Gift economies are not new. It must be understood that it is not bartering. It is gifting. It is also not 'charitable' as such either. Technically speaking it should work as a flow of balances where people give what they can spare. This does not mean money but rather something they have or something they do. It is just given for the sake of giving. This is something you probably do at least once a day (even if you're a mean person!) when you offer to share something with another person or to give someone a lift in your car. You never expect returns from these people and that's the entire point.
This is also not a system that operates outside of other systems. In fact it is inherent in every system and especially (strangely!) in capitalism. Think about companies and businesses that do charity work or make donations. It is in a basic sense a 'gift' transaction that while the cynical would say that it gives promotion to a business not all acts of kindness create much of an impact. I have created this website in order to experiment with these ideas and discuss how they are going and how they may be improved. Hopefully with a lot of input along the way from all of you readers. I hope this will be updated now and then as I explore the idea of a 'gift economy'.
Thank you for visiting my site
-KJ
