One sentence: People care about the social aspects of life, and the social is now embedded in market structures in a way that allows Moloch-esque forces to destroy the good social stuff.
It starts my addressing the “weirdness” of everyone being angry, even though people are richer than ever. This post tracks the book The Great Transformation by Polanyi.
Claim: (quote from Polanyi)
He [man] does not act so as to safeguard his individual interest in the possession of material goods; he acts so as to safeguard his social standing, his social claims, his social assets. He values material goods only insofar as they serve this end.
Capitalism is differentiated from markets. Reason being is that markets have always been around (they were mediated and controlled through social relationships), the new/recent thing is building society around a market.
Claim: Once you treat labor and land like common market goods and subject them to the flows of the market, you open up a pathway for Moloch to gnaw away at your soul. Now “incentives” can apply pressure such that you slowly sacrifice more and more of the social/relational aspects of life that people actually care about.
#2 The Meridian of Her Greatness:
One sentence: People care about the social aspects of life, and the social is now embedded in market structures in a way that allows Moloch-esque forces to destroy the good social stuff.
It starts my addressing the “weirdness” of everyone being angry, even though people are richer than ever. This post tracks the book The Great Transformation by Polanyi.
Claim: (quote from Polanyi)
Capitalism is differentiated from markets. Reason being is that markets have always been around (they were mediated and controlled through social relationships), the new/recent thing is building society around a market.
Claim: Once you treat labor and land like common market goods and subject them to the flows of the market, you open up a pathway for Moloch to gnaw away at your soul. Now “incentives” can apply pressure such that you slowly sacrifice more and more of the social/relational aspects of life that people actually care about.