for being here and the way in which we operate. For example, we don't charge commission, so all the money raised goes towards financing the project.

An Idea Nation offers the world a unique opportunity to connect and collaborate in a way that reshapes the way we currently view our everyday existence and those bodies that influence it. We enable the many millions of people across the globe who have ideas and innovative solutions to the problems faced by the world on a local, regional, national and international scale to get those ideas and innovations into the light and receive their just rewards. We believe that as a collective we may just have all the wisdom and resources necessary to solve all the problems facing society today. We use the power of the Internet to crowdfund and crowdsource so that the balance of power is placed in the hands of our members to share the progression of their innovations to make the world a better place for us and future generations.

An Idea Nation wants each and every single individual to work to his or her full potential and have complete access to all the information necessary to solve our global challenges. Furthermore, we believe in effective and efficient resource allocation rather than resource exploitation. If we don't start sharing the world instead of trying to get the best out of it for ourselves, we'll be leaving our children's children a very poor legacy.

Our goal is to support social entrepreneurs who strive for sustainable solutions to our eight global priorities through projects that will benefit the greater good, while at the same time encouraging people to do what they love doing with people who further them both intellectually and socially.

"The only way to do great work is to love what you do."

—Steve Jobs

People have a tendency to behave in a similar way to the people that surround them. In order to widen their horizons, they need fresh stimuli, such as being exposed to new ideas and being challenged socially and intellectually.

An Idea Nation facilitates the formation of cooperatives for the purposes of creating and maintaining sustainable jobs, generating wealth, improving quality of life, dignifying human work, giving credence to democratic self-management, promoting community and fostering local development.

Because we are a network that acts like a cooperative, utilizing the same platform, we can speedily and effectively communicate needs, wants and possibilities, and by sharing our ideas, we can increase the efficiency and profitability of organizations within our membership.

### Why Should You Care And Why Should You Be A Member?

We believe that every one of us has something to offer that can help shape our future economy and the sustainability of the planet. Our members work on projects that they not only love, but that also inspire them, which has to be the dream for the vast majority of people. By joining An Idea Nation, you will enjoy a much more balanced approach to work and life through the showcasing of your achievements and co-operative success.

Many people have plenty of innovative ideas, but the one idea they don't have is how to turn them into reality. An Idea Nation can help you with all aspects of starting up as well as continuous development through our crowdsourcing and crowdfunding platforms. That means we can help you raise money and supply you with expertise to further your pet project, and make sure it stays on track. We know that businesses thrive on effective collaboration and our cross-disciplinary approach. No person is an island, and we help you find whatever expertise you need, from business planners to accountants, from marketers to engineers, and you can rest assured knowing that not only can you call upon their talents and resources, but that they all share your vision and are with you for the long haul.

Because of our understanding of the relationship between an innovator and their innovation, we have been able to develop a system that supports innovators from the very beginning to the very end, and every member has access to a large database of tools and professional tips to keep them on track every step of the way.

Members have free access to our video advertising channel, where they can post their own video telling one and all about their expertise, skills and talents. That's of vital importance because such videos can be viewed by other members looking for talents to help them achieve their dream. Members are invited to rate, rank and review their experiences with others, meaning that the best will always be in demand, based on what they actually do, and not on the bits of paper that list their qualifications.

With access to different skill sets, innovators will be able to progress their ideas by plugging the gaps in their own competencies. Coupled with access to the professional experts, also supplied by An Idea Nation, it's a winning combination. Everybody engages and interacts at a level they find most suitable and most comfortable, so even if someone does no more than post an idea, the talents to make it happen will be there to do just that. Gone are the days of waiting for an 'angel' investor, having to kowtow to a financial institution or giving away a portion of your idea or company to a stranger. Members provide as much or as little data as they choose and always retain their ownership of the project. You are the boss, and you make the decisions, the difference being that you have a wealth of experience and knowledge to consult to help you make the correct calls.

So, how does this 'experts' thing work?

There are three ways members can get their help, no matter what financial situation they are in.

### Give Then Get

Basically, this is a skill swap. First you find an expert from our database and look at their list of needs. If they require something you can supply, you contact them and make a trade of what you can do for them in return for what they can do for you. If you can't find anything obvious in the expert's needs list, you send them a link to your page (supplied free) and invite them to review your skills and expertise to see if you can work out a fair trade. Financial cost zero. The program works on a points system to ensure complete fairness and accountability.

### Profit Sharing

As the subtitle says, you share your profits with the expert in return for their help. Once again, the points system comes into play to ensure that any agreement is fair, transparent and accountable. The advantage of this method is that the expert, by being moved from the outside to the inside, will participate as an owner, not a hired hand, with the resultant boost in effort etc.

### Pay The Going Rate

This is the most straightforward way of obtaining expert help. You pay the fee requested and the expert provides his or her skills, just like any normal everyday transaction. This method is fine for those who are financially well off.

Under all three methods, you maintain ownership and leadership of your idea or project.

An Idea Nation also has its own industry experts who, at no cost to you, can review your project and offer free advice, which could result in your idea being moved up the An Idea Nation search rankings.

As the world's largest future global think tank, An Idea Nation will collect data and allow its user base to synthesize and make sense of it. It will be available both for profits corporations and not-for profits corporations. We extract patterns, models and frameworks for everyone's success, enabling companies to implement informed solutions that are based on solid constructive data, so that the front-line workers can keep doing what they do best, with confidence that their work will be effective. Making sure everyone has equal capacity to figure out how to use data is critical to the evolution of all people, not just those born in America or with a silver spoon in their mouth.

An Idea Nation doesn't require a resume. Rather you have a profile that expresses who you are and what you love doing, and while your experiences in work and life inform what you can offer others, the true value of your economic contribution is defined by the degree to which your communication creates positive results in the marketplace.

If you're willing to share your ideas for social change, educational video games, interactive media and anything else you can conjure up, we'll open up a world of possibilities, transporting your idea from your laptop to the hands of your customers and clients.

It's money in your bank account. Its creativity expressed. It's freedom to live your life the way you choose. And it's a reality.

An Idea Nation brings people together to achieve great things, drawing upon you, the world's research and development team. Your ideas are given life, and you receive the credit you so richly deserve.

An Idea Nation is the innovation leader of the world. We are rich in experience, connections and media influence, and our pool of resources is just waiting to be shared.

### Ideas And An Idea Nation

Every idea is worth taking a look at, and every idea is looked at. Admittedly, not every idea that's submitted has immediate marketability, but every idea has the potential to spur on another idea or to be re-shaped or altered in such a way that the original idea does become viable. When that happens, An Idea Nation attempts to invite both parties to share in the prize.

Our philosophy regarding who we're looking for as a part of our team is extremely open. In the words of Scott Sheridan, Founder of Ameritrade: "We don't take a traditional approach to most of the things we do and that's also true of hiring. I don't look at resumes, I just talk to the person. It's more about culture, it's more about a fit. I'll take somebody with desire over somebody who has a good pedigree. I'd rather have somebody who's... young and hungry and who has heart and character."

Once human potential has been correctly developed, it can be harnessed, allowing society to reap wealth on a scale not yet imagined, and once Mr & Mrs Average wake up to their true intelligence and potential, and have a real chance to combine their natural talents and passion with a marketable trade, our economy will sustain unprecedented growth. Never before have had the poor and middle class experienced a greater opportunity to build the kind of wealth that they can through An Idea Nation.

For too long, society has failed our young by perpetuating the hoax that if you get a college education, you'll have a happy and prosperous life. For some, it's true, but for a great many others, it's just the opposite. And we also need to question what sort of educational system allows the young to leave learning institutions with so much untapped genius just waiting to be released and developed.

An Idea Nation seeks to leverage the minds of not just a handful of brilliant souls, but of millions throughout the world, transporting the development of each idea light years beyond what any think tank on the planet would otherwise be capable of, and in so many more directions. Most importantly, we intend for every meaningful contribution to earn its contributor an equitable piece of the credit and profit.

Our open-source master software platform intuitively gives each member access to a whole array of online conveniences and tools with which to further shape and blend their great ideas with others' great ideas. At the same time, they share the incentives, in direct proportion to each member's contribution, with others in the group.

