# Decentralize Everything *Project 2026 Framework — Principle #2 of 9* > **"Distribute ownership, distribute power, distribute prosperity."** --- ## Contents 1. [Definition](#definition) 2. [Context & Motivation](#context--motivation) 3. [Ownership & Governance](#ownership--governance) 4. [Basic Needs as Domains](#basic-needs-as-domains) 5. [Tensions & Honest Limits](#tensions--honest-limits) 6. [Transition Strategy](#transition-strategy) 7. [Living Examples in Lansing](#living-examples-in-lansing) 8. [Related Principles](#related-principles) --- ## Definition Decentralize Everything is a structural and values commitment to organizing society so that power, ownership, and decision-making are distributed as close as possible to the people experiencing consequences — across political, economic, and social systems — as a precondition for genuine democracy and human dignity. It operates as a *default principle*: concentration of power is the disease; distribution is the cure in most cases. Centralization remains possible, but it requires justification. The burden of proof is flipped. > **Core claim:** Legitimate democratic participation requires a material stake. A material stake without democratic voice is simply a different form of dependency. Both ownership and governance must move together to mean anything. --- ## Context & Motivation Project 2026, initiated by The Fledge in January 2026, is a direct response to Project 2025 — a plan to consolidate power in the executive branch, replace non-partisan federal infrastructure with ideologically loyal appointees, and reduce the independence of institutions. Its logic is *concentration*. Project 2026's counter-logic is the inverse: if power is distributed across communities, cooperatives, DAOs, micro-enterprises, and locally governed institutions, there is no single chokepoint to capture. You cannot take over what no one controls. > **The ship analogy:** We are building an alternative ship. When we pull alongside the sinking ship, people can jump over if they want. We are not asking for sacrifice — we are offering a better option. Crucially, this ship is structured so that no private equity or distant authority can own it. --- ## Ownership & Governance Decentralization without both ownership and governance is incomplete. Separating them is how concentrated power sustains itself: | Condition | Result | |---|---| | Nominal governance + concentrated ownership | Governance becomes theater | | Distributed ownership + technocratic governance | Ownership becomes passive | | Both ownership and governance distributed together | Genuine community sovereignty | ### Sovereignty Sovereignty means taking back ownership of real things — land, houses, built capital — so they cannot be easily taken away. It also means protecting those rights through community. Rights are only as real as the community's capacity and willingness to protect them. Legal protection and social protection must be built simultaneously. This is why culture (see *Permeate the Culture*) is the long-term infrastructure of sovereignty — social cohesion is what makes legal structures real. --- ## Basic Needs as Domains The goal is to convert each ALICE-defined basic need into a community-owned, cooperatively governed micro-enterprise. Private equity currently owns much of this infrastructure. The work is to get it back. ALICE stands for **Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed**. The ALICE Threshold represents the minimum a person, couple, or family needs to earn to afford all basic needs. ### ALICE Core Needs | Need | Decentralized Form | |---|---| | **Housing** | Community land trusts, cooperative ownership | | **Healthcare** | Community health cooperatives | | **Childcare** | Parent-governed cooperative centers | | **Food** | Urban farms, food co-ops, local distribution networks | | **Transportation** | Community-owned mobility infrastructure | | **Technology** | Municipal broadband, open-source tools | ### Extended Domains In addition to the six core ALICE needs, the following are treated as important domains in their own right — implied or embedded in the core six, but deserving explicit attention: | Domain | Decentralized Form | |---|---| | **Energy** | Microgrids, community solar | | **Education** | Community-governed learning institutions | | **Justice** | Safety, security, restorative systems | | **Environment** | Commons governance (Ostrom model) | --- ## Tensions & Honest Limits The framework acknowledges real tensions where full decentralization is not straightforward. ### Coordination Problems at Scale Some problems require centralized data, procurement, or interoperability — pandemic response, climate infrastructure, financial systemic risk. The answer is not to decentralize delivery while centralizing accountability, but to be intentional: decentralize what can be decentralized, and justify clearly what cannot. ### Rights Require Floors Civil rights were centralized *against* local majorities. Decentralization can protect against tyranny from above while enabling tyranny from within. This is why Radical Inclusion (#5) must operate in explicit tension with decentralization — community self-governance cannot become community exclusion. ### Capital Mobility Local ownership can be undermined by capital that simply relocates. A cooperative in Lansing still operates in a financialized economy. Decentralizing ownership locally, without addressing macro-level rules of capital movement, produces islands of democratic economy in a sea that can overwhelm them. This requires policy work at city and state levels simultaneously. --- ## Transition Strategy Concentrated ownership didn't happen accidentally — it was produced and protected by law, finance, and political power. The transition strategy operates on three simultaneous tracks. ### 1. Build Alternatives (Demonstrate the Model) Cooperative micro-enterprises, community land trusts, and DAO-governed collectives demonstrate viability at small scale. Critically, they are structured to resist extraction — not just better services, but structurally different ownership that cannot be acquired or coopted in the standard way. ### 2. Policy Change at City & State Level The goal is to make extractive, absentee investment less profitable than participatory, local investment — not to ban capital, but to favor *rooted* capital. Specific policy levers include: - **Right of first refusal ordinances** — require sellers of residential or commercial property to offer it to tenants or community land trusts before selling on the open market (precedent: Washington D.C.) - **Speculation and vacancy taxes** — raise the cost of extractive holding; fund community acquisition - **Community benefit agreements** — require large development projects to negotiate directly with affected communities, including equity stakes or affordable unit set-asides - **Local procurement preference** — city contracts prioritize worker-owned and locally-owned businesses, building the cooperative economy through public spending - **Anti-displacement zoning** — protect existing residents and small businesses in appreciating neighborhoods through community-controlled overlay zones - **Community revolving loan funds** — keep investment returns local and recirculate them into cooperative development ### 3. Regenerative Capital Accumulation Every dollar of surplus generated by a cooperative that is reinvested locally rather than extracted is a small act of economic sovereignty. At scale — through revolving loan funds, community investment vehicles, and DAO treasury management — this becomes parallel financial infrastructure. The [Mondragon cooperative system](https://www.mondragon-corporation.com/) in the Basque Country built this over decades and is a primary reference model. ### 4. Starve Failing Systems Systems that extract value and socialize cost are the failing systems. As alternatives mature, resources, participation, and legitimacy are redirected away from those systems — not as sacrifice, but as natural migration to something that works better. --- ## Living Examples in Lansing The following projects are active demonstrations of the decentralization framework in practice: - **[Sunshine House](#)** — Cooperative housing ownership model - **[Urbandale Farm](#)** — Urban food production and cooperative distribution - **[The Entrepreneurial Journey](#)** — Cooperative prosperity and wealth building - **[Fledge DAO](#)** — Decentralized autonomous governance; will eventually contain all members of all collectives and govern the organization in a decentralized and autonomous manner *Replace `#` links above with your actual URLs.* --- ## Related Principles - Create a True Democracy — Principle #1 - Sovereignty — Principle #3 - Permeate the Culture — Principle #4 - Radical Inclusion — Principle #5 - Starve the Failing Systems — Principle #6 - Create True Opportunity for Prosperity — Principle #7 - Basic Needs are Basic Rights — Principle #9 --- ### Further Reading - [United Way ALICE](https://www.unitedforalice.org/) - [Cooperative Ownership](https://www.co-oplaw.org/) - [Worker-Owned Co-ops](https://www.usworker.coop/) - [Mondragon Corporation](https://www.mondragon-corporation.com/) --- *Project 2026 · The Fledge · Lansing, Michigan · December January 2025*