16. Proposed reward system for pioneers to motivate them to work without pay

Abstract:

Working for someone else without a salary is not very motivating. Working for yourself and your family without a salary is very rewarding. 

Escape from persecution, war and famine and the search for freedom in a new land is one of the main reasons for refuges wanting to becoming pioneers. Another reason for many is the freedom to work and prosper with the hope of being able to help their family members and their friends left behind. Many also have high hopes of eventually becoming wealthy. Providing basic facilities for tourists seeking wilderness will not get anyone wealthy, no matter how hard they work. But with enough time and dedicated work, serving tourists can grow into profitable family owned businesses.

The question arises as to how homesteaders could be motivated to work without pay.

In the very beginning, the new pioneers are members of a communal community, living in a communal center. The communal center is set up as a non-profit organization working as a cooperative. Any profits are handled and managed by this organization and are used to grow their community, to set up new ones, to pay off any loans, and to sponsor new refugees to become pioneers.  Homesteaders receive building materials from the communal community. They work without pay to support and grow their community and to further develop their homesteads to be self-sufficient. Once the pioneers are assigned homesteads, they spend more time working on their plot of land and less time working on communal projects.  Their work remains unpaid.

It is recognized that people need motivation and incentives to work without pay. The main motivation comes from the guarantee that they are working on land that they will eventually own. Once the facilities are built for paying tourists, incentives need to be given so that the pioneers continue their hard work to ensure that they have more and more tourists to serve. Because the money received from the tourists are paid to the community, incentives to motivate the homesteaders to work hard and satisfy tourist so that they return and recommend their friends to come is in the form of merit points.

Each homesteader is responsible to serve tourists that are accommodated on their plot of land. The amount of merit points that they receive are determined by the following: the number of tourists that they accommodate and the quality of the feedback the tourists provide. With accumulated merit points, the homesteaders can sponsor relatives and have free time for paid vacations. 

Homesteaders who have become citizens can sell their homesteads and family businesses to anyone who is willing to join this non-profit cooperative and abide by its rules.