An Idea Nation is the nexus between dreamer and reality, idea and solution, innovator and invention. The world doesn't need another company looking to 'use' people for their original ideas, but rather a platform which allows every innovator to exercise total control while maintaining the majority share of profits a concept that's unlike anything that currently exists. An Idea Nation is a place where ideas and solutions come together to solve social and economic problems, where ideas can be deposited and incubated. Dreamers everywhere now have a realistic chance of making a living as a successful innovator. It's a direct path dreamer to dream, dream to innovator, innovator to innovation, and innovation to market. Never before has the way forward been so clearly signposted.

### Collaboration And Co-Operation

"A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality."

—John Lennon

We've grown up in a world which revolves around the myth of the independent success story: the idea that I can only be successful if I defeat you. That myth is based on the idea that the pie never grows in size and so I have to compete with you to get a slice for me.

However, no entrepreneur can succeed alone. We need each other. Groups are important not only because they offer social support, resources and a feeling of belonging, but because they also supplement an individual's self-concept. To a large extent, humans define themselves by the group memberships which form their social identity. The shared social identity of individuals within a group influences the way in which groups behave towards, and perceive, each other. Those perceptions and behaviours in turn define the social identity of individuals within the interacting groups.

Groups often moderate and improve decision making, and are frequently relied upon for those inputs, as can be witnessed with the work of committees and juries.

### Synergy Of Thought

"When two minds meet there is the creation of a third greater one!" so said Napoleon Hill, author of The Law of Success in Sixteen Lessons and Think and Grow Rich, and originator of the mastermind alliance.

The principle is based on an ancient premise that the joint energy of two or more like-minded people is many times greater than the sum of the individual energies involved. Commissioned by the wealthiest man of his time to research the most wealthy and successful people of his day, Hill discovered that Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone and Thomas Edison had created their own formal mastermind alliance.

Each of those men confided to Hill their belief that putting together their three minds in harmonious, progressive thought multiplied their creative power exponentially. They found a strategic advantage in meeting regularly to discuss their business concepts and brainstorm new ideas for recreating the marketplace. Hill subsequently found the same principle at work in other mastermind alliances.

A further example of the mastermind concept at work is within the Disney Corporation. At Disney, there are teams of imagineers that collaborate on new projects, solve problems and brainstorm for new opportunities. Every idea is treated with respect, mulled around, discussed and looked at every which way, allowing the teams' best ideas eventually to rise to the top. Disney's philosophy of working together, using the mastermind principle, has been a key factor in making it one of the strongest and most profitable companies in the world.

Nowadays, wherever we look online, communities are coming together to share ideas and move mountains, be it in business, politics or any other field. Power is being decentralized all over, and will only continue as the Internet pulls such groups closer together, and groups begin to mastermind and co-mingle with other groups.

Wherever there's a synergy of energy, commitment, and excitement, you'll find the participants of a mastermind group banded together under one common purpose. They meet regularly in an atmosphere of trust and harmony to provide mutual support, encouragement and inspiration to each other as they strive to reach for new goals.

People are capable of helping each other, even complete strangers in emergencies, and research indicates that altruism occurs when a person feels empathy for another individual, even in the absence of other motives.

The marvel of such an open-source worldview is the realization that the size of the pie is not finite. My success does not depend on your failure. In fact, my success is intimately tied in with your success. We're all cheering for the same team.

When we collaborate, or to put it another way, when we share, our power accrues. We are greater than the sum of our parts. Together we stand a better chance of succeeding. The survival of the human race depends on how well we truly realize this paramount truth.

We all view the world through our own eyes, our perspectives being based on the experiences we have undergone. Our individual truths are coloured by those perceptions, such that two people can see the same situation and come to differing conclusions. Truth is only what someone believes they have gained from a fact. Truth and fact are therefore not the same thing. And who is to say whose truth carries the greatest validity? Essentially, our different understandings of life are shaped by our egos and labelled accordingly, and they feed our insecurities as we try to make sense of our place in the world and what goes on in it. Such a paradigm has brought us to where we now stand. However, we must strive for a new consciousness, and through collaboration and co-operation become the change we want to see, and live with more purpose, compassion and empathy for each other. Through such actions, we can affect real change in the world. Fighting over differences has proved to be a dead end. As Socrates said: "The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new."

### Empathy

We need to move from cycles of fear and greed into a spiritual enterprise that is just and value-based, with accountability, transparency, trust and integrity.

A return on emotion (ROE) may turn out to be a better bottom-line indicator of success than a return on investment (ROI). The focus is on the person, not the corporation. People operating in a state of emotional wellness enjoy work as it was meant to be. They are happy, they are productive. It's that simple.

The return on emotion (success quotient) can be understood as follows:

Life Purpose divided by Integrity of Actions = ROE (LP/I of A = ROE)

At An Idea Nation, we focus on results by measuring the return on emotion. Those who interact with empathy are empowered to not only alter their circumstances but also to impact societal change.

In January 2014, at the Davos World Economic Forum, Pope Francis took the opportunity to tell global finance titans that they should use their vast wealth to serve humanity and not leave large numbers of the world's population in poverty and unstable living conditions. He said: "I ask you to ensure that humanity is served by wealth and not ruled by it. The growth of equality demands something more than economic growth, even though it presupposes it. It demands first of all a transcendent vision of the person'. It also calls for decisions, mechanisms and processes directed to a better distribution of wealth, the creation of sources of employment and an integral promotion of the poor which goes beyond a simple welfare mentality."

His observations were backed up by an Oxfam report, Working for the Few, released at the same time, which stated that the world's eighty-five richest people have as much money as the poorest 3.5 billion.

Pope Francis didn't actually condemn the leaders for excesses exposed by the global financial crisis, but recognized that businesses have helped alleviate poverty for millions of people. However, he did make the point that a side-effect of big business was broad social exclusion.

An Idea Nation voices the same sentiments, which are a driving force behind our mission. For those very reasons, we bring together people from a diversity of backgrounds so everyone can benefit from exposure to a cross-section of people with different experiences and strengths. As Jeremy Rifkin aptly states in The Empathic Civilization: "The richer the diversity of exposure, the greater the likelihood that an individual will come to see facets of themselves in the struggle of others and extend empathic awareness."

Chan Kwok-bun, a Sociology professor, expounds on the feedback loop: "The authenticity of what I have discovered about myself is strengthened because I have found affirmation of a bit of myself in you, and you, in me..."

Rifkin goes on: "The constant empathetic feedback is the social glue that makes possible increasingly complex societies. Without empathy it would be impossible to even imagine a social life and the organization of society. Society requires being social and being social requires empathic extension."

For more about Rifkin and his ideas, check out  http://www.ted.com/talks/jeremy_rifkin_on_the_empathic_civilization.

### The Bystander Effect

The bystander effect, or bystander apathy, is a social psychological phenomenon that refers to cases in which individuals don't offer any means of help to a victim when other people are present. The probability of help is inversely related to the number of bystanders. In other words, the greater the number of bystanders, the less likely it is that any one of them will help. Several variables help to explain why the bystander effect occurs, such as ambiguity, cohesiveness and diffusion of responsibility. Many a corporation or bureaucracy has succumbed to the bystander effect in that the employee is detached from the corporation or bureaucracy's ultimate purpose and values, and therefore lacks empathy in treating situations. The employee is unable to contribute his own valuable innovative contribution, resulting in apathy, which leads to more sick days taken, less happiness in the work place and an organization that marches on like a lifeless machine with no empathy.

### New Economic Models

At An Idea Nation, we are far from convinced that current economic models are the best and only way forward. To that end, we have studied circular models like Scrum, Skunk Works and Co-ops, and now believe that that there may be an optimal size for an organization.

Such models are good examples of supportive, successful empathic enterprise, as they respect the individual's creativity and contributions. In addition, studies have shown that we achieve better results with them than with the traditional hierarchical model, where the man at the foot of the pyramid has no idea what the man on the top is doing.

