Motivations_for_a_non-market,_pay-it-forward_global_system                   | 20070703182810 | {{cae}}

== Advantages of market-based economies ==

* markets are ''decentralized'', requiring no global point of information or control
* the price system helps people decide what is most important to them and what to leave for others
* markets are lightweight and scalable, allowing for a range of participation by each individual.  there are no absolute requirements to market participation.

== Problems with the market ==

=== Transaction costs and crowding out effects in the market ===

* http://benkler.org/SharingNicely.html

=== Money and inequity ===

The market operates via cash, and cash has the problem
of deriving its value from scarcity.  It would be worthless (and
therefore an ineffective medium of exchange) if it wasn't scarce, but
that very scarcity is what makes many people's lives miserable and
creates the positive feedback look (via the collection of interest,
because money, being scarce, gets "rented out" by the rich) that
widens the divide between rich and poor.

=== The Tragedy of the commons ===

* [[:wikipedia:Tragedy of the commons]]

=== Artificial scarcity ===

* [[:wikipedia:Artificial scarcity]]

=== Commodification and Isolation interfere with [[:wikipedia:Social capital]] ===

* requires commodification (i.e. homogenization) of goods and services
* tendencies towards separation of markets, consumers, and competing firms, due to advantages from arbitrage, market makers, and middlemen

In general, the capitalist market operates via abstraction, which is
also called commodification: the reinterpretation of a physical/social
real-world offering into a homogeneous product which can be bought or
sold in an anonymous transaction. This process increases liquidity,
which leads to lower prices and higher profits--supposedly good for
consumers and firms alike. The role of a market maker is to perform
this abstraction--to put the market in between you and the things you
need, and to take all the personalness out of products and services.
This may make things cheaper and easier in some ways, but it also
makes us desperate, confused, and alone.

Certain things are inevitable, given the market
and the price system, and one of those is the obsessive intermediation
of everything, and the homogenization of everything in preparation for
the market.

* [http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2006/10/15/more_money_more_problems/ more money more problems]
* http://www.bowlingalone.com/

=== Other problems ===
* http://www.geocities.com/new_economics/money_and_the_price_system.htm

Also, to some extent, the economists are right and
we *are* rational actors.  We have to be, to play by the rules of the game
we're in, because in a market environment weighing costs and benifits is best for our families and selves.  That keeps people thinking in a certain way, rich and poor.


== Advantages of pay-forward gift economies ==

=== Efficiency advantages ===

* see http://benkler.org/SharingNicely.html

=== Psychological advantages ===

I've seen people's consciousness totally transformed in a
matter of days when they become embedded in a [[gift economy]], either at
Burningman, in the Rainbow crowd, or in disaster relief areas.
Suddenly, people are giving them and their family whatever they need,
for free.  And the rules are lifted.  They don't have to think in this
way of homogenizing, commodifying, and intermediating themselves any
more.  With food and lodging secured (and more importantly, good
will)--even stuck in a tent or a homeless shelter, with their lives
and property in ruin--they begin to stop worrying about helping
themselves and their family, and they begin to concentrate on giving
gifts and being connected and unique.  After just a few days of relief
from capital and cash, and exposure to gift.

== See also ==

* http://benkler.org/SharingNicely.html | -|