Trade

Discussion

'Lefty math professor' Eric:

"If we don’t share, then we must trade — for money, labor, food, rent, everything. Every transaction in our economic system can be viewed as a trade. Even loans with interest are a form of trade: money now for more money later. The rich defend trade, saying if I have something you want, and you have something I want, why shouldn’t we trade? Such trades are the essence of freedom.

They are describing trade as an isolated incident. And trade seems innocuous; most people don’t see anything wrong with it. But I’m going to talk about its long-term consequences. It’s a lot like the board game Monopoly, which you’ve probably played at least once. In the beginning of that game, all the players have money in their pockets; everyone is on a shopping spree. No one feels threatened. If only life could go on this way forever! But the seeds of destruction are already contained in that pleasant beginning. The rules lead inexorably to a grim ending, where one player owns everything, and everyone else in the world is totally impoverished.

In the real world, a voluntary trade occurs only if both traders benefit. For instance, when a farm owner hires a bunch of migrant farmworkers, he pays them very low wages. The farmworkers benefit by avoiding starvation for one more day; but the owner benefits by getting rich. Thus, both traders benefit, but not equally. Trade favors whichever trader was already in the stronger bargaining position, thus making that trader stronger still.

So inequality increases, and that effect is inherent in the fundamental structure of all markets; it can’t be cured through mere reforms. And this phenomenon doesn’t depend on the monetary system — inequality would increase even from barter. The only remedy is to end trade altogether, and share everything." (https://leftymathprof.wordpress.com/madness/?)