User talk:Bsclarkedc/Managed digital allowance

I've often thought that we've forgotten the lessons of feudalism. Not tying peasantry to the land or a two-class society. Those ideas we can do without, of course. Actual feudalism was nasty and didn't work well. But the mechanics of feudalism were based on a set of ideas that might be repurposed.

Feudalism was, in theory, a highly flexible and efficient way of combining bureaucracy and entrepreneurship. Feudalism delegated resources and corresponding responsibilities. An individual was (in theory) free to manage their responsibilities however they saw fit for maximum results.

A company or other similar organization is a bureaucracy. Such organizations aren't usually particularly democratic, even if they're egalitarian. Typical bureaucracies have elaborate systems of controls for expenditures. These systems prevent certain problems, but are inefficient, and can be circumvented by the determined anyway. In place of such controls, why not just give people a budget and let them spend it however they think best? This might not work for a building renovation, but for expenses that are a small percentage of salary, they can work. This is already done with per diem reimbursements, which are actually even more radical in that they let give the employee a fixed budget, make them pay 100% of any overages, and let them keep 100% of any savings.

I don't really think the point is technology. You could use these ideas for furniture selection, allocating a travel budget for maximum impact, or even have a work group collectively decide how much office space they need and how to allocate it. ErikNilsson (talk) 23:09, 2 February 2010 (UTC)