BelovedEconomics.Org aims to change the way we think about economics. I plan to pursue this aim by encouraging the creation of Beloved Councils, groups dedicated to transforming themselves, and setting an example for the world, through alternative economics. The success of BelovedEconomics.Org does not depend on whether enough people feel sufficiently compelled by the ideas to devote the time, energy and resources needed to create a fully functioning alternative economy. I will consider this site a success if it confronts even just a few people with transformative ideas.

I plan to contribute the following to this endeavor:

• This interactive blog.
• A software tool, accessible via the web, that will help connect individuals and groups.
• A book presenting the main ideas behind Beloved Economics (and Parecon) designed to be read and discussed in groups, with (or without) a facilitator. In the book, I plan to include many questions for group discussion—inspired by the Socratic Method (teaching by confronting the learner with well-chosen questions).

A Beloved Council may start as a discussion group for the book mentioned above. After reading the book, the members of the group may decide to commit to continue. To become a Beloved Council, the group merely declares itself a Beloved Council—there is no other criterion for joining the movement. Councils need not even make themselves known to others—but there will be a way to do so, if interested.

Once formed, Beloved Councils are encouraged to consider taking up the following activities.

• Pursuing transformation. Members of a Beloved Council are encouraged to support each other as they unlearn patterns of behavior and thought inherited from our violent, racist, sexist, classist society, and replace them with patterns of behavior and thought imbued with love, compassion, respect, and forgiveness. Members are encouraged to stay open to different sources of guidance in this regard.
• Building community. A community built on love, compassion, respect, and forgiveness is truly a Beloved Community! For a Beloved Council, building such a community involves construction on three levels. First, Council members are encouraged to consider what kind of relationships they want within the Council and act accordingly. Do they want the Council to seem like a family? If so, they might consider engaging in the kinds of activities that build trust and respect. Perhaps they want to have fun together. Perhaps they want to adopt rituals and traditions that cement the bonds of love and solidarity. The second level of community building involves outreach to other Beloved Councils. The same comments apply. The final level of community building involves outreach to the broader community that is not involved in Beloved Economics. Perhaps Beloved Councils will consider it appropriate to engage in community service, as well as to promote education about Beloved Economics.
• Advancing education. Members of Beloved Councils are encouraged to pursue their own education on topics relevant to Beloved Economics or whatever interests them. The Councils themselves can be used as groups for discussing the literature.
• Spreading the word. Beloved Councils are encouraged to foster the creation of more Beloved Councils.
• Connecting to other groups/Councils. To engage in economics and demonstrate, test, and tinker with Participatory Planning, a single Council would have too few people. Beloved Councils would have to connect to many more Councils to make the experiment worthwhile.
• Thinking, writing, and publishing. Beloved councils and their members are encouraged to start blogs, write books, or create and publish new software tools. The material I am creating need not have a privileged place in the movement. While my work and the Parecon literature will get things started, building an alternative economy of the scope I envision will require a great deal of additional intellectual work.
• Promoting charity. Charity can include gifts to one’s own Beloved Council, to outside organizations or to other Councils or other organizations associated with Beloved Economics or Parecon. Gifts can be in the form of money or labor or labor remunerated at less than the going rate under Capitalism. Gifts can also be in the form of use (by oneself or others) of ones productive assets (such as a camera or an automobile) while engaging in Beloved Economic activity—use that is not remunerated to the same extent as it would be under Capitalism.
• Deciding how group will operate. Beloved Councils are encouraged to think through, discuss and deliberate how they will make collective decisions. Will they, as Parecon suggests, give each member a say in each decision in relative proportion to the degree to which they are affected? Or will some other norm be applied? If another norm is applied, what is that norm? How will decisions reflect love, compassion, respect, and forgiveness? To implement whatever norm chosen, what items will be decided by one person, by majority, by consensus, and by something else, or in between? How will the decision to add another member be handled? Or to ask a member to leave? How large will the group be? And how will the Council be splintered if it gets too large? Beloved Councils are encouraged to see themselves as setting examples for future groups that may play a large role in economics and politics worldwide. Therefore it is suggested that how they conduct their business matters. Perhaps Councils can codify their procedures in a charter, with provisions for amendment.
