Discussion Question #5

(On Ronald Trosper's Lecture - Resilience and Sustainability of the Northwest Coast Indigenous Institutions)

Ronald Trosper’s idea of communal sharing of resources painted a pretty picture of how communities should operate, although impractical in today’s global society. I agree that everyone prospers when a group works together. Our last few days of team building are perfect examples of this.

No doubt pooling resources mitigates individual desires to exploit shared resources. Exploiting any resource when you are not the sole proprietor just doesn’t make sense, period. Actually, exploiting your resources never makes sense, period. Long-term sustainability, anyone? More to my point, why would someone work above and beyond his or her communal responsibility when there is no personal gain? Human nature works like this: I’ll help you- so you can help me. When someone has a vested interest in another’s success, of course they want him or her to prosper, because that means you also prosper. There is always a transfer of “payment” no matter how good the intentions of the seller are, even if payment is “this will make me feel good about myself”.

Additionally, how do you keep freeloaders from exploiting the system? Trosper’s suggestion of public ridicule may work on a small-scale community, when one’s reputation is all he has to live by. But how can we use this model to solve modern day problems? Fox News, SNL and the Colbert Report are trying their best, but are the leaders really listening? Maybe if globally people started implementing this mentality locally Trosper’s idea of communal sharing could succeed. Still, what is the most effective way to send this message to the global community?

An interesting take away message from tonight’s lectures is the idea of publically disclosed wealth. The North-West Coast native communities found increased accountability with increased transparency. Even though completely unrealistic, I am curious to know how this would change the accountability of corporate America? If multi-million, and even multi-billionaire CEO’s, in their race for supremacy had to justify their accumulated wealth, would they choose differently? Would they be more generous with their ludicrous salaries?