Tithe and Stipend

I studied money partly because I hated money. Rather, I hated the control it seemed to have over me. I figured I would get the upper-hand. Rather than working for money, I wanted money to work for me. I am still of the opinion that there are good ideas, and there are good business ideas. Some ideas are both, some are only one, and some are neither.

One terrible idea is that price or salary are a reflection of worth. Price is simply a clearing mechanism. Meaning that for a given quantity of something, there are people who want IT and people who have IT. The price going up will make fewer people want IT. The price will go up until there are only as many people who want it as there is stuff. Cleared. Doesn't matter what IT is. Price is just the story we tell to shift things around.

Money doesn't work well when emotions are evolved. When the thing being sold genuinely matters on a really deep level. Money is terrible in spaces like Law, Mental Health, Religion, Medicine, Education, Housing and all the things that touch us on our studio. Then it doesn't matter how much you have tried to get the upper hand on money. The limit on things that are priceless is everything you have.

I love the idea of a Stipend rather than a salary. A Stipend recognizes that it costs money simply to live. Community Workers and Academics often receive a stipend because there is no market for the work they do. They still need to live. The IT they produce can't be counted which makes it very hard to put a price on. 

That stipend has to come from somewhere. Perhaps a Tithe. 10% is the thumbsuck of the contribution that gets made. In reality, it is just a contribution that recognises that some good ideas need funding because there is no market for them. Things that count, but can't be counted.