On mini-economies
Jul. 1st, 2015 01:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
peterbirksReading Graber's "Debt, the First 5,000 years", it struck me that I could create my own early economic and monetary system by getting an allotment, growing excess food, and "giving" it to my neighbours, along with a note that, if they had any skills or produce of which they had an excess, some kind of return, at an unspecified time in the future, would be appreciated.
This would not be barter. I could quite easily write paper notes saying "X - 10 tomatoes", and, if X signed it, that person could be said to owe me the equivalent of 10 tomatoes, with tomatoes thus becoming a de facto "currency", equal to whatever X and I decided was a fair service in return (say, 15 minutes' work).
So, if my neighbour was an accountant, they might one day help me with a small tax problem. Or if my neighbour were a lawyer, they might one day help me with a legal problem. Electricians, plumbers, cleaners, writers, administrators,etc, could all partake in this neat little economy, which would add to the national wealth, but which would not appear in the state's records of GDP.
But there are two areas, quite different from each other, where my neighbour could not be a member of this system. The first would be where my neighbour was in human resources, or marketing (I am sure there are other types of job that fit into this category, but those were the two that first occurred to me). What could that person offer me in return?
It's tempting to say that this shows how useless these professions are, but that would be too simplistic. They are in essence jobs which are a product of a developed economy. In the simple kind of economy, they have no place. Marketing is, I feel, essentially zero-sum. It's not increasing total wealth; but it can increase individual companies' wealth at the expense of others. Human resources, meanwhile, is a product of large organizations. It is not needed in small mini-economies. It is, in effect, a small "price" to be paid for the far greater production levels that can be achieved by larger organizations and more complex economies.
The second area is one where the state has nationalized the service and made it one that is supplied without cost to the individual user and that cost is shared by all members of the economy who pay tax. Why should I operate my own mini-economy with a person whose services I can get for no payment elsewhere?
I do not know if this area of economics has been covered at length elsewhere, but it's an interesting point. Once a service is made "free", any person offering that service has no value within a mini private economy, unless that person can offer an added value (such as out-of-hours service, more personal service) that can be assigned a value.
So, if any of my neighbours are electricians or plumbers or lawyers or accountants, they could become part of my new economy, but people in marketing and human resources must, I fear, work within the large economy alone.
This would not be barter. I could quite easily write paper notes saying "X - 10 tomatoes", and, if X signed it, that person could be said to owe me the equivalent of 10 tomatoes, with tomatoes thus becoming a de facto "currency", equal to whatever X and I decided was a fair service in return (say, 15 minutes' work).
So, if my neighbour was an accountant, they might one day help me with a small tax problem. Or if my neighbour were a lawyer, they might one day help me with a legal problem. Electricians, plumbers, cleaners, writers, administrators,etc, could all partake in this neat little economy, which would add to the national wealth, but which would not appear in the state's records of GDP.
But there are two areas, quite different from each other, where my neighbour could not be a member of this system. The first would be where my neighbour was in human resources, or marketing (I am sure there are other types of job that fit into this category, but those were the two that first occurred to me). What could that person offer me in return?
It's tempting to say that this shows how useless these professions are, but that would be too simplistic. They are in essence jobs which are a product of a developed economy. In the simple kind of economy, they have no place. Marketing is, I feel, essentially zero-sum. It's not increasing total wealth; but it can increase individual companies' wealth at the expense of others. Human resources, meanwhile, is a product of large organizations. It is not needed in small mini-economies. It is, in effect, a small "price" to be paid for the far greater production levels that can be achieved by larger organizations and more complex economies.
The second area is one where the state has nationalized the service and made it one that is supplied without cost to the individual user and that cost is shared by all members of the economy who pay tax. Why should I operate my own mini-economy with a person whose services I can get for no payment elsewhere?
I do not know if this area of economics has been covered at length elsewhere, but it's an interesting point. Once a service is made "free", any person offering that service has no value within a mini private economy, unless that person can offer an added value (such as out-of-hours service, more personal service) that can be assigned a value.
So, if any of my neighbours are electricians or plumbers or lawyers or accountants, they could become part of my new economy, but people in marketing and human resources must, I fear, work within the large economy alone.
