I was walking past the world trade center the other day. It's monolithic black and chrome lettering and fountains and beauty in the middle of Denver.
It occurred to me how baffling it is that people don't realize that negative reciprocity not only exists, but is soundly understood by, well, anyone who wished to study it.
Economics can be described by several different systems. Some of them are called "reciprocal" and some of them are not. While it is nice to think, "anytime people trade, both get richer and the world gets richer therefore!" that is awfully unrealistic.
The simple concept of profit is, really, the opposite of that. We cannot have a concept such as Profit and not realize that someone is not becoming richer. Someone is getting a lot more rich than someone else. Our economic system is, by definition, a Negative Reciprocity system. By design, there are winners and losers. There are those who profit and those who are taken advantage of. It is designed so that everyone tries to get the most possible profit from every transaction as possible. Not for their own well being, not so that they can stay alive, make other trades, and keep the system going. But so that they can get more than their trading buddy.
That is profit. That is negative reciprocity. That is the system we have.
And that does, actually, mean that people get screwed. Sorry.
Adam Smith's model trade where both profit is defined as a "Reciprocal" economic system. Which is usually exemplified by bartering. Usually. In this system, both trade for what they need, both benefit. No one comes out with "more" than the other person, per se.
It occurred to me how baffling it is that people don't realize that negative reciprocity not only exists, but is soundly understood by, well, anyone who wished to study it.
Economics can be described by several different systems. Some of them are called "reciprocal" and some of them are not. While it is nice to think, "anytime people trade, both get richer and the world gets richer therefore!" that is awfully unrealistic.
The simple concept of profit is, really, the opposite of that. We cannot have a concept such as Profit and not realize that someone is not becoming richer. Someone is getting a lot more rich than someone else. Our economic system is, by definition, a Negative Reciprocity system. By design, there are winners and losers. There are those who profit and those who are taken advantage of. It is designed so that everyone tries to get the most possible profit from every transaction as possible. Not for their own well being, not so that they can stay alive, make other trades, and keep the system going. But so that they can get more than their trading buddy.
That is profit. That is negative reciprocity. That is the system we have.
And that does, actually, mean that people get screwed. Sorry.
Adam Smith's model trade where both profit is defined as a "Reciprocal" economic system. Which is usually exemplified by bartering. Usually. In this system, both trade for what they need, both benefit. No one comes out with "more" than the other person, per se.
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