We believe that each individual can make a valuable contribution and the world needs everyone's input to create the best possible solutions to the challenges that we face today. Empathy is our jumping-off point.

Since World War II, the capitalist system has thrived on both planned and perceived obsolescence. Planned obsolescence is when something is designed to break down after a certain period of time, so the consumer has to re-purchase, while perceived obsolescence operates around the notion that consumers should replace their perfectly sound model for a newer, shinier one. Such a system cannot last indefinitely, which is why many people are looking to different economic and societal models for a better, more balanced future.

The only 'viable' alternative to capitalism has been socialism in its many guises, but with its forced redistribution of wealth, it, too, has fallen out of favour. While An Idea Nation believes in a more equitable society, our philosophy differs greatly from traditional socialism. Trusting higher echelons of government to equitably distribute wealth has never proven practically workable or sustainable. However, regardless of one's background or race, who doesn't deserve an equal opportunity and equal chance to pursue a better life? In other words, we promote self-help and a genuine opportunity for all to participate, sharing value and sustainability as we go.

"Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Show a man how to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime."

### Happiness And Work

"When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down 'happy'. They told me I didn't understand the assignment, and I told them they didn't understand life."

—John Lennon

Employers who value their workforce are now looking beyond the bottom line and showing their appreciation. While social enterprise addresses many of the societal problems faced in a community, it not only gives those who do the work a greater sense of satisfaction, but also increases their happiness quotient.

Studies show that GDP growth, after passing the point where basic needs are met, produces diminishing returns for our actual life satisfaction and happiness. At that point, other factors, like social relations, health, meaningful work, freedom, caring for others, etc. become far more important for our overall wellbeing. However, we often continue to chase the treadmill of economic growth at the expense of those other critical things. We have to work out how we shift from a narrow focus on economic growth (Gross Domestic Product) to a holistic pursuit of genuine wellbeing (Gross National Happiness).

As individuals, what can we do? Can we do what we love? If not, why not? Dennis Waitley, the American motivational speaker and author, said: "Don't ever let economics alone determine your career or how you spend the majority of your time." At An Idea Nation, we encourage the happiness and overall well-being of the individual in pursuit of their dreams because we know that without that cushion, a person will struggle to fulfil his or her true potential and worth. Setting personal goals is the first step towards true freedom and happiness. Every person is different and has different aims, different things that make them happy. There's more than one way to spend a dollar. An Idea Nation shows you how.

### Collaborative Consumption

Airbnb is an online marketplace that connects people who have space to let with people looking for a place to stay. It covers 192 countries and is an example of how technology is creating marketplaces for things that up until now didn't have one. The people involved are micro-entrepreneurs and have found a way to make money from their existing assets that wasn't possible before we had the Internet. But even more important than the money-making aspect is the trust that sites like this build, and all through technology that's available to virtually every one of us.

It's a movement known as collaborative consumption, and its growing fast because it empowers people to make connections and share their humanity and kindness as well as their ideas. To some extent, there's nothing new in what's going on and we're just reverting to old market principles and collaborative behaviours, but we have repurposed them for the Internet Age. We're sharing cars, bikes, offices and gardens, lending and borrowing money, and swapping lessons on any subject you care to mention. In fact, matching what we want to what there is in the most democratic and direct manner.

The rapid advances in technology are the social adhesive that holds it all together, and that adhesive is spreading to all walks of life, promoting efficiency and trust, the two most important components.

Unemployed people can find jobs on such websites as Mechanical Turk, which while not going to make them rich, gives them back their pride and a purpose for getting up in the mornings.

All the while, people are being rated by their peers and building up reputations on the different sites they inhabit, and when we've worked out how to aggregate reputations from different sites and how to present them in a meaningful way, collaborative consumption will explode like never before.

Reputation is the key, and an online reputation rating will be worth more than a traditional resume. It'll say more about you as a person than any list of qualifications could, yet one more facet that ties in with the philosophy of An Idea Nation. The sentiment is also echoed by Rachel Botsman, founder of The Collaborative Lab and former director at the William J. Clinton Foundation, who says: "In the twenty-first century, new trust networks, and the reputation capital they generate, will reinvent the way we think about wealth, markets, power and personal identity, in ways we can't yet even imagine."

### Wisdom Of The Collective

How many possibilities exist when one good idea is cross-pollinated with those of other top minds assembled in a close-knit community? The advent of modern technology means the answer is 'countless'! The more connected we've become, the more possibilities exist for meaningful collaboration. Whether in the field of business, education, government, media or religion, the possibility of reshaping those institutions in the next decade will be within the reach of all of us.

What at first appears as 'many problems' to be solved is actually just a single challenge to be met how do we get all our incredible ideas and solutions 'out there' and organized in such a meaningful way that they can be applied globally to effect positive change?

With the aid of technology, a new decision-making paradigm is emerging. No longer do we have to put up with decisions made by elite individuals or groups (whether elected or not) who sit around in secret meetings, deciding what's best for us, as we can now bring pressure to bear through our collective action on the Internet. The success of organizations such as Avaaz is testament to that, as are the online governmental initiatives in countries like Iceland and Finland that seek the views and opinions of the wider public.

Individuals, with the help of social media and An Idea Nation, are uniting to form tight-knit coalitions, much better suited and equipped to answer the world's future growth and development needs. Never have the words of America's constitutional forefathers "For the people, by the people" had more merit than they do today.

We are living in a new world, at the dawn of a new horizon. We can either put our trust in the Wisdom of the Collective or carry on letting a handful of corporate sponsored politicians run the show. Is that such a difficult choice?

### Shared Value

What is shared value? Quite simply, it's the idea that collaboration between societal and economic forces accrues benefit to both. Some of the most profit-centred, fundamentally capitalist, and hard-driving (not to mention successful) corporations in the world are embracing any number of shared value initiatives. For example, Google, IBM and Intel all recognize the positive difference collaboration rather than competition makes to their bottom line. The business community is now beginning to understand that its interests and societal interests have been pitted against one another for too long. Traditionally, business has been anti-regulation, perceiving it to be an unnecessary fiscal burden that interfered with its ability to remain competitive. According to Mark Kramer of the Harvard Business School, companies sought to avoid the idea that their success created social costs, such as pollution, for too long. In response, society through government imposed taxes and regulations on industry as a way of forcing it to bear the costs of its way of doing business.

Furthermore, as consumers have grown more conscious of the dangers of pollution and other costs to society, they have adjusted their purchasing habits and started to ask questions about the companies who make the products and supply the services they buy. That attitude has also helped to produce a change in corporate mindset, so that companies that wish to remain in business now pay attention to their effect on society at large as well as their profit margins.

Of course, individual corporations, no matter how large they are, can only do so much individually. Furthermore, they need to be able to see the benefit to themselves, as well as society as a whole, of collaboration with the competition. And that is where we the people can make a difference, through An Idea Nation. Shared value is not defined by personal values, but rather hinges on organizational values. Shared value is the quality that prompts a professional football player to pass to another better-positioned player to shoot at goal, even though he would like to score the goal himself. Why would he do such a thing? Because he understands that his real value is intimately tied to his team's value, and that it is impossible for him to 'win' if his team 'loses'.

In that example, shared value does not diminish the worth of the individual. In fact, the effect is quite the opposite. By putting his team first, above his own personal glory, the player actually elevates himself as an individual. It does not compromise his standing as a goal scorer or a great team leader. It means that he recognizes that his success does not exist outside the team's success.

As Kramer points out, shared value is not redistribution. "Instead, it is about expanding the total pool of economic and social value." He provides a good example of the distinction he is making by presenting the fair trade movement in purchasing. Fair trade seeks to increase the proportion of revenue that goes to poor farmers by paying them higher prices for the same overall amount of value created. In other words, it levels the playing field.

While levelling the playing field might be a worthy sentiment, the purpose of it here is not moral. Far from it. Rather than fair trade, a shared value perspective focuses on improving growing techniques, efficiency, yields, product quality and sustainability. That, in turn, leads to an increase in revenue and profits, and a benefit to both famers and the companies that buy from them.

