Generosity for Potential

Economic Law #6: The Boaz Principle Elevated

“The value enabled by generosity exceeds the cost of the corner.”

The Kiva Proof

In 2005, Matt Flannery and Jessica Jackley founded Kiva with a radical premise: lend money to people who traditional banks wouldn’t touch, and trust them to pay it back.

The results:

Traditional economics said this was impossible. People without collateral, without credit history, without the “right” background — they were bad bets. The math didn’t work.

Except it did.

Kiva proved that generosity for potential creates more value than it costs.

The Missing Variable

Traditional economic models calculate:

Expected Value = Probability(Success) × Return - Cost

When the probability of success is low (as assumed for “risky” borrowers), the expected value goes negative. Don’t lend.

But this model is missing a variable:

True Value = Probability(Success) × Return - Cost + Value(Enabled)

Value(Enabled) is what happens when you give someone a chance:

• The business they build
• The jobs they create
• The community they strengthen
• The next generation they educate
• The cycle of generosity they perpetuate

Kiva’s 96% repayment rate wasn’t despite the “risky” borrowers — it was because of the generosity that enabled them.

The Destruction of Withholding

The flip side of this equation is equally important:

The lack of generosity destroys far more than it saves.

When you don’t leave the corner of the field:

• Potential entrepreneurs never start
• Potential innovations never happen
• Potential communities never form
• Potential cycles of generosity never begin

The “savings” from not being generous are visible and countable.

The destruction from withholding is invisible and incalculable.

From Boaz to Platform Economics

The Book of Ruth, Chapter 2, describes Boaz instructing his workers:

“Leave some grain in the corners of the field. Don’t harvest everything. Let those who cannot buy come and gather what’s left.”

This wasn’t charity in the modern sense. It was structural generosity — built into the system by design.

The Gleaner’s Corner in Liana Banyan works the same way:

That 3.3% isn’t a cost. It’s an investment in potential.

Who Gleans?

The Gleaner’s Corner serves:

1. New members (< 90 days) — Getting started is hard
2. Members below income threshold — Circumstances vary
3. Members in recovery from setbacks — Life happens
4. Random selection (5%) — So gaming is pointless

Notice: this isn’t means-testing in the degrading sense. It’s structural opportunity — the corner is there by design, and people gather from it with dignity.

The Equation

Potential(enabled) > Cost(corner)

Where:

• Potential(enabled) = The value created by people who got a chance
• Cost(corner) = The 3.3% allocated to the Gleaner’s Corner

This isn’t speculation. Kiva proved it with $2 billion in loans and 96% repayment.

The corner creates more than it costs.

Why This Is Law #6

The original Five Economic Laws included the Boaz Principle as Law #4 (Structural Gleaning). But that framing focused on the mechanism — the 3.3% allocation.

Law #6 elevates the principle — the reason the mechanism works:

Both are necessary. The mechanism without the principle is just math. The principle without the mechanism is just philosophy.

Together, they’re economics that actually work.

The Jessica Jackley Connection

Jessica Jackley, co-founder of Kiva, understood something that most economists miss:

“Poverty isn’t just about money. It’s about opportunity, dignity, and the chance to prove what you can do.”

Kiva didn’t just lend money. It lent belief. And that belief created value that the money alone never could have.

Liana Banyan’s Gleaner’s Corner operates on the same principle. The 3.3% isn’t just resources — it’s the platform saying: “We believe in your potential.”

Practical Implementation

How does Generosity for Potential work in practice?

For New Members

• Access credits for platform services
• Discounted essential goods during onboarding
• Priority for opportunities to build reputation
• Welcome resources to get started

For Members in Recovery

• Temporary support during setbacks
• Reduced barriers to re-engagement
• Maintained dignity — this is rights, not charity

For Random Selection

• 5% of everyone else gets occasional gleaning access
• Unpredictable — so gaming is pointless
• Universal — everyone might benefit

The Wry Part

Traditional platforms say: “We take 30% because we provide value.”

We say: “We take 16.7%, tell you exactly where every penny goes, and literally give away part of the margin by design — because the giving away creates more value than keeping it.”

That’s not charity. That’s economics.

Kiva proved it. We’re implementing it.

Connection to Other Laws

Generosity for Potential connects to every other economic law:

Conclusion

The Boaz Principle has two parts:

1. Structural Gleaning (Law #5): Build generosity into the math
2. Generosity for Potential (Law #6): The enabled value exceeds the cost

Kiva proved this with $2 billion and 96% repayment.

The corner of the field doesn’t just help gleaners. It enables entire economies that wouldn’t exist without that initial chance.

Potential(enabled) > Cost(corner)

That’s not philosophy. That’s math.

Next: The Inception Principle — Nothing new under the sun, only new ways of seeing

Jonathan R. Jones is the founder of Liana Banyan Corporation. Jessica Jackley’s work with Kiva directly inspired the platform’s approach to structural generosity.