<strong>Written By:</strong> Ed Deak
<strong>Date:</strong> 2006-03-29 14:11:47
<a href="/article/95147741-dollar-hegemony-against-sovereign-credit">Article Link</a>

Prior to the coming of capitalistic industrialization, the market played only a minor part in the economic life of societies. Even where marketplaces could be seen to be operating, they were peripheral to the main economic organization and activities of society. In many pre-industrial economies, markets met only twice a month. Polanyi argued that in modern market economies, the needs of the market determined social behavior, whereas in pre-industrial and primitive economies the needs of society determined market behavior. Polanyi reintroduced to economics the concepts of reciprocity and redistribution in human interaction, which were the original aims of trade.

Reciprocity implies that people produce the goods and services they are best at and enjoy producing the most, and share them with others with joy. This is reciprocated by others who are good at and enjoy producing other goods and services. There is an unspoken agreement that all would produce that which they could do best and mutually share and share alike, not just sold to the highest bidder or, worse, to produce what they despise to meet the demands of the market. The idea of sweatshops is totally unnatural to human dignity and uneconomic to human welfare. With reciprocity, there is no need for layers of management, because workers happily practice their livelihoods and need no coercive supervision. Labor is not forced and workers do not merely sell their time in jobs they hate, unrelated to their inner callings. Prices are not fixed but vary according to what different buyers with different circumstances can afford or what the seller needs in return from different buyers. The law of one price is inhumane, unnatural, inflexible and unfair. All workers find their separate personal fulfillment in different productive livelihoods of their choosing, without distortion by the need for money. The motivation to produce and share is not personal profit, but personal fulfillment, and avoidance of public contempt, communal ostracism, and loss of social prestige and moral standing.

This motivation, albeit distorted today by the dominance of money, is still fundamental in societies operating under finance capitalism. But in a money society, the emphasis is on accumulating the most financial wealth, which is accorded the highest social prestige. The annual report on the world's richest 100 as celebrities by Forbes is clear evidence of this anomaly. The opinions of figures such as Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are regularly sought by the media on matters beyond finance, as if the possession of money itself represents a diploma of wisdom. In the 1960s, wealth was an embarrassment among the flower children in the US. It was only in the 1980s that the age of greed emerged to embrace commercialism.

<a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/GF24Dj01.html">http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/GF24Dj01.html</a>

   

It does seem to me that the fickle trends of our day represent the ends of many of our personal fulfillment trades. They are disappearing because of the economic changes due to the marketing of style and image, making fashion, clothes, furniture, cars, and even homes change with dizzying frequency. I feel that someone in say woodwork or wrought iron work who truly loves their trade never really gets to become efficient enough to be called a master. Fewer and fewer true craftsmen are left because of this global thinking.

   

as a student at an art school, I see people use classical art and such to create soemthing new through juxtaposition and collage etc. which tends to make me think of how funny it is: we see a classical object (say, Victorian-style, "kitschy") and think its "boring" or that its "pointless" to show it (cos its been done before), but I dont think people realize how much it takes to make something like that. We may have seen it, but it doesn't mean we can make it or can come anywhere close to making it... Not that there aren't some very talented artists out there nowadays, of course.

   

thanks for the article, it looks interesting. It always seem amazing to think of what has come before. Hope to find the time to read the rest (13+ pages article...)

   

Yes you're right. and there is nothing wrong with expression in art and design. Art is timeless and will never go out of style. Fad could be considered art "lite" I suppose. I don't believe victorian or gothic to be ugly although to some it may be.

   

if ever there was a time to apply critical thoinking to a top it is with this article!

The following exerpted paragraphs leeap off the page with
Falsitie!
Either that or we are being lied to
No strike that! We ARE being lied to and and have been for so long we now see truth as lies and lies as truth.(verymuch like armyguy troll troll dig dig)
the world and "ahem, s-o-c-i-e-t-i-e-s are set up to serve those who set them up.
The set-ups largely benefit the setee, while the citizenry pays the tab.
I see my function as that of an Awakener, one who awakes the sleepers to the discoveries ( remove from cover) I make
It is that way we all gain knowledge
I have those who bring to me an awakening the non practicing lawyers, friends with a common interest, Sovereign Citizens, writers through their books and a great many contributors here.
It is in the way we, the concerned may benefit, don't you think?

"Money and gold
When money is not backed by gold, its exchange value must be managed by government, more specifically by the monetary policies of the central bank. No responsible government will voluntarily let the market set the exchange value of its currency, market fundamentalism notwithstanding. Yet central bankers tend to be attracted to the gold standard because it can relieve them of the unpleasant and thankless responsibility of unpopular monetary policies to sustain the value of money. Central bankers have been caricatured as party spoilers who take away the punch bowl just when the party gets going.

Yet even a gold standard is based on a fixed value of money to gold, set by someone to reflect the underlying economic conditions at the time of its setting. Therein lies the inescapable need for human judgment. Instead of focusing on the appropriateness of the level of money valuation under changing economic conditions, central banks often become fixated on merely maintaining a previously set exchange rate between money and gold, doing serious damage in the process to any economy temporarily out of sync with that fixed rate. It seldom occurs to central bankers that the fixed rate was the problem, not the dynamic economy. When the exchange value of a currency falls, central bankers often feel a personal sense of failure, while they merely shrug their shoulders to refer to natural laws of finance when the economy collapses from an overvalued currency."

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Real education must ultimately be limited to men who insist on knowing, the rest is mere sheep-herding.
Ezra Pound