This is a great explainer! I really like how you get the complexity across with the examples that everyone can understand and relate to. I’ll use this to share with my friends who are the “ASOMOCO-curious” who might not have the attention span (yet!) for deeper dives. I send out the casino chip economy one too
Hey Brett. Curious if you've ever come across Kojin Karatani? In his book The Structure of World History, he frames this balance/tension of economic logics in different terms.
He talks about the gift economy (Type A), potlatch and such, indigenous practices where the person with the most wealth/power was defined by their ability to give it away, which meant such wealth could never be concentrated or permanent or inherited. The hierarchy itself was fluid and distributed. So this is a bit of everyday communism mixed with hierarchy.
Then there's patronage (Type B), which you also mention, and which Karatani frames as the basis of states – pledge loyalty or taxes in exchange for "protection", often from the very state that has that claim to the monopoly on violence. This is a mix of hierarchy and reciprocity.
He then talks about capitalism (Type C). Worth noting is that A and B are still present but just in different concentrations. Which is basically what your video explains.
But then he goes on to posit a "Type X" economy, which is a cycling back to Type A (gift economy) but in a somehow evolved form. I didn't finish the book but what he seemed to be pointing toward was something akin to solidarity economics.
Anyway, he's worth checking out. One day I'll get back to the book. It's been my intention to read it alongside Graeber and Wengrow's
Complement with The Dawn of Everything containing more ideas about what economy is about, or even Michel Foucault The Order of Things.
This is a great explainer! I really like how you get the complexity across with the examples that everyone can understand and relate to. I’ll use this to share with my friends who are the “ASOMOCO-curious” who might not have the attention span (yet!) for deeper dives. I send out the casino chip economy one too
Thank you for making this video, Brett, I really like this format!
Great to hear that Johan - I'll be making more
Hey Brett. Curious if you've ever come across Kojin Karatani? In his book The Structure of World History, he frames this balance/tension of economic logics in different terms.
He talks about the gift economy (Type A), potlatch and such, indigenous practices where the person with the most wealth/power was defined by their ability to give it away, which meant such wealth could never be concentrated or permanent or inherited. The hierarchy itself was fluid and distributed. So this is a bit of everyday communism mixed with hierarchy.
Then there's patronage (Type B), which you also mention, and which Karatani frames as the basis of states – pledge loyalty or taxes in exchange for "protection", often from the very state that has that claim to the monopoly on violence. This is a mix of hierarchy and reciprocity.
He then talks about capitalism (Type C). Worth noting is that A and B are still present but just in different concentrations. Which is basically what your video explains.
But then he goes on to posit a "Type X" economy, which is a cycling back to Type A (gift economy) but in a somehow evolved form. I didn't finish the book but what he seemed to be pointing toward was something akin to solidarity economics.
Anyway, he's worth checking out. One day I'll get back to the book. It's been my intention to read it alongside Graeber and Wengrow's
The Dawn of Everything.
Thank you for sharing!