Michael Perelman wrote,
>Funny that Doug and Harry both remarked on the strangeness of capitalism.
>I am discussing that subject just now in my latest project. I am off to
>the library to look at Polanyi's "Aristotle disovers the economy" again.
BUT, lest we get carried away with only the _strangeness_ of capitalism,
there is the infamous other side: it works. It doesn't achieve a just
distribution of wealth, but it does sustain a remarkable generation and
accumulation of wealth, technological innovation etc., etc.. And it works
only up to a point (crisis tendencies).
My point in mentioning potlatch (besides a bit of local B.C. boosterism) was
that it is another example of a cultural institution that was apparently
very successful in underpinning a remarkable generation and accumulation of
wealth, although the "rationality" of the potlatch isn't obvious to a
Euro-centric view. In fact, the potlatch was outlawed by the British
colonists. It would be easy to think of this prohibition as a mean-spirited
repressive thing done just for the sake of crushing a people's culture. But
the Brits probably thought they were "protecting" the aboriginals from their
destructive and wasteful ways -- "saving them from themselves."
If we think of markets as cultural institutions, then there are issues at
stake other than rationalizing the production and distribution of use
values. I'll just mention the issue of motivation as one that regularly
stumps the advocates of central planning -- and, no, the answer isn't
"indoctrination." It may be useful, here, to think again about Max Sawicky's
"quest for income" remark with the qualification that we needn't see such a
quest as rational behaviour, nor see the outcome of the quest as having much
to do with innate ability, application or even luck. In many cases, the
"outcome" may be predetermined and the "quest" an entirely ritual activity
carried out to legitimize the predetermined order of things.
Still bothering me in the "market socialism/planned socialism" dichotomy is
a little demon I'll call by the code name of the teleology of reason. Isn't
Hegel standing on his head _still_ Hegel?
Regards,
Tom Walker
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