You Too Model

Although pitched as a battle between markets and central planning, there is a delicious irony. Big companies may use markets to determine the size of the pie - whatever customers will pay. They then have to decide how to slice the pie. What is normally used? Central planning. 

Markets are an answer to questions that are too hard to answer, but where you have two parties that are willing to make an exchange. If the seller thinks the thing being sold is worth less than the price, and the buyer thinks the thing being bought is worth more - boom, 'value' is created by things being in the hands of the people who value them most.

This works when you have two parties with similar negotiating power, and similar information. When both parties have the power to say 'No thank you'. It doesn't work when the playing field isn't balanced. Typically employers have way more power. Getting or losing a job means much more to the applicant or employee than the employer. However harsh it sounds, when it comes to business - people are normally replaceable. 

One way to level the playing field is more rules. Workers rights and constraints on business behaviour. This is a 'plan' way to do things. It assumes perfect insight into an ever-changing world. Another way is to empower the workers directly. If someone is in a position to say their Yesses and Nos with conviction.

Dividing the pie is hard. For employees, the 'Cog Value' is used. How much will it cost to get someone with the equivalent skills in the market? For new owners, there is no right answer. It is a messy negotiation to divide an invisible pie. Who is bringing capital? Who is bringing relationships? Who is bringing skills? Who is bringing ideas? These things have to be compared, without the benefit of a market price. If no agreement can be reached, then there will be no pie.

The people in the best position to get a slice of pie are those who don't have to care. Desperation is a stinky spice. This is why many entrepreneurs have solved the Financial Security question before they attempt to do something new. They don't have to be distracted by the much bigger 'Cog Value' they could get by getting a job. They have another source of income which gives them the freedom to play.

U2 solved the difficult question of solving the 'Meritocracy' question by not trying. Just divide it by four. Four band members, four slices. Now let's play.

Merit is deeply intertwined with Privilege. The Capital, Skills, Ideas and Relationships we 'bring to the table' are massively influenced by our luck in the genetic, geographic, and social lotteries we play. Unravelling this is hard. Unravelling history is hard. Who is to blame? Why did this happen? 

Sometimes when things are too hard, you can ask an easier question. Would the world be better if we just followed the U2 model? Financial Security for me, Financial Security for you too. A Universal Basic Income will empower people to say Yes and No. That injection of negotiating power isn't an answer to every question. There is no central committee. There is just a world full of people who see things in different ways, and are released to play.

Let's play.

You Too