Violet MadderMar 17

@neonsnake @simon_brooke @johnzajac @CorvidCrone @KevinCarson1 @C4SS

A big issue I've always been concerned about, is the reductionist way prices flatten relationships.

I've forgotten where I read about it, but there's an advantage to uneven transactions-- this thing I did for you last week doesn't quite match the value of the thing you did for me this week so I should give you another thing. The remainder is another excuse to continue interacting, an ongoing process of constantly checking where we stand with each other and keeping things in balance.

I paid you $50 for the thing, we're even, period, caps the situation with a finality that obscures any lingering imbalance that's hard to quantify with a calculator.

Monetary values erase emotional values. Emotional labor gets left out of the economy. Emotional and social obligations languish-- leading to moral bankruptcy.

Show threadStephen Dioxide 
@violetmadder @neonsnake @simon_brooke @johnzajac @CorvidCrone @KevinCarson1 @C4SS This is a gift economy, which I studied long ago. It's predicated on the exchange of gifts, but it's vital that you never give back the same thing or something of exactly equivalent value, because that's seen as returning the gift, even rejecting the gift. Instead, you make a different gift. And we continue.
Mar 17 at 4:52pmWeb
Show threadViolet MadderMar 17

@Steve @neonsnake @simon_brooke @johnzajac @CorvidCrone @KevinCarson1 @C4SS

Yeah, that!

Show threadJohnMar 17

@violetmadder @Steve @neonsnake @simon_brooke @CorvidCrone @KevinCarson1 @C4SS

Well, transactionalism - the implosion of all interactions to transactions - is a key pillar of neofascism, for the very reason you cite: essentially, the small imbalances that build up create resentment, which further isolates people and drives them into individualist ideologies.

And individuals do not, as a rule, have any power in the face of the State.

It's Power Consolidation 101. Why they didn't expect MSP.