Comments on: The gift economy and socialist theory http://www.rocketfinance.net/2008/04/24/the-gift-economy-and-socialist-theory/ Finance is not rocket science, unless it is government finance. Sat, 05 Jun 2010 22:48:26 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: plonkeehttp://www.rocketfinance.net/2008/04/24/the-gift-economy-and-socialist-theory/comment-page-1/#comment-2253 plonkee Fri, 25 Apr 2008 20:46:30 +0000 http://www.rocketfinance.net/?p=300#comment-2253 The gift economy isn't like communism - and I think Marx argued that it was actually in the labour class' rational best interests to collectivise, rather than being forced (whether he was right being an entirely different matter). One of the most important things about the gift economy is the social capital that you gain through giving things away - it's like the reverse of classic capitalist status symbols.It has been the dominant economic mode in entire societies, although they were all relatively small. If it only ever works on small scales I wouldn't be very surprised, it relies extensively on trust, and shared history which is hard to build up in groups over about 150 in size (outside specific examples like blood donation). It is really, really good for some sorts of transactions/groups just like tax and gov't spending is better than strict capitalism at funding say the military. The gift economy isn’t like communism – and I think Marx argued that it was actually in the labour class’ rational best interests to collectivise, rather than being forced (whether he was right being an entirely different matter). One of the most important things about the gift economy is the social capital that you gain through giving things away – it’s like the reverse of classic capitalist status symbols.

It has been the dominant economic mode in entire societies, although they were all relatively small. If it only ever works on small scales I wouldn’t be very surprised, it relies extensively on trust, and shared history which is hard to build up in groups over about 150 in size (outside specific examples like blood donation). It is really, really good for some sorts of transactions/groups just like tax and gov’t spending is better than strict capitalism at funding say the military.

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