Social: Crowd-Sourcing For Targeted Cause or Change May Be Way Of The Future

Source:  Bloomberg.

Want to build a new man-made lake for your city park but there is no financing for it?  Well, maybe the city or state can raise taxes or sell some munipical bonds.  Well, if this long-shot publicity seeking Indigogo campaign actually can raise $1.6 billion euros, well, then maybe this could be the model for future projects or changes that ordinary citizens can follow.  And it's unlikely that a lake will cost anywhere near the amount it takes to bail out a member of the EU so the task of doing smaller projects would be far less daunting.

Let's say a small town needs to build a new crosswalk and warning lights near an area where children are known to play.  That is a manageable total that many concerned netizens will have no problem contributing. 

Of course, it would require a much more vigorous vetting process to make sure fraudulent fund-raising is mitigated. It would also require a lot of bureacracy as well as participation from elected or appointed officials to make things happen. 

There is predecent for this.  In California, voters are often asked to vote on bonds for state measures.  This happens quite a lot for cities as well.  To pay for a new school or money for research.  This often means the voters approve or disapprove of measure to borrow money for a specific need. 

With a crowd-sourced venture, everything is voluntary and funding is guranteed upon the goal of the amount being raised is reached. In the past, I've participated in crowd-sourcing that deal with helping community start their own community farms. 

Perhaps, this is the way to go forward where money is directed as specific projects instead of being through various government agencies that make things more difficult than it has to be. 

Note:  I'll be watching the Greek Bailout Fund with interest on Indiegogo.  It'll never reach its goal but it is still fun to watch how high it'll go.