In other words, the individual wins when the team wins. Studies have shown that while fair trade can increase farmers' incomes by ten to twenty per cent, shared value investments can raise incomes by more than three hundred percent. An Idea Nation is nothing if not a call for greater collaboration and co-operation among the citizens of the world. We need each other, and always have, but entrepreneurship can no longer be guided by the mantra of 'the survival of the fittest'. We must share resources and help social entrepreneurs attain their goals for the common good. Support must replace wasteful competition and conflict, and as we learn that the more we share, the more we get, we'll see the pie growing in size. Through crowdfunding, crowdsourcing, co-creation and co-ventures, our contributions can lead to a brighter future. And remember: This is not a government process... it's a citizen's process... and where we go today, they will follow tomorrow.

### Sustainability

We've mentioned the word 'sustainability' several times in this book, but what exactly does it mean? If you look at how the word has been used by various parties, you could be forgiven for becoming confused. As happened with the word 'green' before, it has become a buzzword of its time and subjected to any manner of interpretations, each one dependent upon what any individual party seeks to mold and contort in order to justify their actions and win favour with the outside world. Big business talks about the sustainability of a project when they manage to use fewer resources producing it than they did before, while Wall Street uses it to describe a stock market rally.

For something to be sustained, it must be kept going over a long period of time. So, in our case, we're talking about how to achieve a better future for all by using models and methods that will keep the movement powered for a long time. In other words, how we can make what we are proposing sustainable. But it isn't necessarily that easy. We all, unless we are unaware, want sustainability of the planet, the only differences being in how we define our sustainable values. The choices we make are born out of the values we hold, and who is to say which value should trump another. Maybe we value competition, greed and fear, which are the values that seem to drive society today, or maybe we value peace, equity, justice, love and empathy. Which values do you believe contribute to sustainability? The more they are discussed, the sooner we can unite in a common vision for the sustainability of the planet, a vision that will influence the future of generations to come.

### Ideas And Imagination

"Think Big Set your sights high and strive for something grand. If you're going to change the world, you can't do it with milquetoast and boring products or services. Shoot for doing things at least ten times better than the status quo. When Jeff Bezos started Amazon.com, he didn't build a bookstore with a paltry 25,000 more titles than the 250,000 title brick-and-mortar bookstores. He went to 3,000,000 titles in an online bookstore." (Art of the Start, Guy Kawasaki 2004)

Love him or loathe him, Mr Bezos is a member of a very exclusive club. He had an idea that changed the way books were bought and sold, smashing the previous model to bits. If you see yourself in the same light, then we most certainly want to hear from you. We want your idea or innovation to break out and amaze the world. Don't be put off by the naysayers and doubters (there are always plenty of them around), be inspired by the success of others.

Knowing what to do with an idea isn't easy. Arthur C. Clarke said: "New ideas pass through three periods: 1) It can't be done. 2) It probably can be done, but it's not worth doing. 3) I knew it was a good idea all along!"

Do you talk about your ideas to friends and family and risk being smothered by their blanket of indifference, as typified by Clarke's first two periods? Or do you beaver away with it until you think it's perfect and the time is right to expose your genius to the utterly astounded crowds? Who can you really trust and talk to? How do you go about moving the idea from your laptop to market? Should you go it alone? After all, it is your idea and you don't want anyone else stealing it and getting rich. So, what to do? I know, I'll patent it. That's what all inventors do.

But is that wise? Listen to what Edward Durney, a Patent Attorney in San Francisco, said: "We get more good ideas by connecting them than by protecting them. In other words, the patent system may be hurting, instead of meeting, its goal of promoting innovation."

Yikes! And there's more.

Just like people, ideas only thrive so long in isolation. Richard Maulsby, the director of public affairs for the US Patent and Trademark Office, was quoted by Karen E.

Klein in her article Avoiding the Inventor's Lament in Business Week of November 10th, 2005, as saying that less than one out of ninety-nine patents filed are even commercially viable. In other words, ninety-nine out of every hundred ideas are just left to gather dust and die in the patent's office. Is that what you want?

Is protecting your idea and keeping it a secret really the best way to proceed, not just for you, but for society as a whole? Seth Godin wrote a TED Blog in February 2014 called Why I want You to Steal My Ideas. He argues very eloquently that if we share ideas and don't lay claim to them like they're pieces of real estate, we all benefit. He says that ideas can't be stolen because ideas don't get smaller when they're shared, they get bigger. Someone who uses your idea adds something to it in a next step. We all farm on the same land and we cross-pollinate. As Godin point out, ideas can't be patented, but the specific execution of a useful innovation can, and those who go about threatening others with legal action for 'stealing' ideas have a negative effect on both creativity and productivity, and in our current age, we produce connection. Whenever two people interact, they both take something away from the meeting and leave being a little more knowledgeable and wiser than they were before. As long as credit is given to the originator, there's nothing wrong with using and improving an idea. In fact, both parties gain so long as no one tries to negate the role of the originators. The gain, of course, can only be in reputation and standing, because until an idea is turned into an innovation, there's nothing to sell. And even then, it isn't stealing, as it's the product of countless ideas stretching way back that have come to a head in that particular way. It's evolution. To illustrate the point, here's a shameless use of Godin's example from his article. "Is it theft to put raw fish on seasoned rice? What about serving a pizza grilled on coals without crediting Al Forno in Rhode Island? At what point can we stop calling it stealing and start calling it merely delicious?"

However, in an increasingly small world, individuals, communities, states and nations do need something to replace the excellent but now antiquated protocol originally designed to safeguard innovation. And that's where An Idea Nation comes in. We offer you a safe place to contribute your intellectual property. Our highly organized group of fellow innovators and industry experts supports anyone who has a good idea, invention or innovation, and only asks in return a fair share of the financial revenues/credit when the idea becomes financially viable. We embrace a new world of infinite innovation possibilities, designed to be a flexible and responsive system to enable innovators to contribute an ever-increasing flow of ideas, all of them sifted, categorized and harnessed for quick market absorption. An Idea Nation is a community-supported online platform (think 'Facebook' of innovation) where ideas and solutions naturally rise to the top, and funding finds its way to small groups, guided with the aid of experienced, highly-qualified, tight-knit teams. Gone are the days of having to save enough money until it's safe to leave the day job while, at the same time, trying to juggle all the requisite balls to keep your idea on track. For every innovator, wherever they may live, access to An Idea Nation makes the future success of your idea a real possibility. No longer will you have to prevaricate and postpone. The time is now. Seize the moment. You can be the hero in your own movie, and get paid what your worth, not just what someone else is prepared to give you.

You have arrived at Arthur C. Clarke's third period, when your friends and family all say:

"I knew it was a good idea all along!"

"Great men (women) are they who see. That thoughts rule the world."

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

Only the small-minded cling to their ideas when the potential to bring them to the world rests with collaboration. A small-minded person is like the young child who refuses to share his or her building blocks, even though it would result in him or her being able to participate in a larger, greater and more mutually satisfying creation. While armies, financial markets, political parties and systems have a bearing and influence on the world, their time is but a fleeting moment when compared to the effect of ideas, which transcend time and place. Ideas beget other ideas and are the engine of growth behind humankind's evolution. The first horseless carriage led to more reliable, faster cars as well as undreamt of advances in air transport, travel and cross-cultural contacts that have shrunk the world into one giant neighborhood. Alexander Graham Bell's telephone was the embodiment of an idea which was improved upon by other ideas and became the Internet. Who knows where it may go next? Two single ideas that were the sparks to fires that changed the world. No think tanks or corporate R & D, just ideas, although think tanks and R & D departments can certainly give birth to new ideas.

When ideas are released, they combine with other ideas to form new ideas, and so on. If those ideas are released in an environment that encourages cross-fertilization, such as An Idea Nation, where millions of minds are waiting to go to work, imagine the results: a positive explosion of invention and innovation to solve the problems that currently beset the human race. No one single person or body exerts anything close to the power of an idea. Once released into the world, an idea cannot be contained. Everything we see or touch was once a formless entity, an idea, existing only in someone's mind. Take the concept of democracy. What is it if not a pure idea? It isn't a product. It isn't a thing. And yet, the idea of democracy has brought about a radical transformation of the way people see themselves in the world; how they exist in relation to the societal forces that surround them.

