[Book] The Wealth of Nature: Economics as If Survival Mattered

[jprussell]

I outlined this post back in December 2021, apparently, but I never got around to handling it. "Luckily" this week I was struck with no idea what to write, so I went looking in my drafts folder in desperation and decided this would work. It's my thoughts on JMG's The Wealth of Nature, which packs an exceptional amount of helpful, smart thinking into a pretty neat package. As always, I'd love to hear what you think.

Comments

[jprussell]

First off, thanks very much the kind words, I'm glad you found it helpful.

Secondly, hmmmm. I agree that what you say is 100% true of all modern fiat currencies, but I'm not positive without thinking about it harder if "money = debt" is necessarily true for all forms of currency (as we brushed against when discussing Graeber before - I still haven't gotten to him!). It is less obvious to me that a gold coin carried around and accepted because of its literal weight in gold is necessarily a debt. Now, of course, even with notionally very hard currencies (coins literally made of something like their market value in precious metal), you very quickly get into those coins being valued "as coins," which has all kinds of market dynamics and reliance on trust in the issuing entity. In fact, historically, all notionally hard currencies have succumbed to some kind of debasement due to these facts, as far as I know. Those complications might work out to effectively being "debt" as you've defined it here (more claims on productive labor/time/thought/skills/goods than exists), but as I said, I'm going to have to think it through more.

Third, yeah, I likely should have mentioned that I believe JMG goes into how to rely less on money in The Wealth Of Nature similarly to how he does in The Long Decline (and both of which most likely appeared largely in draft form on ADR before being collected into books), so I'm not shocked your thinking would head in that direction. Borrowing from what he says in those books, though, I'd argue that working to become less reliant on money for your weal makes good sense even without the "all money is a debt ponzi scheme" argument. For most of human history, most weal was not mediated by the monetary economy. You found work by having neighbors that needed the skills you had or by working your land (whether you technically owned it or not). You didn't need money to be able to get to that work because everyone lived within walking distance of work. You didn't need money for childcare, because your family, friends, and neighbors all pitched in, and the kids started following you around doing certain kinds of work earlier. You didn't need money for "vacation," because feast days were provided by the local equivalent of a lord. And so on and so forth. Now, we live in very different times, but JMG points out a lot of ways we can become less dependent on the monetary economy: grow some of your own food, learn skills that folks can use some help with, get to know your neighbors and help them out so they can help you out, locate somewhere where you can cut back on commuting or the like, find community answers for childcare, and so forth. I have also started to take baby steps in this direction, but in a world that has decided to solve all problems with money and where most of us don't have the built-in non-monetary options our ancestors had, it's tough!

[scotlyn]

Of course, the question there is whether you can HAVE a gold coin to carry around and spend, withOUT having mines, and slaves, and armed warriors to keep the slaves at their mining...

In other words, money is NOT weal, and it often seems both inimical to weal and actually destructive of it.

[scotlyn]

Also, yes, you are absolutely right that we do live in "a world that has decided to solve all problems with money" and which has also decided to remove from "most of us... the built in non-monetary options our ancestors had."

So, I agree. It is tough to roll all of that back and regain the freedom of one's own ability to trade, serve and thrive, without the pernicious mediation of money.

I certainly have not achieved it!

So, what have I done? I have deliberately set my own business prices extremely low, am very strict about paying the appropriate tax on every penny, as the "dues" to Ceasar for my use of money, I have paid off all loans, I raise some food, I give many gifts, and many gifts find their way back to me, and I am thankful for the ample blessing of enough. These are only beginnings... not accomplishments... but what I hope is to become a little bit contagious in helping other people to be more cognizant of their powers and competences, so that they can swap them in for dependencies upon systems run by strangers.