Radical Markets

* Book: Radical Markets. By Eric Posner & Glen Weyl.

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Description

Simon de la Rouviere:

The book "explores the ways in which our current systems are inept at producing outcomes for collective good.

In the chapters they argue:

• New forms of property rights [Common Ownership Self-assessed Tax] that reduces the negative effects of monopolistic control on property.
• New voting systems that reduces the tyranny of the majority and allows minorities a greater voice.
• New migration proposals that allows any citizen to sponsor a migrant.
• New ways at looking at anti-trust in the economy and reducing its negative effects.
• New ways to think about our data that the tech giants collect, and finding ways to price this “labor” we are giving freely to machine learning AIs.

It’s a highly recommended read. Besides backing up the ideas with proper rigour, I found the vision the most enticing: looking at ways to change & add markets that reduce negative externalities and optimally produces collective good outcomes. The best decision for the individual is also the best decision for the whole." (https://medium.com/@simondlr/radical-markets-in-the-arts-13c27d3b7283)

Discussion

Radical Markets and the Blockchain Movement: the RadicalxChange Movement

Dani Putney:

"To the uninitiated, the book explores the radical expansion of our markets by imagining the transformation of private property into a perpetual auction system for the public's benefit. Although the concept of radical markets is comprised of multiple tenets, two key points are quadratic voting, a process by which all citizens receive an equal number of votes that they choose to distribute, and data as labor, which calls for the distribution of revenue to the "laborers" who provide their data to companies.

Although Weyl did not intend to relate radical markets to blockchain technology, discussions have arisen within the cryptospace to investigate the intersection of these two realms. He was introduced to blockchain when Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin referenced the book in a tweet, an action that spurred an ongoing exchange between the two.

"I didn't know who [Vitalik] was or anything about him, and I sent him my book manuscript because he was interested in reading it," Weyl told ETHNews. "He sent me about 20 pages of comments on it. They were fascinating."

The conversations between Weyl and Buterin eventually led to their collaboration with researcher Zoë Hitzig on a paper titled "Liberal Radicalism: Formal Rules for a Society Neutral Among Communities." Simply put, the research effort proposes a funding mechanism by which projects that offer the most public good are promoted and receive an appropriate amount of resources. Although the design could be applied to various examples, such as campaign finance and news media, the paper specifically references blockchain communities as a locus for the "practical application of the [liberal radical] mechanism."

With all the talk surrounding radical markets and liberal radicalism, plus the development of a subcommunity of crypto enthusiasts interested in the research, it makes sense for an organized movement to materialize. Thus emerges RadicalxChange." (https://www.ethnews.com/lets-get-radical-glen-weyl-radicalxchange-and-blockchain-technology)

Radical Markets and Ethereum

Jordan Daniell:

""Our premise is that markets are, and for the medium term will remain, the best way of arranging a society," authors E. Glen Weyl and Eric A. Posner explain in "Radical Markets." But the dilemma facing this position is that "while our society is supposed to be organized by competitive markets, we contend the most important markets are monopolized or entirely missing, and that by creating true competitive, open, and free markets, we can dramatically reduce inequality, increase prosperity, and heal the ideological and social rifts tearing our society apart."

Buterin's own review of "Radical Markets" makes it clear that, while there are strong parallels between the book's thought experiments and the continually developing Ethereum ecosystem, the former goes far beyond notions of a "decentralized revolution" by drastically rethinking how to arrange our civilization.

By radically expanding markets themselves into previously untouched areas of our lives, Weyl and Posner postulate how to make a better world. "Even if some of these proposals ultimately prove unworkable in testing," write the authors, "we hope that the Radical spirit behind our ideas will take broader root."

A number of ideas penned by the authors could be unsettling for some, especially when it comes to concepts of property, money, and markets. However, their courage to fully embrace new possibilities and fresh insights is more than redeeming. Buterin himself agreed that "the book does go to considerable lengths to explain why each proposal improves efficiency if it could be done."

In addition to endorsing "Radical Markets" for its "multifaceted and plentiful" intersections with Ethereum, Buterin further described three of its main selling points:

There is a focus on "mechanism design to make more open, free, egalitarian and efficient systems for human cooperation."

The fact that "blockchains may well be used as a technical backbone for some of the solutions described in the book."

The technical and social challenges addressed by the book are akin to those facing the blockchain community.

ETHNews had the opportunity to speak with Weyl about his inspiration for the book, the ideas therein, and why his work draws such strong correlations to Ethereum:

"I think that Ethereum is a fabulous platform for experimenting with our ideas because of the close philosophical alignment between their desire for a decentralized, just society and the detailed design we offer for how such a society might work ... The openness and creativity of the community and the endless possibilities for experimentation generally make [the Ethereum ecosystem] a perfect place for trying out these ideas. And because Ethereum and other blockchain communities lack central, trusted authorities, they desperately need rules that can maintain their egalitarian values absent such authorities. I know of no other comprehensive system of rules that offers that possibility other than 'Radical Markets.' So, in this case, I think both sides really need each other and fit together incredibly well."

In addition to "Radical Markets" being ideologically relevant to some aspects of Ethereum, the book comes at an ideal time to directly address some of the most pressing issues currently gripping our society in the 21st century.

"The arguments of both the Right and the Left had something to offer when they originated in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but today their potential is spent," Posner and Weyl write. "No longer bold reforms, they box us in." In order to truly open up and explore new social possibilities, we need radical redesigns that create new paradigms, not just fix flaws in older ones. " (https://www.ethnews.com/ethnews-exclusive-e-glen-weyl-on-radical-markets-ethereum-and-designing-a-better-society)