Common good - what is it?

Common good, common spirit, commonwealth are the godfathers of every historical development.
Gymnastics father Jahn

Dear Reader,

For some time now, you have been able to document your Common Good contributions directly in your Gradido account. This makes it even easier for you to create the money of the future and have your Active Basic Income credited. With this we have come a big step closer to the goal of a money and economic system suitable for grandchildren for the benefit of all.

However, we read from your contributions that there are obviously very diverse opinions about what is to be understood by common good and whether one should even bother to clearly describe one's activity. In addition to well-documented contributions, we then read "walking the dog", "accompanying a girlfriend shopping", "mowing the lawn", "cooking", and so on. ...

With such different views, can we ever succeed in jointly developing a fair monetary and economic system based on self-responsibility and appreciation for the other participants? After all, we want to shape the new world together into a place worth living in for everyone.

Each post is read carefully

Here at Gradido Support, we read every single contribution you make and take great pains to weigh up whether the contribution serves the common good or not. It would be much easier to quickly check the box. To justify a rejection takes a lot of time and hurts us and the people concerned equally. So we often turn a blind eye and confirm in case of doubt. After all, we don't want to hurt anyone, but rather to advance our joint research project for the benefit of all.

What is the common good, anyway?

Speaking of research projects, what is the common good? Wikipedia describes it like this: "The common good [...] refers to the welfare ("the common best, the common benefit, the common welfare, the prosperity"), which for social reasons should benefit as many members of a community as possible".

In the ethics of the 'Threefold Good', this corresponds to the second and third good, that is, the good of the community and the good of the greater whole.

One could also say: contributions to the common good are everything that one would call honorary work, volunteerism, etc., according to common sense - as opposed to individual contributions from one person to another.

Walking the dog is not a common good!

Keeping pets - dogs, cats, budgies, turtles, etc. - with all the love of animals: all this is usually a hobby and not a public good. If you think, due to special circumstances, that it is a public good in your special case (e.g. because you help your sick neighbor, do voluntary service in an animal shelter, volunteer at a sanctuary for aging horses, etc.), then please describe that in your post. In the future, we will also reject "walking dogs" without comment.

It depends on the circumstances

Whether something is a contribution to the common good is therefore not so much determined by WHAT you do, but by FOR WHOM and  FOR WHAT PURPOSE You do.

• When you go shopping with your girlfriend, it's primarily for the two of you. However, if you buy the seeds and plants for your SoLaWi community field, then it is probably for the common good.
• If you are cooking for a party with your friends, that is your private pleasure. If you are cooking because you are meeting to discuss the organization of a free-learning project, it is public good.
• If you help healthy adult people, this is an individual service, for which the other person can thank you directly with his Gradidos. However, if you help an old sick person who would be overburdened with a Gradido account, this is a social service, i.e. common good.

Mothers and children

Mothers who accompany their children into life serve the common good. There is hardly anything more important for the continuation of humanity.

When children learn to be involved in the community by taking on certain chores around the house and garden, that can be counted as community service. When an adult carries down his garbage or builds his garden shed, of course not.

Situational, autonomous, clearly formulated

The distinction is not always clear, and it requires self-responsibility, both on your part and on the part of the support team. Therefore, it is extremely important that you clearly and understandably formulate what this is about and why you think this is a contribution to the common good.

Your clear description is also a sign of appreciation towards us as Gradido team, who keep an eye on it that everything goes its right way. Because we can't read minds yet.

If you make clear for whom and for what you have made your contribution and, if necessary, your special situation (5-year-old girl, old person, special challenges), you need not worry about being rejected with your contribution. And we from the Gradido team are happy about every contribution that we are allowed to confirm.

Milestone into a self-determined life

With this knowledge, it will be easy for you to submit your community contributions to the Gradido account. In doing so, you make yourself happy and take personal responsibility. You create the money of the future and contribute to our community research and development project, the Natural Economy of Life for worldwide prosperity and peace in harmony with nature. Without projects like Gradido, we would probably remain trapped in the system.

Unconditional participation is an important milestone in a self-determined life for all. We contribute to the community with our gifts and thereby develop our full potential. Together we develop the necessary swarm intelligence to solve the epochal problems of humanity - for the sake of ourselves, our children and all children of the earth.

A thousand thanks because you are with us!

Yours

Margret Baier and Bernd Hückstädt
Gradido founder and developer