Money Changes Everything (Or How Everything Has Changed Money Or What Your Parents Have Learned From The Bono Generation)
When Cyndi Lauper said that Money Changes Everything who knew that her words would be turned inside out 20 years later.
The media has made a big deal about Warren Buffet’s huge sum he plans to give away. And it is important.
It’s nice to see the fathers of the Bono generation get with the program and see the value of giving it away, now.
But the real story is what’s happening on a smaller scale.
How the internet is changing the money markets of individuals.
Have you taken a look at Prosper yet?
It allows anyone to loan anyone money.
With interest.
Folks who are getting rejected by banks are finding love in the arms of the digital universe.
The people are starting businesses, making movies or just getting a fresh start, by asking the people.
It’s banking inside out.
And it’s going to be huge.
The same with Kiva.
Folks putting cash into startups in other countries.
Right now it’s philanthropy.
Next it’s going to be for profit.
Or remember igglo. It puts real estate on the market before it’s on the market.
And that trend won’t end with real estate.
Imagine what happens when your job is always open. When you are really a free agent and your boss is like an NFL coach trying to put together a winning team.
If you’re seriously looking into the future, suddenly Terrell Owens looks like a role model.
The internet is really changing everything.
The important money isn’t always the huge sums.
The real important money is sometimes the $20 the internet allows you to directly send to the guy who needs a car.
But kudos anyway to Gates and Buffet.
They are doing a great job following the examples of Bono and Angelina Jolie.
chartreuse 
June 30, 2006 at 8:41 am
How Terrell Owens can be compared to Buffet and Bono is bizzare to me. He is selfish, greedy, and a disgrace to the sport of football.
Other than that, an interesting post. You really don’t like old people do you?
June 30, 2006 at 8:44 am
Don’t like old people? I’m old!
And T.O. is how some successful folks act in a free agent market.
And every market is going to be a free agent market.
June 30, 2006 at 9:27 am
I wish my dead relatives had been so smart. The families they wanted so much to preserve might still be together…
June 30, 2006 at 9:38 am
T.O’s success is controlled by his uncontrolable actions… doesn’t seem to be a role model for a free agent market.
June 30, 2006 at 10:03 am
I am going to be addicted to Kiva and Prosper. I hope they can make it work not so much from getting paid back, but from tracking the money and following the progress.
Best potential charity story going.
June 30, 2006 at 10:43 am
TO = negotiating for market value.
thanks for the prosper and kiva links…it’s revolutionary.
not sure if you’ve heard of http://www.lala.com but it’s operating within the same social network context, just not life and death, unless of course you can’t live without your radio.
June 30, 2006 at 11:44 am
I’m so down. It’s happening. I have an innterview with an old school guy helping new school filmmakkers up today. Viva la revelucion. Or something like that.
June 30, 2006 at 12:27 pm
It’s good that Prosper and Kiva are taking power away from the banks. Banks have too much power.
June 30, 2006 at 2:07 pm
Thanks R for filling folks in on T.O.
He does everything to maximize his price. The antics are all a part of that. As we move into a real free agent market watch accountants do the same thing.
June 30, 2006 at 2:38 pm
Great post. It seems we’re a lot closer to a Free Agent Nation today the \n back in the late 90s when Dan Pink wrote the book (which featured yours truly in several parts).
But the philanthropy angle is why this post is great, mostly due to the ways in which enhanced connection allows meaningful philanthropy to easily occur.
June 30, 2006 at 7:47 pm
It’s mandatory that the next time TO appears on your blog that it’s the espn footage of him doing sit-ups in his drive-way while the neighborhood kids watch. TO (and to a lesser degree, Wu Tang) is for the children.
It’s true, all the fast compant talk of free agency was premature, now theory is closing in on practice. I’m still shaking my head in amazement re:prosper and kiva. Wild
July 4, 2006 at 7:10 am
I’ll try to find a clip of that. It’s classic.