# The Prosumer Economy -- Being Like a Forest

**Authors:** Uygar Ozesmi  
**arXiv:** [1903.07615](https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.07615)  
**Date:** 2019-03-16  
**Summary page:** https://www.summarizepaper.com/en/paper/1903.07615v1/

## Key points

- Planetary life support systems are in crisis due to climate change and biodiversity loss
- The current consumer economy is based on profit maximization, which ignores ecological and social externalities
- To save civilization, we need to transform the consumer economy into a prosumer economy that is ecologically and socially just
- The prosumer economy is a circular economy with minimal negative or positive impact on ecology and society
- Good4Trust.org is already planting this forest through its community platform that brings together ecologically and socially just producers and prosumers who follow the golden rule
- The shift from a consumer economy to a prosumer economy has already started but requires enough agents in the system to adopt simple rules for it to shift completely
- We have an opportunity to expand this movement using Good4Trust's open-source software structure anywhere on the planet
- Our dominant socio-economic paradigm based on exploitation of nature and fellow humans for competition, growth, consumption, and profit maximization is the root cause of the environmental crisis
- We must prioritize sustainability over profits if we want to stay alive as living beings while respecting other species' rights to exist.

## Summary

The current state of planetary life support systems is in crisis due to climate change and the biodiversity crisis. The root cause of this devastation is the existing consumer economy, which is based on profit maximization that ignores ecological and social externalities. To reverse these trends and save civilization, we need to transform the profit-maximizing consumer economy into an ecologically and socially just economy, which we call the prosumer economy. The prosumer economy is a macro-scale circular economy with minimal negative or positive ecological and social impact. It consists of an ecosystem of producers and prosumers who have synergistic and circular relationships with deepened circular supply chains. In a prosumer economy, there is no waste, no lasting negative impacts on ecology, and no social exploitation. It's like a lake or forest - an economic ecosystem that supports the planet. Good4Trust.org is already planting this forest through its community platform that brings together ecologically and socially just producers and prosumers. Prosumers come together around a basic ethical tenet - the golden rule - and share their good deeds on the platform. The relationships are already deepening, creating circularity to form a prosumer economy. The shift from a consumer economy to a prosumer economy has already started, but it requires enough agents in the system to adopt simple rules that they all follow for it to shift completely. We have an opportunity to expand this movement by using Good4Trust's open-source software structure anywhere on the planet. If we want to stay alive as living beings while respecting other species' rights to exist, our impact on the planet must be reduced drastically. The environmental crisis's root cause lies in our dominant socio-economic paradigm based on exploitation of nature and fellow humans for competition, growth, consumption, and profit maximization. Therefore we must seek solutions in transforming our economic system into one that prioritizes sustainability over profits because if you think money is more important than the environment, try holding your breath while counting it.