### Avoiding The Problems Faced By Traditional Startups

One of the most difficult challenges faced by an entrepreneur, once his or her idea is up and running, is how to keep it going and to take it on to the next level. The problem certainly isn't a lack of desire. Perhaps it has something to do with a system that favours the large corporations, or perhaps the whole process requires more than just the input of one or two people for it to realize its potential. Taking an idea from conception to completion requires more time, expertise, and financial and emotional resources than most of us possess, meaning that many good ideas fall by the wayside or fall into the arms of the corporate giants who do have the time, expertise, financial and emotional resources to nurture an idea.

The sad fact is that statistics (Source: Entrepreneur Weekly, Small Business Development Center, Bradley University, University of Tennessee Research, January 2014) show that over a ten-year period, seventy-one per cent of start-ups fail, with twenty-five per cent of them not getting past year one, and fifty per cent falling at the fourth-year hurdle.

The major causes are general incompetence (46%), unbalanced experience or lack of managerial experience (30%), lack of experience in line of goods or services (11%) and neglect, fraud or disaster (1%). The report states: "The reasons are sometimes complicated and not always clear why a certain business fails. Upper management, lack of funding, or just the free market phasing out unwanted items or services. Typically, startups have a casual attitude to promote efficiency in the workplace, often needed to get their business off of the ground. A new trend in failed start-ups is the purchasing of patents by what are derogatorily known as 'Patent trolls'."

Investopedia.com defines a patent troll thus:

"A derogatory term used to describe people or companies that misuse patents as a business strategy. A patent troll obtains the patents being sold at auctions by bankrupt companies attempting to liquidate their assets, or by doing just enough research to prove they had the idea first. They can then launch lawsuits against infringing companies, or simply hold the patent without planning to practice the idea in an attempt to keep other companies productivity at a standstill."

Even in this brief look at startup flops, you can begin to understand that it's a rough world out there, and for anyone to survive, they either have to be some kind of super-being or, more likely, acknowledge that they cannot do it all themselves. Many entrepreneurs fail to see that simple truth and end up sad but wiser people. Those that do, have more chance of being a success.

A case in point features Thomas Edison, widely acknowledged as one of the greatest inventors the world has ever known, and Nikola Tesla, also a great inventor, but largely unheard of, even though many people claim he was more brilliant than Edison. Nevertheless, it was Edison who took all the plaudits, and he ended his career miles ahead of his contemporary because he excelled at attracting the brightest minds around him to form part of his peer support network. Edison died rich and famous, while Tesla died broke and lonely, and it all came down to who they surrounded themselves with and leaned on.

In summary, while Edison was prepared to work with other people, Tesla favoured the lone wolf approach. Both Edison and Tesla enjoyed a nearly one hundred per cent success rate with their early innovations, but Tesla fell way behind after he started working alone; Edison maintained his impressive record and Tesla dropped to twenty per cent. Edison also knew when to hold and when to fold. Tesla didn't and fell afoul of creditors. Both men worked like Trojans, but while Edison employed others to help him, Tesla didn't. Edison understood the importance of media attention better than Tesla, and exploited it to the benefit of his businesses.

Tesla suffered from what is known as "inventoritis", a condition suffered by inventors, innovators or companies that fall in love with their product or technology so deeply that not even depressed or non-existent sales can stop them pursuing it.

If you have a great invention, wouldn't you rather be an Edison? An Idea Nation affords you that opportunity. Stand on the shoulders of a giant and be recognized and remunerated for your contributions. Someone else may have a better invention and a superior product, but unless they know the right channels to take it through to fulfilment, and fast, they may lose out.

It's crucial to position yourself alongside a complimentary team of professionals that's specifically suited to getting you the attention you deserve within a very clear-cut and lucrative marketing niche. An Idea Nation believes that most products have a likely customer. The key is strategizing how to reach one's target market.

In 2010, a survey by the Product Development Institute and the American Productivity and Quality Center indicated that fewer than seventy per cent of new product launches were a success. For top performing organizations, the figure was 62%, for middle performers, it was 52%, and for the bottom performers, it was 45%. At the same time, it was revealed that figure for failures were 14%, 28% and 34% respectively, while those products killed prior to launch were similar for all three classes 24%, 20% and 21% respectively.

As part of the ideation process, An Idea Nation will first help you identify if there is a market, so you know you'll have customers. Each individual and team is provided with all the necessary online tools and support, together with instant access to the top industry experts, who provide their services for the lowest possible upfront price, or in exchange for a fair percentage of the project, or a blend of both, all at the discretion of each individual innovator.

### Mentors And Mentoring

"It's better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behaviour is better than yours and you'll drift in that direction."

—Warren Buffet

Most people assume one has to be highly educated or gifted to come up with a successful moneymaking idea. History shows that's untrue. Many with average and even below average IQs have become renowned innovators. For example, Percy Shaw, the man credited with inventing the reflective road stud or cat's eye. The key to great innovation is to follow one's source of inspiration, be clear on where you're at, write down a plan and be flexible as to how the idea might be applicable to today's economy.

"Ninety-five percent of entrepreneurs never get clear on where they are and therefore find it impossible to create a successful plan to get where they want to be. In my opinion, this is the single greatest limiting factor that stops them from ever breaking through with their business."

—Greg Habstritt/SimpleWealth Inc.

How does one get this type of clarity? Answer: through experienced mentorship. It's much easier to get to where you want to go if you're guided by someone who's already been there.

An Idea Nation provides on-going mentorship programs for its members. We subscribe to the belief that everyone ought to think of themselves as a student and that each one deserves to be treated as a potential genius. In order to widen your horizons and increase the level of knowledge and experiences to be shared, An Idea Nation has implemented a mentorship program that enables seniors to share success principles with, and bestow business know-how on, young innovators. In return, youth can learn from their stories, and offer a listening ear and an appreciative connection. What better opportunity could someone just starting out have than to be mentored by someone with more experience, and an interesting story to tell? Most of life's lessons are best taught by example, and by learning through storytelling, you see the world from another's perspective, which increases your capacity for health, well-being and effective communication.

Our mentorship program provides a unique way for you to express your talents and interests. You can provide or receive mentorship, depending on what you need at the time for your project to move forward. We pair inexperienced business owners with accomplished business professionals, and self-declared mentors are committed to the success of all and utilize An Idea Nation's platform to share their expertise and advertise their own services.

An Idea Nation is built on the belief that the Socratic Method is one of the best tools to dig deeper and create better results. The Socratic Method is a pedagogical tool which embraces a teaching strategy whereby educators, instead of simply telling students the answers, encourage them to finding the answers themselves by asking questions. Its raison d'etre is to challenge accuracy and completeness of thinking in a way that acts to move people towards their ultimate goal.

For that reason, we guide moderators to encourage Socratic questioning which focuses on trying to get to the bottom of things; they ask about the 'why'. We want to encourage members to question ideas and concepts rather than simply accepting them at face value. By being precise and asking a series of pertinent questions, a group of people can truly explore the unknown and deepen their understanding of different topics.

### Marketing

No matter how good a product or service is, if nobody buys it, it's a waste of space. Getting the word out is paramount. Of course, over time, if the product or service becomes a success, it sells itself through word of mouth, the kind of personal endorsements that no marketing campaign can ever hope to rival in budget or coverage. But initially, there needs to be some form of marketing.

"Google actually relies on our users to help with our marketing. We have a very high percentage of our users who often tell others about our search engine."

—Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google.

An Idea Nation is able to leverage our growing network of innovators and consumers to help you handcraft a marketing strategy that fits your innovation at a fraction of the typical cost. Most of our marketing aids and online classes are completely free, giving you step-by-step tutorials on how to create the best marketing campaign for your project. We believe that the best way to get the message across is through entertaining online videos. Web video is enjoying phenomenal growth. It's now a mainstream activity and has huge implications for anyone in marketing.

