Anarchism

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Do you know of any anarchistic material related to a bartering economy? (lemmy.perthchat.org)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.perthchat.org/post/309225

Trying to read/watch/etc a little on it to try to establish a vague food swap with friends. Specifically no cash.

Nobody is rich enough to engage in unilateral mutual aid/donations.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

deciding the relative value of things is deeply personal and very important if we care about individual people! it's not capitalism to not want to trade away beans for steak if you can make steak at home easily, or maybe you're happy to take a 'bad' trade because the person you're trading with needs some extra help.

you're right that basically no one did 'classical barter' trading apples for oranges directly, but there are numerous examples of people freely trading in credit (debt) over a variety of timescales and social systems.

it's not hierarchical to decide for yourself what you want and what you're willing to give up in relation with other people, in fact i'd say understanding the necessity of that is a fundamental part of anarchism.

where exchange gets tricky is when it's coerced, or the circumstances surrounding it are coercive. if there's an authority figure putting a gun in your back demanding money every month for the privilege of living in your own house, then trading with others to "earn" that money will definitely be a bad situation for you. it's the specific enforcement of properties as we know them under capitalism that's the problem, not exchange in the abstract.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Oh yes, I agree with you on both counts:

deciding the relative value of things is deeply personal and very important if we care about individual people!

it's not hierarchical to decide for yourself what you want and what you're willing to give up in relation with other people, in fact i'd say understanding the necessity of that is a fundamental part of anarchism.

My point is that the more such decisions are quantitative in nature, the more like reciprocal relations are to turn into mercantile or even hierarchical ones.

There's also the distinction between personal and public spheres. Value systems across either sphere can be radically different, but that's a whole other can of beans (no pun intended).