Values of the market
By mookhor
@mookhor (304)
India
September 15, 2008 11:36am CST
The ancient economic operation of mankind was limited to the barter system and with the development and changes in the production system markets and gradually modern markets have evolved. And now this market has entered into our soul and affected us in such a way that values of the market have displaced our standing human values. It has changed us to such extent that values to us are mostly cash-nexus value. Should we accept this as anything good ?
3 responses
@grandpa_lash (5225)
• Australia
15 Oct 08
There are a number of modern economists, Herman Daly being one, and other social commentators like Vandana Shiva and the neo-Luddite writer Kirkpatrick Sale, just to mention a handful, who champion a return to a moral economy, one based in social rather than economic gains.
They speak of a monetary system (we cannot realistically return to barter except in a very localised sense) that is based on labour-created value rather than exchange created value (like ihterest, stock markets, currency trading etc.). They are the vanguard of a movement away from globalised capital, economic rationalism, centralised bureaucracies, and computer-generated wealth.
Should we accept the things they are fighting as good? Only if we wish to see the gap between the rich and poor open to an even more gaping chasm, to see the world's environmental systems suffer too much damage to recover, and the incidence of war and terrorism become even more endemic than they already are.
Lash
1 person likes this
@mookhor (304)
• India
1 Nov 08
Thanks for your sharing.
I have heard of Vandana Shiva and whatever they have been propagating are received by a few of course unfortunately. We have been smashed by the capitalism that ensures own life on incessant plundering and again by the socialism that considers mankind nothing else than machines only. All the attempts of the religious teachers right from the Buddha have been found to be declared as wealth and those are never to be used in real life.
A pessimist one may call me and that I think is not right. I have been pained and yes, I am in pain.
@grandpa_lash (5225)
• Australia
1 Nov 08
Shiva is just one of a number of Indian academics who write on the issues you have brought up. Tariq Banuri, Ramachandran Guha, and V. K. Ramachandran are a few others who come to mind. Many of them are published by Zed Books, and if you are able to get access to a good academic library, it would be worth having a look at some of their publications.
Lash
1 person likes this
@grandpa_lash (5225)
• Australia
1 Nov 08
By the way, I had given up hope of you ever returning to any of your discussions, several of which I have responded to, as has my partner, Sharra1. It makes it seem a bit pointless even bothering with them, desoite the fact that they are interesting.
Lash
1 person likes this
@ronaldinu (12422)
• Malta
1 Nov 08
I don't think that you can change the economic system much. However although I would have a better life if I had a lot of money, I don;t make money as my god. Money are only a means to live a good life. You can still be happy without money although it would be harder.
© ronaldinu 2008
1 person likes this
@sharra1 (6340)
• Australia
15 Oct 08
No we shouldn't accept this as it is one of the worst things we have ever done. Capitalism was not too bad when it first started but when the economic rationalists took over in the 19th century and suddenly the only thing that mattered was money. That attitude has destroyed our society. With this system the world can fall apart as long as you still make money. People have no value.
I think this is the worst thing that ever happened to the human race and the planet. If we do not stop this and change our values back to caring for the community and the planet then we are doomed as a race.