The following statistics are taken from http://digiday.com/, dated April 3rd, 2013:

  * 89 million people in the United States are going to watch 1.1 billion online videos today. (ComScore)

  * Online video users are expected to double to 1.5 billion in 2016. (Cisco)

  * Online video now accounts for 50 percent of all mobile traffic and up to 69 percent of traffic on certain networks. (Bytemobile Mobile Analytics Report)

  * Globally, online video traffic will be 55 percent of all consumer Internet traffic in 2016. (Cisco)

  * 52 percent of consumers say that watching product videos makes them more confident in online purchase decisions. (Invodo)

  * 92 percent of mobile video viewers share videos with others. (Invodo)

More than 1 billion unique users visit YouTube each month, spending more than 4 billion hours watching videos (YouTube). There can be no doubt that YouTube is the most widely known outlet for online video. It has built on its early market strength to dominate the scene in terms of fun and entertainment, and to an extent in educational videos, but few companies get such mass public exposure for marketing their innovation as they do with An Idea Nation. All members receive access to online tools and a simple and easy step-by-step procedure to enable them to build a compelling video that outlines their idea/ innovation. We can also connect you with a marketing master, or you may ask our professionals to do it all for you at the lowest industry cost.

### Who Pays?

An Idea Nation doesn't just stop at linking you up with a stellar network of talent, we also help social entrepreneurs with finance through crowdfunding via An Idea Nation or our respected alliances, like kiva.org. Former president Bill Clinton made the following comments: "At Kiva.org, where for $25 you can pick your own entrepreneur, you're helping in countries all around the world. We need to think about what technology can do to get millions and millions of people to give modest amounts of money, and if you look at just the time being given, I think there's a lot of evidence that the generation 30 and under, at a time in their lives that most people are heavily preoccupied with other things, are giving unprecedented amounts of time to trying to solve these problems."  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/giving/video-bill-clinton-describes-the-power-of-smalldonations/article1355488/

All giving is done with a high level of transparent accountability, as funds are not only tracked, but a follow-up system also traces where the money is spent in order to ensure that each donor's reason for giving is honoured. Finally, An Idea Nation provides cutting edge financial instruments that reward all donations, be they in time, money or resources.

Once it's been decided a project has merit, members post showcase videos on our funding channel to invite others to participate financially. Whatever one gives, they are offered something of value in return, such as tickets to a concert, a signed copy of a book or any other meaningful gift, as a thank you for the contribution.

We then open it up to our members on our innovation forum, and everyone has a chance to contribute to the solution, getting paid for what time/energy/ideas they contribute, much in the same way contributors are rewarded on InnoCentive.

As the e-harmony of the innovation world, we match up our members with the talent and money required to move a project forward. Like Wikipedia, we encourage 'open source' contributions. Of course, once a group is established, we offer levels of privacy so that a good idea can be developed behind closed doors. As the 'WalMart' of the idea industry, we have the lowest prices for innovation-related activities. Most of our tools and resources for entrepreneurs are free and, unlike other crowdfunding platforms, we don't charge any commission. That's right, 0% commission, so 100% of what is raised goes towards the project. At An Idea Nation, we intend to provide the largest worldwide matchmaking service of innovators and investors. In ten years' time, we want to see millions of people getting paid as An Idea Nation members, and not just depositing great ideas for world betterment, but also raising funding and support to help solve social issues, improve education and reform society.

However, that doesn't mean that governments can sit idly by, or continue to misallocate tax dollars, as we see a definite role for them in kick-starting their economies through the provision of microcredit lines. Instead of big-industry and banking bailouts, which have only served to reinforce the privileged positions of the wealthy on the backs of the poor, we want to see such resources being loaned to individuals with ideas so they can provide their own employment and employ others. Can you imagine what a different world we could now be living in if the casino banks had been allowed to go to the wall (as happens with their failed clients), and all that bailout money had been parceled out in micro-loans to a new generation of entrepreneurs?

Banks everywhere, despite their taxpayer bailouts, are reluctant to lend money, yet they are sitting on massive reserves. As Bill Clinton pointed out in his book Back to Work: "We have to unlock that money and take steps to get U.S. corporations to invest some of the $2 trillion they have accumulated." The resources are there, they just need to be subject to a more democratic use. And as for the naysayers who pour scorn upon such plans and say such thinking is flawed and it'll all end in tears, the repost is that it has been tried and found to be a huge success with the Grameen Bank (see section two), which now not only makes a profit, but also claims a higher repayment rate from its membership of over 8 million borrowers than that experienced by traditional banks. Every day, it enables more people to cross over the poverty line.

Which banking system seems the most relevant to you in bringing equality, hope and a sustainable future to the majority of the world's citizens?

An Idea Nation is a huge supporter of not just the Grameen Bank, but of all institutions that provide micro-finance, and we see it as part of our role to persuade and convince governments and banks that micro-finance is the way forward. With your help, we will win the day.

### The New Workplace

An Idea Nation seeks to break down every business function to its most elementary components, thereby making it easy for them to be completed over an Internet connection, although there will be obvious exceptions in service-related, manufacturing or human resource fields that often require a live employee on the premises.

The current trend of allowing employees to complete their work at home with just a phone and Internet connection will be expanded to a point where a person can simply log on every morning, afternoon and night, and work as little or as much as they please, contributing whatever field or expertise they wish to whoever's project, whenever and however they like. Employees working for a single company will eventually be a thing of the past, as we predict and anticipate that in future generations, most workers worldwide will be working for themselves!

### Financial Permaculture

There are many explanations as to what is meant by permaculture, but Bill Mollison, often cited as the father of the concept, defines the word thus: "The study of the design of those sustainable or enduring systems that support human society, both agricultural and intellectual, traditional and scientific, architectural, financial and legal. It is the study of integrated systems, for the purpose of better design and application of such systems." So, financial permaculture is the study of integrated financial systems for the purpose of their better design and application.

In Eight forms of Capital: A Whole System of Economic Understanding, published in 2011, authors Ethan Roland & Gregory Landua looked at financial permaculture and asked the following questions: "What would it look like if we redesigned the global financial system using permaculture principles?" and "What if our financial system looked more like an ecosystem?"

In their attempt to answer the questions, they realized that money wasn't the only form of capital, and that they needed something that would be more helpful for understanding the complex transactions and exchanges swirling around in the global community. As a result, they decided to enumerate all the different 'valuable resources' which an individual or entity could gather and exchange, coming up with their eight forms of capital.

  * Social capital influence and connections.

  * Material capital non-living physical objects.

  * Financial capital money, securities etc.

  * Living capital animals, plants, water, soil etc.

  * Intellectual capital knowledge.

  * Experiential (or human) capital experience of doing things.

  * Spiritual capital religion, spirituality etc.

  * Cultural capital art, theatre, music etc.

The eight forms of capital inform our understanding of the world. Capital can flow (be exchanged) between different capital forms or stay within a particular form. Roland & Landua then looked at the mediums of exchange involved and decided that they were the same as the currency itself. For example, one can exchange money (financial) for a theatre ticket (cultural), or a plant (living) for a bunch of flowers (living). This points the way towards what they call eco-social investing, which means taking into account all the benefits that one may accrue or impart when performing a transaction. For example, if you help a friend out by painting their house, they benefit from your uncharged labour, but you benefit from the experience, the physical exercise and an opportunity to practice and hone your painting skills. And both of you benefit from the social interaction. Breakdown any transaction and you can make a similar analysis.

That leads into what Bill Mollison called the third ethic of permaculture. By that he meant 'setting limits to consumption'. Since then, other definitions have arisen. One is called 'fair share', a toned down version of Mollison's idea. Another is called 'resource share', which concentrates less on scarcity and more on re-investment of excess. And finally, 'future care', which focuses on leaving a thriving inheritance for those who will follow us.

Financial permaculture and Roland & Landua's eight forms of capital resonate very strongly with the work and ethos of An Idea Nation and, as such, we are keen to promote their spread and understanding in our quest for a better future through our work with our members and their projects.

### The Solution Economy

An Idea Nation embraces everything that comes under the umbrella of what is termed 'the solution economy'. In many areas of the world, the old hierarchical systems of government, industry and even some foundations sit at the opposite pole to the kind of thinking that powers the solution economy.

