Graduation Dynamics
Every member. Every month. Members receive collective capital as investable capital, co-own the businesses they fund, and earn permanent income streams. A member's level is how much of their spend those streams now cover — Level 10 means fully covered. Graduation = every member fully covered, rising together in lockstep.
PARAMETERSThis is the operating panel — tune ratios, observe emergence
Members & Economics
Founding fraction = the share of families present at the start; the rest arrive steadily over the arrival window. 1 / 0 = a founders' convention (everyone at once). Turn it down and members join a community already in flight — they still all graduate, and latecomers reach independence faster. (Whether ownership repays the founders' longer wait is a network-tree result — see Businesses That Spawn Businesses.) See Joining a Community Already in Flight.
The whole surplus becomes collective capital (PSP = 0): operating costs sit inside the margin. Spend spread makes families differ: 0 = everyone needs the same to live (identical); turn it up and each family gets its own budget (a wide range, biggest several times the smallest), and each graduates to its own full coverage. See When Members Aren't Identical.
Business Investment
By default the return is the assumed Annual ROI. Set members served above 0 to earn it instead: the return becomes an investor slice (PSP) of the business's productive profit — members' routed spend at a real margin — and the ROI emerges —
ROI = 12·PSP·(members·spend·margin)/capital. Member-dense businesses clear a high return; thin/capital-heavy ones don't. See Where Does the Return Come From?Failure rate = the chance a funded business is a total loss; return spread = how much survivors vary around their expected return. Both 0 = deterministic. Failure delays the finish and widens the band but never excludes anyone — and funding more, smaller businesses (lower capital/business) narrows the band. See When Businesses Fail.
Graduation Levels
Return Split (4-way, permanent)
Rotation & Distribution Shape
How steeply the capital piles onto the front of the queue (the "order" below decides who's at the front). Steeper = fewer members funded at once, but each reaches a business faster.
• geometric — ~½ to the leader, ¼ to the next… a few at a time (default).
• geometric (gentle) — same shape, slower decay (more members share).
• quadratic / cubic — strong tilt to the front, but everyone gets some (cubic steeper).
• linear — gentle tilt. • sqrt — very gentle, nearly flat.
• equal — flat: split evenly across all who qualify.
• single lowest — everything to the single leader (extreme rotation). • lowest three — split across the front three.
• geometric — ~½ to the leader, ¼ to the next… a few at a time (default).
• geometric (gentle) — same shape, slower decay (more members share).
• quadratic / cubic — strong tilt to the front, but everyone gets some (cubic steeper).
• linear — gentle tilt. • sqrt — very gentle, nearly flat.
• equal — flat: split evenly across all who qualify.
• single lowest — everything to the single leader (extreme rotation). • lowest three — split across the front three.
Sets who the concentration favors — an ownership dial. Graduation time and income equality barely change across all of these; only who ends up owning the businesses moves.
• need — the member with the exact lowest income leads; spreads ownership widest (default).
• level — the lowest graduation-level cohort leads (banded — everyone at that level is treated equally); coarser than need.
• seniority — the earliest joiner leads; rewards founders by concentrating ownership on them (the "join early, own more" motivator).
• recency — the newest joiner leads; an onboarding boost for late arrivals.
• balanced — half need, half seniority; a middle ground.
• senior-leaning / need-leaning — mostly one, nudged by the other.
• cohort-founder — the lowest level-cohort first, and within that cohort the earliest joiners lead (help the furthest-behind tier while still rewarding its founders).
• ownership — the least-owned member leads, so everyone gets their turn at the bulk CDF to invest with their own agency; spreads ownership the widest of all (the counterweight to founder/champion concentration).
• need-ownership — furthest-behind AND least-owned; equity on both income and ownership.
• custom — compose your own blend with the weights below.
• need — the member with the exact lowest income leads; spreads ownership widest (default).
• level — the lowest graduation-level cohort leads (banded — everyone at that level is treated equally); coarser than need.
• seniority — the earliest joiner leads; rewards founders by concentrating ownership on them (the "join early, own more" motivator).
• recency — the newest joiner leads; an onboarding boost for late arrivals.
• balanced — half need, half seniority; a middle ground.
• senior-leaning / need-leaning — mostly one, nudged by the other.
• cohort-founder — the lowest level-cohort first, and within that cohort the earliest joiners lead (help the furthest-behind tier while still rewarding its founders).
• ownership — the least-owned member leads, so everyone gets their turn at the bulk CDF to invest with their own agency; spreads ownership the widest of all (the counterweight to founder/champion concentration).
• need-ownership — furthest-behind AND least-owned; equity on both income and ownership.
• custom — compose your own blend with the weights below.
Blend weights (compose the order)
These are the relative weights the engine blends (only ratios matter). Picking a named order above fills them in; edit any and the order switches to custom. Set ownership heavy to force wide ownership even alongside seniority.
The phoenix slice is the spillover a parliament spreads across its own below-frontier members (sorted poorest → richest). This shape decides who it favors — it barely moves the graduation date, mostly the texture of the climb.
• median apex (bell) — peaks at the middle earner; rewards the rising middle (default).
• median apex (narrow) — same, but a tight spike at the median.
• bottom-first — the poorest get the most (tightest equality during the climb).
• bottom only — strictly the single poorest.
• top-first — those closest to graduating get the most (fast first graduations, slower tail).
• left-skew / right-skew — concentrate on the poorest few / the richest few.
• uniform — an equal share to everyone below the frontier.
• median apex (bell) — peaks at the middle earner; rewards the rising middle (default).
• median apex (narrow) — same, but a tight spike at the median.
• bottom-first — the poorest get the most (tightest equality during the climb).
• bottom only — strictly the single poorest.
• top-first — those closest to graduating get the most (fast first graduations, slower tail).
• left-skew / right-skew — concentrate on the poorest few / the richest few.
• uniform — an equal share to everyone below the frontier.
Cross-Parliament & Redirect
The cross slice is solidarity — a parliament sends it to the other three parliaments. This decides how it splits among them.
• equal share — the same to each of the other three (default).
• to least-graduated — more to whichever parliament is furthest behind (levels the parliaments).
• to most-graduated — more to whichever is ahead.
• by CDF weight — proportional to each parliament's capital weight. • by headcount — proportional to each parliament's size.
• equal share — the same to each of the other three (default).
• to least-graduated — more to whichever parliament is furthest behind (levels the parliaments).
• to most-graduated — more to whichever is ahead.
• by CDF weight — proportional to each parliament's capital weight. • by headcount — proportional to each parliament's size.
What happens to a parliament's incoming capital once all of its members have graduated.
• off — nothing special; it keeps its share (default).
• full pause — a fully-graduated parliament takes 0; its share is redistributed to the parliaments still climbing (accelerates the stragglers).
• half pause — it keeps half its share as a cushion; the other half is redistributed.
• off — nothing special; it keeps its share (default).
• full pause — a fully-graduated parliament takes 0; its share is redistributed to the parliaments still climbing (accelerates the stragglers).
• half pause — it keeps half its share as a cushion; the other half is redistributed.
Accumulation Hold
During the hold, all returns reinvest and no income is distributed — front-loading the portfolio. There is a real U-curve optimum (see The Seven Years of Plenty): too short under-builds, too long over-delays. Find the best hold for your settings below.
Parliament CDF Weights & Sizes
Diversification (Cross-Join)
Simulation