Today a man set up a table by the library and tried to sell courgettes.
It didn't go well. Everyone in town has courgettes. The Earth-monitor has listed a courgette surplus since July. And nobody understood what he wanted in return.
It got me thinking: in this version of the world, is there any reason left to exploit anyone?
What exploitation needs
In the old world, exploitation usually needed three things:
- Someone who can't say no. People took bad jobs, bad rents and bad deals because the alternative was worse.
- Something to keep. Money can be stored, stacked and inherited. Take a little extra from many people, and it adds up forever.
- Darkness. Hidden costs, hidden working conditions, hidden fine print.
Take those away, and most exploitation has nothing to run on.
Why most of it stops working here
Everyone can say no. Food, shelter and care don't depend on accepting a deal. When nobody is desperate, a bad offer is just a bad offer. People walk away.
There's little to keep. Cars and houses are shared. Things are built to last, so nobody profits from them breaking. Everything digital is free to copy. You can't get rich selling what everyone already has. Ask the courgette man.
Everything is visible. The Earth-monitor shows what things really cost: materials, time, and the effects on people and nature. It's hard to exploit something everyone can see.
Nobody owns the job. As with the benches, nobody can say "this is mine, pay me to use it." Claiming without doing is one of the things that's not okay.
Or are there still reasons?
Yes, a few. Money was never the only thing people wanted.
Credit. People still like being admired. Someone can put their name on a bench they barely touched. The fix is boring: a visible history of who did what, like the edit history of a shared document. (A history of who worked on the bench, not who sat on it.)
Power. Some people want to be the one everybody listens to. In open source, this is the maintainer who slowly becomes a gatekeeper. The fix: no permanent roles, and anyone can fork. If someone takes over the bench discussion, build a bench down the road.
Goodwill. This is the sneaky one. If nothing is expected, the most generous people can end up doing everything while everyone else enjoys the results. Open source knows this well: some of the internet's most important code was kept alive by a handful of unpaid volunteers while huge companies used it for free. Nobody forced them. But nobody noticed them either. The Earth-monitor could simply show it: "This water pump has had one helper for three years." Not to pressure anyone. Just so it's seen.
Faking need. If help flows to where the need is, someone could fake a need. Economists have a rule about this: when a measure becomes a target, it stops being a good measure. (Goodhart's law.) The fix: many sensors, many eyes, and anyone allowed to question the data.
Those who can't object. Hedgehogs, rivers and people not born yet can't post in the Earth-monitor. Taking from them is the easiest exploitation of all. Someone has to speak for them.
Charm. A charismatic person can still talk others into working for their dream. That's fine, as long as people know what they're getting into and can leave any time. If they can't, it's the scale again: lies and locked doors.
The best defence
The best defence against exploitation isn't more rules. It's the freedom to walk away.
Exploitation lasts only as long as someone can't leave. When everyone can say no, stop, vanish, or build their own bench down the road, exploitation stops being a trap. It becomes a bad offer you can turn down.
The courgette man packed up around noon. In the end, he didn't really want anything for them. He just wanted people to stop and talk.
That, it turns out, you can simply ask for.