Essays, Analyses and Meditations


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From Non-commercial Societies to Market Societies

  • In traditional societies social relations are more important than money (exchanges of free gifts, assumed to be reciprocated, prevail over buy and sell)
  • In traditional societies the main motivation for production is the sustenance of one's family (and the performance of public rites)
  • In traditional societies the larger society is an extension of family
  • Ancient civilizations (from Egypt's old kingdom to feudal Europe) everywhere had economies based on redistribution of wealth
  • Economy (in Greek: oeconomia) was production for domestic use
  • Culture was a vehicle for enforcing sociomoral values
  • Modern western society increasingly isolated the individual, which led to an emphasy on economic self-interest instead of communal sharing
  • Instead of a gift-driven society, you get a society in which nothing is free, not even a "favor"
  • Wealth becomes the main driver of the economy
  • The economy becomes a market economy, in which everything has a price and the price is determined by supply and demand
  • Production of goods is mainly for the purpose of selling, not using
  • Culture becomes a vehicle for advertising production that is for global sale