In section two of this book, we looked at social entrepreneurs and social intrapreneurs who were solving societal problems through their non-traditional methods, and that's exactly the kind of enterprise we support and wholeheartedly embrace. There are so many social enterprises operating now that the size of the market is estimated in trillions of dollars. Unfortunately, it's impossible to mention all but a handful as an illustration of what An Idea Nation is all about. From education to clean water, from housing to agriculture, there isn't one single area of human endeavour that hasn't felt the wind of change.

We want to see our global think tank as the natural repository for ideas, innovations and inventions. In return, we'll give tangible support and aid through our commission-free crowdfunding platform (finance) and crowdsourcing (expert help and advice). With the aid of the Internet and new advanced technology, the planet is connecting like never before, in ways that only a few short years ago were an impossible dream. The problem-solving ecosystems that have arisen will keep on expanding through their own distinct processes, replacing the old hierarchies and finding solutions to the most daunting problems the planet faces, something that was never possible using the old way of thinking.

### The Role And Consequences Of Climate Change

To a large extent, everything that An Idea Nation is trying to achieve is underpinned by the climate. The extremes of weather that most of the world has been subjected to over the past few years makes it clear that climatic patterns have changed, and that's backed up by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which, in September 2013, spoke about the changing pattern of extreme weather since 1950. Since that date, we have experienced unprecedented heat waves, downpours, winds, droughts and flooding in many parts of the world, while at the same time, the temperature of the planet has increased by 0.7o C.

The IPCC concluded from all the available scientific evidence that the rise in temperature is ninety-five percent likely to have been caused by greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation and other human activities.

On March 18th, 2014, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) issued a report that confirmed previous gloomy prognoses concerning increased temperatures, melting ice caps, rising sea levels, changing seasons, increased precipitation and heat waves that cause flooding and drought, and ocean acidification.

If we don't act and cut emissions, we may be faced with even worse consequences than we've already witnessed. Left unchecked, it's predicted that by the end of the twenty-first century, the average global temperature will rise to a level that's 4oC or more higher than pre-industrial levels.

That figure is well above the 2oC threshold that countries have already agreed is the upper permissible limit. It's been 115,000 years since planet Earth experienced such temperatures, a time when the ice caps were smaller and the global sea level was at least five metres higher than now.

It doesn't take much imagination to foresee the consequences. As large areas of land become covered with water, millions of people will be forced to migrate and relocate elsewhere, causing conflict not just within societies, but between societies, which could lead to war and famine, and not peace and prosperity. And that's not to mention the appalling effect on the biodiversity of the planet.

Scientists have shown that shifts in climate have been partly responsible for the rise and fall of many civilizations in the past, such as the fabled Lost City of Ubar in the Arabian Desert, which fell into a sinkhole that developed when water levels ran too low, at a time when the region was wetter and underground water sources were plentiful. Droughts have also been linked with the fall of the Maya (around 900 AD) and the Cambodian city of Angkor in the 1400s.

Without a stable climate, the production of food crops cannot be guaranteed, so people cannot continue with other pursuits to improve their lot.

It's therefore imperative that action is taken now. An Idea Nation has opened its doors and welcomes anybody with ideas that can be developed to cut down the disastrous effect that humankind is having on our planet. For example, different style buildings with more energy-efficient designs made from new materials that are kinder to the environment are crucial.

Without such solutions, all the worthwhile work being done by social enterprises everywhere will suffer a negative impact, and still more seriously, there won't even be a planet for An Idea Nation to operate on. The lack of political will and urgency currently being displayed by developed nations is unacceptable, and is yet another area where the old regimes are letting us down. Join with us to stimulate some real action.

### An Idea Nation Global Web Tv Network

The piece de resistance of An Idea Nation's plans is our very own web TV network Fundit TV to promote and encourage not only us and our aims, but also, more importantly, to raise money for social entrepreneurs through 'live' crowdfunding.

People's television viewing habits are changing rapidly as more and more channels become available both through the traditional medium and online. As a result, viewers are able to personalize their experience and watch what they like, when they like. It's TV on demand. We intend to take full advantage of the change to air a r(evolutionary) interactive show with crowdfunding as its main focus.

#### How will it work?

We'll showcase social entrepreneurs and their enterprises in short, inspiring and entertaining documentaries. Entrepreneurs will be invited to take to the stage and talk about their ideas the concept, the reasoning and the goals and try to convince those watching to fund them through crowdfunding. Viewers will also be invited to express their opinions, ask questions and join in the debate.

It'll be real-world television at its best, making Simon Cowell and his ilk seem like an ex-factor. The general public, wherever they happen to be watching in the world, will not only be able to educate themselves about the important developments that will shape their future, but they'll also be able vote (via crowdfunding) for those they feel most empathy with. They can make a real contribution to the future well-being of the planet for their children and their children's children. And, as a bonus for all, they can join An Idea Nation and contribute their very own skills towards making the very ideas that they love, work.

Once it's up and running, Fundit TV will become enormous. Its impact will be felt all over the globe as people realize that they cannot just do good, but be the good, while enjoying themselves and enhancing not only their lives, but those of others who they will help. Whoever you are and wherever you live, Fundit TV will be accessible anytime, anyplace, anywhere. I'm sure we can all drink to that.

### The Olympics Of Social Enterprise

This is the cherry on top of the piece de resistance, if such a thing is possible.

The concept behind this crowdfunding project is to create a sort of Olympic competition. Instead of sports, however, the participants, who will be representatives of any and every country, will compete with the various projects they have initiated under the auspices of the eight global priorities of An Idea Nation. It will be a truly global TV show.

Each country will start by setting out their personal global priority challenges, depending on their situation, and the participants can be helped by the viewers through social media in the form of commitments, aid, ideas and even finance. The show will keep track of every participant's progress through statistics and compare the performances between the participants of various countries.

The aim of the show is to provide a stepping stone for talented and amazing social entrepreneurs. Those people will receive added exposure and a greater reach for their efforts, while the general public will learn about the various social problems in their local environment and their possible solutions. At the same time, the at-home audience will benefit by being able to help out the social entrepreneurs and contribute to making better societies all over the world.

"The potential for the "Olympics of Social Enterprise" to change the world and contribute at scale to ending big world problems is inspiring. An interactive reality TV show has the potential to teach, inspire and activate millions of social entrepreneurs who will, each in her own way, make a lasting difference."

—Devin Thorpe Social Entrepreneur Advocate (Forbes Contributor)

"It's about time we had an Olympics for the social enterprise sector. We know from the world of athletics that it takes a paramount event like the Olympics to truly get everyone's attention. The Olympics of social enterprise has that same potential, and that should give anyone who cares about social impact something to cheer about."

—Paul Lamb Man on A Mission Consulting

### What Does Living In The New Economy Look Like?

The economy in which we all reside is fuelled by debt. Debt financing has its place, but it has spun out of control, making victims of individuals, companies and countries. We have effectively painted ourselves into a corner. One thing is for sure, and that is we cannot continue as we are, with the creditors getting richer and the debtors getting poorer, creating chasms within societies that undermine future prospects of well-being and peace for the majority in favour of the few.

At a time when we should all be enjoying greater economic security, the spectre of unemployment haunts the globe, bringing in its wake broken dreams, broken families and broken communities. And what's the answer? In Europe, the best response that the powers-that-be could come up with in the cases of Greece, Ireland and Portugal was to pile on even more debt, in the form of a bailout, while reducing the little the working population had to virtually zero through greater taxes and increased unemployment irrespective of the means to pay or an individual's well laid plans just so the banks could pay off the debts they accumulated through irresponsible gambling that caused the problem in the first place. And if that wasn't enough, we have been treated to the obscene sight of people who budgeted wisely suddenly losing their jobs and incomes and having their mortgages foreclosed by the very entities that their sacrifices saved!

