This year, the goal is to create a pilot study of the Hope Now Project. It will be a Privatized Co-op Model (PCM), meaning it will be outside of governmental and corporate administration, and instead simply be a small collection of motivated individuals…you and me.

What makes this study valuable, is that its goal is to provide incentivized conception control to ten individuals in Colorado. No, that in itself is not the value. The value is that it will be testing a variety of things by way of the PCM, meaning that the results can be used as a template for tens of thousands of groups around the globe. That is the real value: a model which can be used by small cooperatives all around the globe.

If that happens, *then* we can see per capita GDP rising (not GDP, which will go down). Per capita GDP is a better rough metric (though not perfect) for gauging personal prosperity. Personal prosperity is a better way to grow an economy, in terms of impact on the biosphere. It is a way to grow an economy while population is downward trending, but there are two catches: 1) the prosperity *must* be more reasonably distributed based on productivity; 2) economic growth is modulated and bounded by carrying capacity.

Per capita GDP will not rise while population declines, unless people are getting the wealth to drive an increase in their personal productivity. Further, reality simply bounds both productivity and resources. It means accepting some upward ideal cap on per capita GDP for a given region: prestige consumerism is not the way to a high-quality-of-life culture, anyway. Mostly free or cheap things, like literature, art, music, philosophy, spirituality, social networks drive that kind of wealth.

Put another way, if everyone is getting their share based on their productivity, and more resources are available to individuals (since ever less people are consuming them and biosphere health is rebounding to become more productive) then personal productivity will rise. People will become healthier, better educated, safer, better equipped…more hopeful…and more productive. However, if only the elites have resources, then the economy will flounder in downward trending population, because individual productivity is not increasing to offset the reduction in numbers.

This is why the Elites-Governments-Corporations (EGC) do not like this idea. They do not care about individual prosperity and are fine with billions in de facto debt-poverty servitude, as long as they are wealthy. They would rather burn down the biosphere than change to a new economic engine. Also, the EGC created our problems; they are not the ones to fix them. We cannot wait for them to “come ‘round” and in fact must not. We must be the parade that they fight each other over to see who can jump in front of it. It is not up for them to decide that they will allow a different economic engine that *requires* resources to go to the people in order for the economy to grow. We simply do it, we the people, and they will be forced to evolve and adapt. Pulling numbers out of the air, the 10% will follow the 90%, if the 90% is willing to lead. More information on the Prosperous Ecology Economic Engine is available in the Twitter community.

As you probably know, the ways to fix all environmental issues with a human causal component, are–with all else held constant–a function of population. But did you know that birth rates are a function of poverty/prosperity? And that there are abstract ideologies at play that contribute to either poverty or prosperity? In fact, it is possible to model an entire planetary kill chain that starts with something as ubiquitous as “Apathy.”

My point is that the solutions are simple–like “exercise and diet” for weight management–the hard part is us wanting to do them.

The Hope Now Project is a simple program that offers large incentives for participants who choose tubal ligations or vasectomies over their own biological children. The mathematical argument can be made that the single greenest act a person can do is choosing not to have a[nother] biological child. Adopt, if you wish–prioritize taking care of the 100M+ homeless children already here. The program also would teach ecological principles, advocate for making adoption globally *free*, and promote a high-tech/low-consumption/low-exploitation/high-quality-of-life culture.

But the heavy lifting is done by a regionally-adjusted incentive program, offering a max incentive of 3x the average annual income. It would also provide a “floor max” for the billion+ people that earn less than $20PPP/day ($21,900 floor max). For Colorado, where this study will take place, the max incentive was calculated in 2022 at ~$255k for women and ~$85k for men, in cash, goods, and services, tax-exempt or after taxes. This is a huge incentive.

There is another program, called #FourSimpleThings, that is free. It is the best solution. However, as with the “diet and exercise” example, the second-best way is to offer an incentive. So…here we are.

The team performing this study will be–if apathy is defeated–merely ten to twenty people. That’s it. Some functions can be done anywhere, such as mathematical modeling, writing, sponsoring. However, the actual planning and administration, the health providers, and participation, will all be local. This maximizes transparency and accountability–both are critical for success of the study. The results will be written up and submitted for peer review.

Do you want to be involved with the study, as preparation for your own efforts a la PCM?

For more information, please join the #GuardiansOfTheBiosphere space on Twitter, Wednesdays at 6pm Mountain (see link to it on my profile @SamRoseAuthor). There is also a community of the same name.

Regards,

Richard Warner
(writing as Samuel Rose, author)

Website: https://twitter.com/SamRoseAuthor