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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
i don't think gift economy is a good idea.
First, they will strong pressure for people to be seen working. People who looked like or rumored to be relaxing will be ostracized despite the reality.
Second, on a lot of things there are limited/luxury goods, ex : handmade jewelry, for such things market economy do good enough job, it will be more expensive the more people want it, limiting it to 'gift only', would cause 'shadow market' to develop where people give 'gift' who are actually payment (Jeweler would get wine/painting/other expensive stuff as gift), it would just hide the market.
Speaking as someone who's interested in economics and is studying it in college:
Tell me how a gift economy won't devolve into a non-fiat monetary system with consumer goods having comparable value and exchange rates to each other? These goods will eventually be considered to be a type of currency.
How will you prevent this from becoming a market economy with non-fiat currency?
The only way the gift economy will work is if everyone is in on it. Otherwise it's just going to be the same thing you tried to replace.
edited 7th Dec '12 10:18:35 PM by Completion
Alternatives to Currency would be a great title for a thread where this discussion was the topic.
Share it so that people can get into this conversation, 'cause we're not the only ones who think like this.For what it is worth, currency is the best method of assigning value to goods and services. Otherwise, we would be using a different system. The problem is when people become greedy for what is essentially pieces of metal and paper that are only valuable because society deems it so.
edited 7th Dec '12 10:54:12 PM by GameGuruGG
Wizard Needs Food BadlyLooked up the VAWA, apparently there is a House version sponsored by the Republicans that is "omitting provisions of the Senate bill that would protect gay men, lesbians, American Indians, and illegal immigrants who were victims of domestic violence". So, are they doing the same thing they did when the two passed different versions of the AHCA? Is that what's going on?
boopVAWA stands for Violence Against Women Act. Kind of hard to include males in that. What with the purpose of the act being specifically the protection of women from violence.
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The Republicans want to deny protections for Native Americans, LGBT, and illegal immigrants. I'm not even sure what their rationale is for denying protections to legal citizens, but they really don't like immigrants in general. What the Republicans want is to pass an act that doesn't extend protections, and is probably piss poor at protecting the people it does cover. They want this to be voted on and in the process it'll probably (this is only if it works, mind) make any other document doing the same thing get dismissed.
I love the contradiction: we dislike immigrants (they're automatically lazy, as they don't understand how to integrate into our society etc. etc. etc.)... but, screw the native population, they... they... well, they're lazy buggers, too (let's gloss over the fact that they've been here longer as the first group of immigrants, ever)!
@Ace:
Which is why I linked to source 128 on that page.
@Compy: Because it would be beneficial to people as they would find themselves being able to get what they need no matter what, and, once it gets past a generation, it would become more ingrained as people would grow up who never lived under a monetary system would grow up in the gift economy.
Though, as Taoist said, we should probably move this discussion elsewhere...
They probably said more things like: "Who are these people, and why are they claiming this land as ours? Do they know nothing?"
edited 8th Dec '12 6:41:41 AM by deathpigeon
There's a couple of science fiction novels - Robinson's Mars trilogy is one - that have society evolving into a gift economy.
If we ever move into a post-scarcity economy, I could easily imagine it becoming a 'gift economy'. But yeah, probably another thread?
It ain't over 'till the ring hits the lava.

...I didn't make the fact up. Source-thing.
...Because people talk to each other. Plus, there are only so many jewelers in a community. And there's not much worth in hoarding jewelry in a gift economy after a certain point.
edited 7th Dec '12 9:38:57 PM by deathpigeon