RBE10K/FAQ
What does RBE10K mean?
RBE is the acronym for Resource-Based Economy. RBE is a holistic socio-economic system developed by Jacque Fresco, from The Venus Project.
10K means ten thousand, the K representing Kilo. The project promotes creating RBE communities of 10,000 inhabitants, with the first one intended for January 2015.
Why 10,000 inhabitants?
The proposed number of inhabitants per community corresponds to a strategy with practical, psychological and political components. In practical terms, being intended as self-funded communities it requires a large number of people to have a useful and practical budget capable of enabling self-sufficiency, however, new settlements would be impossible to organise and coordinate if they're too large. A self-sufficient community must also include a wide variety of skills within it. In psychological terms, small communities cannot provide for the richness in variety of knowledge and activity, but high populations tend to alienate people and impede a sense of belonging and relatedness to the community. Politically, small communities are likely to be inconspicuous, and thus more likely of being left alone and undisturbed.
Taking all this into consideration, a population of 10,000 is equivalent to the number of students in a medium-small university or inhabitants in a medium-sized town. The actual number of inhabitants of each community will be determined by the implementing projects themselves, and may vary considerably.
Are children included as part of the 10,000 inhabitants?
Sustainability is one of the main principles in RBE, and populations can only be sustainable if they have zero population growth. With that in mind, RBE10K proposes that communities maintain a steady population throughout time, and that would include children.
The first experimental settlement, however, will be unlikely to accept children, for security reasons, as there will be too many risks associated with running this type of community without previous experience. Children can be included once there's reason to believe a community is safe enough.
Is Jacque Fresco the creator of the Resource-Based Economy?
Jaque Fresco coined (or was the first one to use it in literary material) the term "Resource-Based Economy", which is a group of preexisting and novel ideas that he compiled and proposes as an alternative to the current monetary market system economy.
Who developed the original idea for this project?
The original idea was developed by Ziggy, an Australian activist, resulting from his participation with The Zeitgeist Movement and The Venus Project. Ziggy does not claim ownership of the project, but simply proposes the idea and a group of tools to the community to develop the project in a crowd-sourced fashion. RBE10K is intended as a community project and belongs to each participant.
Who is Arby-e Ten-Kei?
Arby-e Ten-Kei is not a person, but the Facebook account intended for a team of support. Different people may be using the account at any one time, even simultaneously. The name was made up attempting a phonetic similarity to R.B.E.10.K.
How many people participates in the project?
There are about 6000 people supporting the project one way or another at this time. Most of them, however, have a passive interest in it, or simply liked one of the project's Facebook pages. The degree of participation varies from time to time, but we can estimate that about 200 people are actively involved, either by sharing material, or commenting with some frequency, or having registered and contributed to the wiki, or having expressed a desire for engaging in participation.
Do you request money donations?
The RBE10K Project does not require money, since it is only a community project for the design and planning for a type of settlement. We do request, however, donations of time and participation in areas of each participant's specific expertise or strong interests.
Each implementing community would define strategies for funding and donations as they see fit. The RBE10K Project proposes that moneys are requested only when the plan is sound and sufficiently detailed, and handled by a trusted international bank in a trust account, with a complete list of all the purchases to be made, the providers and moneys to be spent and how, and having the bank oversee that each purchase conforms to the plan. The project proposes a deadline for this somewhere around the end of 2014, and that moneys be collected only from those who are confirmed to build and inhabit a settlement, in equal amounts per person.
Are there any professionals involved in the project?
The project counts with several professionals in a variety of disciplines, however their participation is often short and specific upon request. The project also makes use of resources by other groups or projects with professional expertise, and attempts to collaborate with them wherever possible.
What are the main differences between this project and The Zeitgeist Movement or The Venus Project?
Whilst all of them advocate a future of equality, freedom, abundance and peace through the implementation of a Resource-Based Economy, there are significant differences between them.
The Zeitgeist Movement has a well-defined objective of being an educational resource, pointing out the problems of society that lead to poverty, war, and environmental degradation, and proposing a Resource-Based Economic Model as a viable alternative. The RBE10K Project, on the other hand, has a well-defined objective of designing and planning for the implementation of a settlement using Resource-Based Economic principles, goals and strategies, without engaging in analysing current problems or intending educating.
The RBE10K Project and The Venus Project share some goals and principles, although they have very different strategies. Whilst TVP aims for a gradual transition worldwide with hi-tech features, RBE10K aims for medium-small settlements implementing a minimalist RBE without transition, and having settlements growing exponentially in number to as many as there'd be demand for, which could be far less than global. RBE10K also proposes focusing on intangible resources such as software and psychology for the implementation of RBE, with a much greater emphasis than physical technologies such as machinery and robotics.
The project states it is "minimalist". What does this mean?
It means it adjusts only to what's necessary, without extravagance. For example, people tend to think in a minimalist way when going camping or backpacking, taking with them only what will be needed, and adjusting their lifestyle to whatever they take with them.
The project states it intends to grow exponentially in number. What does this mean?
To have any significant impact, communities based on RBE10K design must develop rapidly and in increasing quantities. There is an excellent series of short online videos for understanding this phenomena: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqudQaEKa4g.
It is important to note that RBE10K does not promote exponential growth, but rather warns against it, as exponential growth is always unsustainable. RBE10K proposes the rapid exponencial creation of new settlements meanwhile there is demand for them.
RBE is described as a holistic socio-economic system. What is meant by holistic?
Holistic is the belief that the parts of something are intimately interconnected and explicable only by reference to the whole. Being a holistic socio-economic system, it involves every aspect of the culture in the society, as opposed to simply the administration of currency, law and governing policy. It is important to note that RBE is not a controlling system with laws and morals, but only an administering system with principles and guidelines.
Where can I find more information about a Resource-Based Economy?
We recommend the film Zeitgeist: Moving Forward. There are other valuable films and written material in the websites of The Zeitgeist Movement and The Venus Project. There are also many Facebook groups, generally one for each chapter of both TZM and TVP. Most locations have frequent meeting either online and/or in person.