• Discussing and planning production. Members of Beloved Councils who are interested in engaging in Beloved Economics are encouraged to think through and discuss what goods and services they would like to produce for the alternative economy—once the project obtains sufficient size to support an alternative economy. Participants in the Ithaca Hours program were and are very creative in this regard, and I am sure we can be similarly creative. I teach math at the college level, so I plan to offer math tutoring. Others may offer tennis lessons, baked goods, arts and crafts, photography, handyman/handywoman services, cleaning services, personal training, lawn care, language lessons, etc. In the planning stage, it is important to consider what tools and supplies are needed, and how they will be obtained. For example a baker may plan to make banana bread. She will need bananas, sugar, flour, etc, and a kitchen. She can offer to use her own kitchen, but what about the bananas? This idea makes most sense to me: banana bread consumers will pay for the raw materials in cash, but consumers will pay for others’ labor with their own labor. The market will determine the price of the raw materials, consistent with Capitalism; Participatory Planning will determine the “price” of labor, consistent with Parecon. Let’s say I want banana bread, the baker wants handyman services, the handyman or handywoman wants Spanish lessons and the Spanish speaker wants math tutoring from me. We will negotiate an exchange of labor without a market via Participatory Planning. Separate from the exchange of labor, we will each pay for the raw materials needed for the particular goods or services we consume with cash from our own pocket. Of course, for now, many questions are left open. Do we want to try to ensure the norms of Parecon, such as balanced job complexes? How will we accomplish equal empowerment for all workers? The precise way Participatory Planning should work in a Beloved Economy requires vision, thought, debate and refinement. For example, to avoid remunerating for ownership of productive assets, do we expect people to donate the use of their tools, cameras, automobiles, etc? Perhaps the consumer can pay a nominal cash fee for wear and tear of equipment, in addition to paying for raw materials such as gas.
• Eventually engaging in Beloved Economics. Here is my idea for how many Beloved Councils will congeal into one or more Beloved Economies: Each Beloved Council will be charged with envisioning an alternative economy within Capitalism consistent with a vision for a desirable economy in a transformed world. They will answer the question for themselves (while deliberating with others) how will the alternative economy function? What norms will it implement? Are the norms of Parecon the most desirable norms to inspire an alternative economy? If not, what are the most desirable norms? Beloved Councils will engage other Beloved councils to debate and refine their visions. The process of debate and refinement may be as important as the process of actually engaging in alternative economics. Once sufficient support for one proposal exists, supporters will bring a Beloved Economy into existence. The exact legal status of a Beloved Economy will have to be determined. Will it be a nonprofit organization, a charitable organization, or unincorporated? Beloved Councils will then be invited to join. The Beloved Economy may stipulate conditions on the Councils for membership. In any case, I would hope that it would be possible for a Beloved Council to join more than one Beloved Economy (and leave any Economy it had joined). In this way, anyone can start a Beloved Economy—the only question becomes can they attract enough Councils to join. Also, I would hope that an individual could join more than one Beloved Council. The details of avoiding over-representation when the same person belongs to more than one Council (within the same Beloved Economy) will have to be worked out.
• Discussing difficult decisions down the road. Once formed should a Beloved Economy obey the law to the letter, operate in a grey area, or flat-out engage in civil disobedience? What issues should it take on? Consider undocumented workers: will they be excluded until they obtain a green card? The law may require it. Perhaps a grey area of the law can be found: remuneration might be considered charity and labor might be considered volunteering. I do not know the law well enough to know if this scheme is possible, but I do feel that excluding undocumented workers from Beloved Economics would be repugnant to the values that inspired it, and damaging to a mission of transforming society with love, compassion, respect and forgiveness. I would hope we could find pro bono lawyers committed and ready to defend the organization, expoiting any grey area of the law they could find. Of course, there are other issues that need to be addressed. Will people pay taxes on the goods and services they consume from the Beloved Economy? Will the exchange of marijuana and/or sex work (images, videos, and/or actual sex) be permitted under the auspices of a Beloved Economy, at least within the locales where they are legal (e.g. Amsterdam)? Of course, there would need to be producers eager to provide these goods and services within the Beloved Economy (not at all obvious), and consumers ready to travel, on their own dime, to the locales where they are legal. I consider questions generating disagreement to be grist for the mill preparing us for a transformed society. I would hope people could discuss these questions with an attitude of respect, compassion and understanding.
• Engaging in activism. Beloved Councils are encouraged to consider activism and keep their style of activism open to spirited discussion. However it is suggested that Councils ensure that all of their members feel comfortable with whatever path the group ultimately chooses. Examples of love, compassion, respect, and forgiveness become powerfully transformative acts. Combining such examples with civil disobedience, and other forms of confrontation, has also proven successful in some situations over the years. While I would never want to discourage a group from following its instincts if it had reached a consensus to move in this direction, I would be concerned about how a movement focused on breaking the law would discourage and exclude many people who cautiously care about the world—people who may otherwise make huge contributions. Beloved Economics is my answer to the question “what can people do legally to pursue Parecon?” No answer to this question was ever clear to me from Albert’s Parecon strategy book, Moving Forward. By pursuing my ideas, I hope to open the movement up to many new people who may be uncomfortable with the style of activism familiar to the Left. That said, I recognize that it may be poor strategy to divert current activists away from other helpful activities. Interested activists are urged to consider carefully where their efforts would be most effective.

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