The Gift Economy: Really Really Free Market SF

[blackredflagnet]

I am an Anarchist, specifically Anarcho-Syndicalist.....I do think that some things should be owned in common, like land and the means of production and access to resources.....But I am highly skeptical that a gift economy could function in an urban environment, especially an American urban environment. I believe it could function as a system inside a commune, in a tribe, in a European village, but I think that some things really are scarce and that without a market socialist phase it wont work.

[death9719]

this could be a basis of an anarchist economy

[ForAVoluntarySociety]

@death9719 lol it already is

[Liberty4awl]

Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day i can hear her breathing. Arundhati Roy. This is the birth of the system we must implement among ourselves with no ties to the corporate world. Anarchy is Gods system. True anarchists are angels. God bless you and may it give you the strength, temerity and grace to expand.

[button1943]

fantastic

[button1943]

i ran a give and take stall on our local market in connahs quay wales uk for 7 years fantastic feeling to give without expecting anything in return

[Gigastorm123]

comunity service comprising of all mundane boring tasks needing done, whatever the scociety NEEDS as their way of life dictates is organized and shared equaly by all individuals. jobs such as artist, arcutectural design, and other things that add to the constructive joy of the community are seperate and optional for all individuals. food is grown in hydroponics and this is also part of community service. basicly all nessesitys are given, then the frivilous things are left to the barter system

[Veloce3]

Brilliant....absolutely friggin brilliant!.......This is  how it should be

[kev3d]

Ok, so the Barber gives away free hair cuts...who makes the scissors? How do pineapples from Hawaii make it to New York? Good intentions? Giving gifts, loaning books and doing favors is fine but it is no way to run an economy. Money and the price system were invented out of necessity, because there IS scarcity, mostly scarcity of time hence why we pay people for their time to build or transport goods and services to us. Also, note how most of the "gifts" in the vid are second hand. Why?

[dogsters666]

it is indeed second hand. if we value gold over what we eat and wear, then we should have consumed gold literally to exist after all LOL. I think this is a matter or sharing things, not "owning" them as what greedy men wanted them to.

[brightsuperstition]

@kev3d

Why should there be a contradiction between giving things away and producing them? Production of scissors and pineapples and others still exists under a gift economy. If you think it's all about giving, then you have a narrow and skewed idea of the entire concept. Gift economy is more about the ethics aspect. Its ethics are the complete opposite of a market- or barter-based economy, which is based on the idea of greed. Read David Graeber's "On Mauss" or his upcoming "Debt."

[juliaisafilmbuff123]

@brightsuperstition I agree with you, but how are barter markets based on greed necessarily?

[AfricanPrince]

The idea of a gift economy fucking excites me. A truly compassionate society would have a gift economy.

[GeorgesBarras]

I agree.

[xceedchaos]

what an excellent cause

[thanewnotion]

RIP

[chrispiecritters]

RIP Kirsten Brydum