Arthur,
At 13:34 22/07/2009 -0400, you wrote:
How far do we go in monetizing services? Of course there is no end of work
to be done in society. Years ago much work was done for love or obligation
or just because it was there to be done. Over the years we have brought
much of this work into the economy and called it job creation. This is a
thorny area to discuss, but consider what happens to our national accounts
when someone who once was a "stay at home mom" gets a job and contracts with
a nanny, day care, maids, cleaning services, etc. GDP rises and the shape
and nature of society changes. Elders who were cared for at home are now in
"senior's residences" etc. GDP is boosted once again.
This is what a complex market society looks like. Sell one's talents in the
workplace and use the money to buy a host of work that would otherwise have
been done by the individual. It is a "win win" outcome.
Yes to this . . .
But.....when
everything has a price something intangible is lost.
. . . and yes to this . . .
Not saying to go back to "barefoot in the kitchen" but am saying that we
should remember that society is about balance. Not all work has to be done
via a transaction.
. . . but I rather think that all work, even when not monetized, is a
transaction -- or else the family, group or local society in which the
various unpaid services take place doesn't balance up and ultimately the
equilibrium becomes upset. In a group of people who see each other often
and interact frequently then the payoffs don't have to be immediate. They
can be daily, weekly, yearly, even over a lifetime. Then there are other
non-monetary things of value to be thrown into the overall mix -- the
satisfaction of being accorded status by the community, or of acquiring a
reputation and respect. These also have non-monetized value but are (IMHO)
part of the overall balance.
A guaranteed annual income might allow for a lot of work to be done: without
having to price each transaction (and without having to tax these
transactions)
But once the work in one place becomes too distant from observers in
another place (and usually via an intermediate bureaucracy) then those who
are paying the taxes can't judge whether the transaction is truly a fair
one. It's highly likely that there'll be cultural value differences, too,
between the two parties. This, to my mind, is the basic problem.
Keith
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