Ed Goertzen wrote:
[snip]
> Historically, trade has been about exporting the "surplus to local needs
> goods" and importing the surpluses of other locals. The new international
> trading model is not needs driven but money driven.
[snip]
Didn't this "tradition" begin to end with the advent of capitalism
in England in the 18th century? Each locale and nation was to produce
only what it could produce cheaper than others, due to
the unalloyed virtues of "free trade".
Isn't (wasn't) pre-capitalist trade in some parts of the world
(e.g., Polynesia) conducted more as a mechanism of preserving
social cohesion, than for any mercantile reason?
[snip]
> "The intellectual faculties however are not of themselves sufficient to
> produce external action; they require the aid of physical force, THE
> DIRECTION AND COMBINATION OF WHICH ARE WHOLLY AT THE DISPOSAL OF MONEY,
> THAT MIGHTY SPRING BY WHICH THE TOTAL FORCE OF HUMAN ENERGIES IS SET IN
> MOTION."
[snip]
The invisible hand spins the social centrifuge, dis-integrating each
individual person into "sovereign consumer" and universally oppressed producer
"siamese twin" individually unviable personae.
+\brad mccormick
--
Let your light so shine before men,
that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16)
Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21)
<![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
914.238.0788 / 27 Poillon Rd, Chappaqua NY 10514-3403 USA
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