Economic Networks

Provisioning, in this context, means providing human and ecological needs (like food, shelter, energy, health care, etc) for some community. Social provisioning means to do it with and for all of the members of the community, so that everybody has all they need to live. (Unlike the USA where many people are homeless and starve.)

None of that actually requires money.

I first learned the meaning of social provisioning from Gladys Foster, who, with her husband J. Fagg Foster, were Institutional Economists https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institutional_economics . Institutionalism was a school of economics that was started by Thorstein Veblen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorstein_Veblen , among others, who criticized capitalism.

How can social provisioning be accomplished in the real world?

I know of no living examples. Historical examples include https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandan and several other North American tribes that were matrilineal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrilineality , living in large multi-family dwellings built and managed by groups of women.

All of those cultures were killed by capitalist invaders who paved the way for settlers from Europe, who included my ancestors. I was born on Mandan territory.

Here are several proposals for social provisioning systems:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NwEcKf-AlD3WlvHFNCmGmDKp9NerPeAaHeTHTrdF628/edit?usp=sharing

The one I like best, called the General Catalog of needs in that overview, has been retracted by its author, although I disagree and still like it.

But none of those proposals has been implemented, as far. This one still seems to be active: https://participatoryeconomy.org/