31 January 2011

The persons of the parties to a transaction

For the limiting of behavior, market systems depend on discipline imposed by the external market while gift exchange systems depend on discipline imposed by an internal system of virtue. 
When the behavior is limited internally we call it ‘conduct.’ 
Alienability and inalienability are measures of externality versus internality. The more alienable, the more externally determined is the behavior; the more inalienable, the more internally determined is the behavior. 
A thing is alienated when it is removed from the person of its owner. Alienation in a market exchange therefore entails the voluntary stripping away of the persons of the parties to a transaction. Gift exchange, in contrast, nourishes the persons of the parties to a transaction. At the same time, however, gift exchange invites predation, which has the effect of involuntarily stripping away the persons of the parties to a transaction. 

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