Dead End Economics:

This is how capitalism currently works: A does something for B, B gives something of equal value in return.

It’s a dead end street. The reciprocity must be pre-arranged or no deal is made; and there’s no other option for B but to give back to A.

Roundabout Economics:

Here’s a new model: A does something s/he loves for B (where B = someone who can truly appreciate what A loves to do). Then B does something s/he loves (something of relatively equal value (completely subjective) to what s/he received from A) for C (again, something that C that can truly appreciate). This goes on until it gets to someone receives a gift s/he can truly appreciate but who has an excess of money, not time, and would rather pay for the value s/he received than continue the chain. This person pays that value to A thus completing the transaction. This is what I call Roundabout Reciprocity.

A risks offering something that s/he may never get a return on. But A gets the word of mouth because B tells C who A is, and C tells D who B and A are, etc. Each person in the chain adds their name to the list until someone in the chain decides to complete it by paying the value of what they received to A.

This can bring extremely varied results because A could offer someone a 15 minute massage and end up getting $1,000 in return a few weeks later. Or A could offer someone a $1,000 service and end up getting nothing in return.

But all gifts have to be offered and accepted, so that the giver knows the recipient can truly appreciate it and thus keep the chain going strong.

It operates completely on trust, and trust creates bonds.

Roundabout Reciprocity increases your reach. It increases your circle of influence. It’s free word of mouth. Rather than having the myriad of transactions we make cause us to look like an asterisk:

(A series of linear transaction where we exchange money for goods and services and vice versa.)

Each interaction in the roundabout economy leads to another and creates a circuitous routes of expansion that resemble a blossoming flower.

In a roundabout traffic rarely stops. It’s a constant flow of people yielding only to make sure traffic flows smoothly. This lowers the barrier to give. All you have to do is have something you love doing and find someone who’s willing to pay it forward by doing something they love for someone else.

This encourages us to give and receive more, especially when that something we love to do requires someone else to receive it or can benefit someone else more than it benefits ourselves.

It also encourages a team approach to things. Rather than working in deals, we now work in loops. We naturally make more connections and eventually form groups of people who enjoy working with the people they’ve found and continue to do so. If one person quits his business, now the whole team is there to help look for a replacement in the chain since the chain doesn’t function completely until it finds it way home.

There are dozens of possibilities I can think of where this might create a massive paradigm shift, but for now I’m just putting it out there, looking for feedback, and refining things as I go.

Photo credit. Dead end: Brian Oh. Roundabout: linse lus.