My goal is to make all human consumption sustainable, while satisfying everybody’s needs and wants.
Objectives
I will know I succeeded when all of these objectives are met:
- All humans are considered. Nobody is left behind.
- All needs and wants are met. No desire is left unsatisfied.
- All future generations are able to meet their needs and wants.
My plan is to accomplish this in two parts:
Part 1: Meet basic needs with sustainable products and services
Basic needs include food, water, shelter, clothing, health and safety for up to 8.5 billion people by 2030, 9.7 billion people by 2050 and 10.4 billion by the mid-2080s, which is where the human population is expected to peak (1).
The plan is to identify the most suitable (sustainable) products and then outcompete unsustainable products off the market through better pricing, making it a no-brainer for mainstream consumers to choose sustainable products.
This will be done in two stages:
Stage 1: Sell existing products
The first task will be to calculate the total basic needs.
Next, the task will be to identify the technologies and types of products that have the best chance of meeting those needs sustainably, and find existing products that best fit these requirements.
Finally, the task will be to set up a website to sell those products.
The product prices will be reduced using the following approaches:
- Sell at cost. No markup. No profit.
- Limit the product offering, thus increasing the volume per product.
- Use the collective buying power to obtain bottom prices.
- Rely on community for marketing.
- Use volunteers whenever possible.
- Whenever the same product is available elsewhere for less, promote them.
Stage 2: Develop new products
The first task of this stage will be to identify gaps where existing products don’t meet sustainability requirements or when they are not available in certain locations or in sufficient quantities.
Next, the task will be to fund and/or carry out research in order to develop solutions that will close those gaps.
Finally, the task will be to facilitate the production of new products and services, and distribute them as needed, using the ecommerce platform created during the Stage 1.
Additional price-reduction approaches utilized during this stage will include:
- No R&D costs in product price. Fund all research through donations.
- Design for simplicity. Easy to make. Easy to use. Easy to repair.
- Design for durability. No planned obsolecense.
- No “new & improved” products.
- Free access to all patents and research data.
Part 2: Replace all other consumption with virtual consumption
Part 2 of the plan is concerned with all the consumption that goes beyond the essentials of food, water, shelter, clothing, health and safety.
The objective is to eliminate all non-basic consumption while fulfilling everybody’s needs and wants.
The only way to accomplish this in a sustainable way, while meeting all needs and wants of all people on Earth, is by replacing real-life consumption with a virtual one.
This part of the plan has two stages:
Stage 1: Develop a solution
Because the required technology doesn’t yet exist, the first task will be to assess the current state of technology and identify trends and directions that have the biggest potential.
The next task will be to fund a research and development program, aimed at developing a workable solution that can replace real-life consumption with virtual one.
Stage 2: Provide the solution for free
Once the solution is available, the task will be to provide it to everyone free of charge.
Any operational costs will be covered through donations.
If all works out the way it’s intended, every person on Earth will live the live they always dreamed of, within the limits of Earth’s biological capacity.
References
- Population. United Nations. September 3, 2023. https://www.un.org/en/global-issues/population