Funding the Commons

Seeding Freedom Beyond Money

The former slaves, however, had the last word. They went to a cliff at the end of the island and dashed like lemmings into the sea. They could not be replaced and the island went back to the wilderness. Steinbeck thought, on any rational calculation of their personal future, that their decision was sound. He predicted that, within a measurable time, similar calculations would be made by the inhabitants of Manhattan, and certainly of Miami Beach, with similar results."
— John Kenneth Galbraith, Economics, Peace and Laughter

The story Steinbeck tells is one of ultimate resistance—of people who, given the bleakness of their future under a reimposed system of oppression, chose annihilation over submission.

… Is there is another calculation possible today?

Today - we have the means to self-govern, to sustain ourselves, and to never again be dependent on the extractive and dominating economic structures.

Let’s step back into history and put a price on freedom.

The Cost of Buying Freedom: A Historical Lens

From community elders and reading historical records like "The Kaya Complex" by Thomas T. Spear, I learned that the Methodist Missions along the coast of Kenya in 1874 began to take in fugitives slaves. Harboring fugitives (runaway slaves) became a major point of conflict with the Swahili people, and eventually, the British East African Company stepped in to negotiate.

They purchased the freedom of 1,400 fugitive slaves that were then living in the missions. Simultaneously, they began to impose hut taxation, forcing people into employment (wage slavery) on plantations worked by these 'ex'-slaves.

In 1888, as slavery was collapsing in many parts of the world, the price of freeing an enslaved person could have been around $100—a conservative estimate ranged from $50 to several hundred dollars, depending on skills, age, and health. If we take 1,400 enslaved people as an example, the total cost to purchase their freedom in 1888 would have been:

1,400 slaves × $100 = $140,000 (~dollar equivalent)

Adjusting for inflation, that $140,000 would be worth about $4.68 million today. That’s what it would have taken—just under five million dollars today—to buy the legal freedom of 1,400 people.

But legal freedom is not the same as economic autonomy. After slavery, formerly enslaved communities were still trapped—by debt peonage, sharecropping, economic exclusion, and lack of land and resources. Money alone at the time couldn’t buy them trust, care, or independence from systems designed to keep them dependent.

What If We Could Seed Freedom Beyond Money?

Instead of using $5 million to buy people’s freedom in a broken economic system, what if we used it to seed commitment pools—a commons-based system where people pool their resources, skills, and labor into a self-sustaining cycle?

Breaking Free from Money

Could $5 million seed a system where 1,400 families are freed from dependency on money? Could they clothe, feed, house, and educate themselves forever?

For most of the world, this amount would be far too little. In today’s economy, without a structured system of mutual support, they would likely still become dependent on outside money again. Because money alone doesn’t build trust, and it doesn’t create the care needed to sustain a community.

Again … what if, instead of using $5 million to spend it on freedom, we used it as a seed to grow freedom—a foundation for a different kind of economy?

Seeding a Commitment Pool for 1,800 Families

Imagine taking those $5 million and using it to seed a commons-based system—a commitment pool. Here’s how it could work:

1. The Pool Begins with $5 Million:

   • This money isn't spent. It becomes a revolving fund accessed by local service providers as loans, collateralized by their commitments to provide goods and services.

2. Service Providers Use Commitments as Collateral:

   • A teacher, a builder, or a farmer can commit to providing services. They get access to the pool to fulfill these services, and once their commitments are fulfilled, they can access the pool again.

3. A System of Credit and Debt Forms:

   • As commitments move through the system, they create reciprocal obligations among the community—a network of mutual support.

4. Circulation of Value at 10% per Month:

   • What if the pools circulates a modest 10% of it’s value, $500,000 worth of goods and services every month—construction, farming, weaving, care, ecosystem support, art, and more.

   • In 10 months, the community moves $5 million worth of goods and services among themselves.

   • In 10 years, they move over $50 million worth of mutual value—without dependence on external money.

5. Economic Autonomy Emerges:

   • With surplus labor, they begin producing excess—art, music, food, and textiles to trade - without coercion.

   • They develop an internal economy that is resilient enough to defend itself from economic and physical invasion.

Autonomous Community?

Could this be the beginning of an network of connected autonomous communities? Communities that governs themselves not through currency issued by a central bank, but through commitments to each other?

$5 Million Dollars to Free 1,400 Families from Money Dependency

Imagine it. Instead of buying freedom within a broken system, we build a new system entirely—one based on mutual care, shared responsibility, and the grassroots economic models our ancestors used before money became the dominant form of exchange.

We can and are creating autonomous, self-sustaining, connected communities today.

The systems to make this happen are ancient and the technology to strengthen these ancient protocols exists. The people exist. The will exists.

And even if and when we don’t have enough money or have no money at all, we can still do it—because commitments, not money, fill the gap.

The Future is Ours to Build

The only question left is: Will you?

- Build your Pool. https://sarafu.network
- Seed the growing network of Pools. https://sarafu.network/pools