:Title:    What to do - what to do?
:Author:   David Braden (CCAL30)
:Date:     Tue, 28 Dec 2004 10:40:59 PST
:Modified: Tue, 28 Dec 2004 11:17:47 PST
:URL:      http://www.omidyar.net/user/u387457877/news/0/

When I had finally earned enough money to put my kids through college, I started thinking about what I wanted to do with the next 30 years.  What I would really like to do is explain to everyone how much could be accomplished through a re-design of how the world works.  The existing set of relationships is merely the end result of the historical process of people fighting over limited resources.

It seems to me that there are potentially unlimited sets of relationships that do not require the destruction of any existing relationships.  When you fight over a resource, you reduce the size of the pie.  When you create new sets of relationships you increase the size of the pie.

The two areas where relationships have been most damaged and that therefore have the most potential are 1) the environment and 2) the people left out of the planetary economy (the poor).  So that is where my interest is.  Assisting the poor to forge new relationships among themselves and with their environment.

The problem comes from thinking through how everything is related to everything else.  I don't want to re-invent the wheel and there are many fine organizations doing parts of what I see as possible.  There are also political and business development approaches.  Being interested in how all things are related certainly has its draw backs.
Which brings me back to the original question.  What to do - what to do?