1. Push Health Insurance Companies out by large, communal insurance pools. Individuals cannot do this alone, but cities could, large corporations could, states could, universities could. Could do what? Could collect a fee from their individuals and put the money in a Health Fund, and pay hospitals, doctors, preventive medical persons directly via a representative in your pool who monitored fraud, price hikes, etc. This would give cities, states, universities, corporations (whomever) incentives to promote health and happiness (less stress = less sickness = more money within the collective rather than in the pockets of CEOs who live in Virginia mansions).
2. Communal housing: buying property through an incorporated organization, sharing communal space, kitchen duties, garden duties, chores, child-rearing, etc. The lower cost of living + the increased community would enable people to save more of their own money to perhaps leave the group if problems arise or to retire or vacation or pay down debt. Obviously, this would be better for younger people, maybe single people, but maybe others too.
3. A website that connects us people-to-people to places that need help fast. Think tsunami or flood victims, think Katrina and how helpless we all felt. One website that collects data on distribution locals (library? post office?) wherein people in safe places could send supplies directly. Important for those of us who cannot send money but could send a blanket, a pair of socks, some toys. This site could become a vehicle for person-to-person outpouring of love and support. Think children in a classroom in America sending supplies to children in a classroom in China. I've written about this before. (Wings Across the World blog). I need a website designer and partner for this.
4. Socially progressive banks! Give me a bank that will help a green economy prosper and I'll move my money. I'd like a bank whose CEO earns only slightly more than its lowest paid employee. Some sort of fair distribution would earn my loyalty and respect.
Please share your IDEAS WORTH PURSUING with me.
Showing posts with label ideas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ideas. Show all posts
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Monday, October 22, 2007
Wings Across the World
Here's a pitch for an idea, but I need some feedback.
I'm dreaming of the development of a website called Wings Across the World were individuals can go to find addresses near distressed zones in order to ship basic necessities via the postal service. The idea is that it enables person to person aide, heart to heart if you will. It's a personal way to tell people that you're thinking of them, that their situation has you worried. It's a way to connect.
The Wings web design team works with a group of researchers who find addresses. Wings may even need diplomatic contacts in embassies around the world. Wings also provides information about what is needed. It may, sometimes, utilize the services of the Red Cross or another international volunteer organization for distribution services, but, in theory, the website enables gift-giving via individuals, not financial gifts to third parties.
Scenario: a tsunami hits an island, Wings finds out the Red Cross has set up aide services in a particular city. Wings gets the address and posts it. Wings might also post suggestions for items in need: blankets, cans of beans, rice in air-tight containers, seeds, socks, etc. If Wings creates relationships with individuals of a particular area, it may utilize a library, a university or a elementary school as the postal destination to publish. Not just Americans, but people all over the world could access the Wings website. It would be necessary to recruit volunteers who speak languages other than English.
If elementary schools had access to particular places, their students might send paper wing cut outs with collected supplies as a goodwill gesture. Schools, families, religious institutions might find it a fulfilling way to directly aide people in distress.
Wings might have a paypal account where individuals could donate in order to cover administration costs.
When Major Steve Danyluk published an article in the NY Times about the conditions in Iraq after the invasion in 2002, I saw an opportunity to try out this idea. I wrote him requesting an address that I could send to my friends and family in order to ship supplies into Baghdad. I had the idea for Wings but had not put together a site yet. Never before had I sent out an email to all of my contacts in my computer. But I did. And, I requested that everyone forward the email to everyone they knew. A month later, Steve sent me a picture of a storeroom in Baghdad filled with boxes from families all over America. It was a very gratifying moment.
Then, I got busy, and I forgot about the idea. Plus, I'm not a web designer. I just have this good idea that, I think, would really work.
What does one do when one is sitting on a good idea but unable to see it through?
I'm dreaming of the development of a website called Wings Across the World were individuals can go to find addresses near distressed zones in order to ship basic necessities via the postal service. The idea is that it enables person to person aide, heart to heart if you will. It's a personal way to tell people that you're thinking of them, that their situation has you worried. It's a way to connect.
The Wings web design team works with a group of researchers who find addresses. Wings may even need diplomatic contacts in embassies around the world. Wings also provides information about what is needed. It may, sometimes, utilize the services of the Red Cross or another international volunteer organization for distribution services, but, in theory, the website enables gift-giving via individuals, not financial gifts to third parties.
Scenario: a tsunami hits an island, Wings finds out the Red Cross has set up aide services in a particular city. Wings gets the address and posts it. Wings might also post suggestions for items in need: blankets, cans of beans, rice in air-tight containers, seeds, socks, etc. If Wings creates relationships with individuals of a particular area, it may utilize a library, a university or a elementary school as the postal destination to publish. Not just Americans, but people all over the world could access the Wings website. It would be necessary to recruit volunteers who speak languages other than English.
If elementary schools had access to particular places, their students might send paper wing cut outs with collected supplies as a goodwill gesture. Schools, families, religious institutions might find it a fulfilling way to directly aide people in distress.
Wings might have a paypal account where individuals could donate in order to cover administration costs.
When Major Steve Danyluk published an article in the NY Times about the conditions in Iraq after the invasion in 2002, I saw an opportunity to try out this idea. I wrote him requesting an address that I could send to my friends and family in order to ship supplies into Baghdad. I had the idea for Wings but had not put together a site yet. Never before had I sent out an email to all of my contacts in my computer. But I did. And, I requested that everyone forward the email to everyone they knew. A month later, Steve sent me a picture of a storeroom in Baghdad filled with boxes from families all over America. It was a very gratifying moment.
Then, I got busy, and I forgot about the idea. Plus, I'm not a web designer. I just have this good idea that, I think, would really work.
What does one do when one is sitting on a good idea but unable to see it through?
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