Couldn't a less harsh way have been found? Would it not have been better if the bailout money had been used in a different manner for the needy and not just been shoveled into the gaping mouths of the greedy? Several years down the line, the same policy continues, with the same result of misery for the 'have nots', who now have even less, while 2013 saw the bonuses being paid out on Wall Street ranking as the third highest ever. Is this deliberate unspoken policy or sheer incompetence? Make up your own minds, but it does make you think and reassess the economic model under which the majority of us are currently struggling to survive.

Fortunately, the world is blessed with many intelligent, forward-thinking individuals who owe nothing to the political classes and can see a way forward to a brighter future. We have spoken about them and their underlying philosophies in this book. They are the pioneers, backed by An Idea Nation, who are responsible for the new economy that's rising phoenix-like from the ashes of the discredited and burnt-out old system.

The new economy will be a more resource-conscious, sharing economy built on a solid foundation of true value, not exploiting debt instruments and over-leveraging with no appropriate oversight.

Social media has shed the spotlight on selfish, malicious financial practice and it's becoming increasingly difficult to exploit others, economically speaking. Through social media, we are all acting' regulators; governance to protect the people is coming from the people themselves. You can run but you can't hide.

But don't just take our word for it. We asked some other people what living in the new economy means to them.

—Amanda Suutari, journalist.

"Because there are so few jobs out there for folks that want to find meaningful, creative work that regenerates communities, ecosystems and economies, we essentially have to invent our own jobs. Without the infrastructure to support these new jobs and business ideas, this will involve a certain level of personal sacrifice and swimming upstream at some points."

—Dana Wilson, media production

"Living together in harmony, with love and compassion for ourselves and for all living beings.

"Sharing our gifts without expectation of reward.

"Living in a holistic environment that encourages regeneration particularly of the land and our food and medicine systems.

"Educating ourselves to learn about our ancestors and those that come from our bioregion how they survived for tens of thousands of years in harmony with each other and the planet.

"Working with each other in cooperation.

"Relying less on fossil fuels and more on people power and alternative energy systems that are respectful of the environment."

—Bruno Vernier, e-learning

"As well as making good 'business sense', we will also make good 'heart sense'. To most business people, this concept would seem to be a naive notion belonging to a utopian society, and an opportunity to exploit those naive enough to believe. For those already living a heart-centred life, they would already know that which I speak of, that cannot be grasped through the intellect alone. Gone will be a system that is willing to sacrifice a natural healthy existence on earth for the bottom line of profit at any cost. The true cost of all our decisions will be abundantly clear to us. The new economy will embrace a new currency of energy exchange from the power of love and heart-centered living."

An Idea Nation is focused on a being economy rather than a doing economy. In other words, everything that happens on this planet has to involve us in an integral manner. How integrated do you feel with the life that's going on around you? Where do you feel you belong? If at all. Do you feel wired into the system? Do you feel your contribution is appreciated, even noticed?

We all have to not only be a part of it, but feel we are a part of it. We have to believe we are connected or wired into the networked intelligence and that what we each do makes each and every one of us a vital component in the living, thriving world. Our empathy with others and with our environment has to lead us into a collective consciousness that creates sustainable models, lifestyles and practices.

Our current focus on consumption, consumption, consumption cannot be sustained forever. Perhaps the idea of ownership has had its day, along with the 'robotic' and mundane existence that so many people suffer. Surely we owe it to ourselves, our planet and future generations to look at alternative models within a shared economy when it is obvious that the current system leaves too many of us out in the cold. Systems driven by fully spirited human beings with endless potential that's encouraged and nurtured have to be worth exploring.

Welcome to An Idea Nation.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

—Margaret Mead.

Join An Idea Nation's Global Think Tank today @http://www.AnIdeaNation.com

## After Thoughts

One of our members of An Idea Nation relates: "What I hope we engage in is how we can take multiple visions of visionary people with their own ideas and create something far larger.

What would that look like? How in the world could it even work? "

Here are a few challenging questions to ask ourselves, compliments of Steve Whytman, one of the first members of An Idea Nation:

  1. Am I capable of making someone else's success as important as my own?

  2. Is it true that by making it a priority to help drive others to success, our own success is more likely to happen?

  3. Whose vision is it really? Ours or the Universe's. Are we just tapping into something trying to grab our attention? Is it possible to release our vision and embrace something that can be far more amazing, and if so are we capable as human beings to take such a selfless approach?

  4. Will such a selfless approach create abundance for each of us?

  5. Is it possible to be a strong leader and a strong follower at the same time? Just as important, is it possible to be so trustworthy that our inner integrity will never allow us to hurt someone else's vision by always choosing to treat their vision as sacred?

  6. Are we willing to risk doing something completely outside the norm to discover if we can create a new model that will help groups like us become wildly successful? If that can happen obviously the whole world succeeds.

These and other critical questions of our time are discussed online and in our An idea Nation member's meetings.

There are thousands of light workers and online programs that share the spirit of An Idea Nation and are making a huge positive impact in our world today. If we had included all examples, this book would never be finished.

Thank you to all who embrace the ideas in this book and work daily towards living a new economy.

Join An Idea Nation's Global Think Tank today @http://www.AnIdeaNation.com

## Appendix

### Send Us Your Videos

If you're involved with a social enterprise, solving global challenges (whether local, regional or national), we want to hear from you. Please send us your short videos (one minute max.) that say what you're about. We'll host them on FunditTV & An Idea Nation as an extension of your marketing or just for you to make a connection with others who are in the same field, or who would like to join you in the field.

There are basically two different types.

  * Commitments

  * Pay forwards

### Commitment

Send us a video clip of you stating your commitments, based on your global priority (priorities). You can do this from Google Hangouts to make it easy; use this free tool to give yourself a footer: http://hangoutmagix.com.

Examples:

I'm Cindy Lee from Austria and I commit to the environment, to recycling more and cutting down on greenhouse gases. I'm doing a car-share program from now on and riding my bike whenever I can.

I'm Zoe Kay, singer, author and high school teacher. I'm committed to the global priority energy. I've installed solar panels on my roof and I've invested in a green energy program. I've also started a Meet up group on meetup.com to discuss alternative energy sources.

### Pay It Forward

This is for people who see the good others do in our network, and in the style of the gift economy, you respond by blessing another who is showing a commitment to the global priorities.

Examples:

John Smith may have given his time freely to mentor a young teacher, so Zoe Kay makes a 'pay it forward' video for him. (These can be reciprocal or they can be advanced to another person who lives locally.)

Zoe says on video: "I'm Zoe Kay. In honour of John Smith's commitment to the global priority education, I'm going to start giving to imagine1day.org, thereby providing education to kids in Africa "

I'm Cindy Lee and I'm inspired by Jason Stone's efforts for the global priority energy. I'm going to pay it forward to Zoe Kay and give her a free one-year service for her new solar panels installation. (Because Jason Stone lives in Alaska & Zoe Kay lives in Cindy's city.)

I'm Meg Ryan and I'm inspired by Joan Clarke's commitment to the global priority freedom. Joan spent 2 hours/week helping the homeless learn business skills and I'm going to pay it forward in my town and start a homeless initiative to teach computer skills once/week in cooperation with the Salvation Army.

Example member videos found at: WWW.FunditTV.com

Join An Idea Nation's Global Think Tank today @http://www.AnIdeaNation.com

"It's not about looking good or even doing good it's about being the good."

—Joy Case

"I have the utmost of respect for the passion and drive that Joy puts into her work for An Idea Nation and the Global Think Tank. Her work is integral to help to shine light on people and projects that are in service to a better world. Inspiring and dedicated, Joy's vision is a gift to humanity."

—Tammy Lea Meyer, Media Host and Social Entrepreneur

"Joy Case, founder of "An Idea Nation," leads the way as a brilliant evolutionary "thought leader" with her new innovative, social media platform, designed to cross the intersections of connection with conscious social and business entrepreneurs, in order to facilitate successful collaborations."

—Barbara Nirman, Artist and Social Entrepreneur

"We are so fortunate to have the next evolution of crowdfunding, embracing a more holistic model of local and international community support. I am completely inspired and amazed by An Idea Nation's co-creation."

—Dana Wilson, Founder of Mortal Coil Media

Join An Idea Nation's Global Think Tank today @http://www.AnIdeaNation.com
