Interesting, Mark. My interpretation is that markets did not emerge naturally,
although that is the ideology of capitalism. I do not mean to apply that you believed
so.
On the other hand, to denounce the ideology of the Tragedy of the Commons is not to
suggest that reverting to pre-capitalist ways will solve all problems of social
organization.
Mark Jones wrote:
> Michael wrote:
> >
> > My point, which Jason mostly understood, many pre-market societies [before
> > markets became dominant, not without markets altogether] developed methods of
> > avoiding the problem of over-exploitation.
> >
>
> I know this is restating the boringly obvious, but from whence did market
> societies develop if not from pre-market societies? Markets, commons, and
> tragedies thereof, putative or real, all have the same common origin. Therefore it
> makes little sense to idealise the vanished antecedents. Therefore you cannot
> solve the problem of the commons by referring to precapitalism any more than by
> referring to private property, as possible cure-alls. So you will have to look
> elsewhere. And the current state of the biosphere suggests that there is indeed a
> problem of the commons (and all its successor states-of-being including primarily
> capitalism).
>
> Mark
--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
