There is an African tribe that picks the wealthiest member of the tribe to take care of everyone until they are broke. They do this willingly because after they spend all their money the tribe takes care of them. They will never need a place to stay because anyone would host them. They don’t need food or clothing because anyone would give them whatever they need.
We need reset like this. A way to make wealth accumulation a positive thing.
No, I remember reading it. There is a lot of niche knowledge you cannot find on the Internet easily.
There are a lot of African traditions around gift giving (like potlatch) and redistribution of wealth as well as concepts of collective wealth (Ubuntu). Here is an article that talks about it, but does not mention the specific tribe I was thinking about.
https://www.sociostudies.org/journal/articles/3600660/
With the article being rather long, does it mention the particular tradition talked about here? I don’t doubt you’ve read it, I am just skeptical if it is a real tradition. And it’s hard to gauge that with no info
It does talk about leaders not owning their wealth as it was owned collectively by the tribe. No, it does not mention this specific tribe. I can’t find my anthro book either.
I could have remembered it wrong. I spent some more time poking around the Internet this morning about chiefdoms. I still couldn’t find the specific tribe, but I learned some other interesting things.
There does seem to be some romanticizing small groups and the concept of tribal communism. So there is definitely something to support your skepticism.
It has to be a solution that benefits both parties, but I also recognize that one party is giving up something tangible.
They have to be compensated in some real way. That is why I propose make a wish for the ultra wealthy. We pick an obscenely rich person, take 99% of what they own, and give them the one thing money can’t buy. A real wish that can be anything humans can reasonably provide.
The problem is that the money comes with power. They already get something just by owning it.
If a billionaire asks you to be their partner for life and to love them, as the one thing that money can’t buy, would you?
I think if people create a community that billionaires want to join in exchange for their money, wouldn’t that community already be so thriving that they don’t need the money? *
And if the community needs the money, what could offload the guilt that comes with the money? The community would become the billionaire.
* strange that people don’t try to do that, even without money.
It would have to be something society is willing to do (make the wish happen). Obviously what I said was slightly in jest, but I am just trying to think outside the paradigm we seem to be stuck in.
I like your idea of community absorbing the billionaire if they were willing. Yes, they would have to be pretty well off to begin with, but if they did then everyone would get the benefit instead of a minority. Even well off communities could be improved with infrastructure upgrades or other things that would collectively benefit everyone.
You bring an interesting point of the guilt of money and transferring that guilt to the community. I think this might be the rational needed to create a tradition like this. Accumulation of money should be seen as a negative thing and we should have mechanisms to take care of it.
There is an African tribe that picks the wealthiest member of the tribe to take care of everyone until they are broke. They do this willingly because after they spend all their money the tribe takes care of them. They will never need a place to stay because anyone would host them. They don’t need food or clothing because anyone would give them whatever they need.
We need reset like this. A way to make wealth accumulation a positive thing.
Which tribe does this?
It was in my Anthropology book, I will have to go dig around for it. I tried a Google search but all I could get was crap.
It’s just one of those things that sounds sorta believable and has a feel good message but a lot of those are actually bunk
No, I remember reading it. There is a lot of niche knowledge you cannot find on the Internet easily.
There are a lot of African traditions around gift giving (like potlatch) and redistribution of wealth as well as concepts of collective wealth (Ubuntu). Here is an article that talks about it, but does not mention the specific tribe I was thinking about. https://www.sociostudies.org/journal/articles/3600660/
With the article being rather long, does it mention the particular tradition talked about here? I don’t doubt you’ve read it, I am just skeptical if it is a real tradition. And it’s hard to gauge that with no info
It does talk about leaders not owning their wealth as it was owned collectively by the tribe. No, it does not mention this specific tribe. I can’t find my anthro book either.
I could have remembered it wrong. I spent some more time poking around the Internet this morning about chiefdoms. I still couldn’t find the specific tribe, but I learned some other interesting things.
There does seem to be some romanticizing small groups and the concept of tribal communism. So there is definitely something to support your skepticism.
This can be done right now. The problem is finding the people who want to live like that. So who wants to live like that? Please reply.
Obviously no one. That goes without saying.
Why? If you say that we should live like that don’t you want it for yourself?
I was saying we need something positive to benefit society and the wealthy person to deal with people accumulating too much wealth.
The story just shows us it is possible and makes me think of other possibilities.
Which other possibilities do you have in mind?
It has to be a solution that benefits both parties, but I also recognize that one party is giving up something tangible.
They have to be compensated in some real way. That is why I propose make a wish for the ultra wealthy. We pick an obscenely rich person, take 99% of what they own, and give them the one thing money can’t buy. A real wish that can be anything humans can reasonably provide.
The problem is that the money comes with power. They already get something just by owning it.
If a billionaire asks you to be their partner for life and to love them, as the one thing that money can’t buy, would you?
I think if people create a community that billionaires want to join in exchange for their money, wouldn’t that community already be so thriving that they don’t need the money? *
And if the community needs the money, what could offload the guilt that comes with the money? The community would become the billionaire.
* strange that people don’t try to do that, even without money.
It would have to be something society is willing to do (make the wish happen). Obviously what I said was slightly in jest, but I am just trying to think outside the paradigm we seem to be stuck in.
I like your idea of community absorbing the billionaire if they were willing. Yes, they would have to be pretty well off to begin with, but if they did then everyone would get the benefit instead of a minority. Even well off communities could be improved with infrastructure upgrades or other things that would collectively benefit everyone.
You bring an interesting point of the guilt of money and transferring that guilt to the community. I think this might be the rational needed to create a tradition like this. Accumulation of money should be seen as a negative thing and we should have mechanisms to take care of it.