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AnarchoTrip
Young Blood
Registered: 03/26/07
Posts: 2,649
Last seen: 14 years, 5 months
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Stock Market Primitivism
#8411056 - 05/16/08 09:32 PM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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Alright, the notion of money is just an easy way to simplify bartering systems, right? In a primitivistic setting, I'd labour at my crops to produce some food and with a surplus of food I'd trade my food for some shoes or something (yes, this is very simplified). In modern industrialized societies, everyone's agreed on a standardized set value for certain products (this value can be debatable, but that's another debate...bottled water???), which we labour for to buy things, replacing raw goods with standardized money.
That was my really simplified argument that money is just a socially agreed system simplifying bartering economics. Here's my question/point:
If my summary of modern economic practices can be, somewhat, comparable/simplified to primitivistic bartering economics, what would the stock market or brokers be when applied to bartering? Now, this is a bit of a foolish idea, but I think it's kind of interesting. Is the notion of a stock market/bonds/brokers/etc only applicable to modernized economic societies, or can it also be seen in a primitive society (obviously not the exact same, but ya'know, same in principle).
I can't really think of any primitive examples, can you?
-------------------- YIPPIE!
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Epigallo
Stranger
Registered: 09/17/06
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Re: Stock Market Primitivism [Re: AnarchoTrip]
#8411182 - 05/16/08 10:20 PM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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Yep. I have a loose example. You have a wheat field. I have fertilizer. I will come fertilize a section of your wheat field, and I get x % of it. If it is a good gamble, I get back more value in wheat than I spent in fertilizer. If not, I get little or no wheat and I lost value.
There are many ways one could invest labor or resources into another's operation for a proportional payback.
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gettinjiggywithit
jiggy
Registered: 07/20/04
Posts: 7,469
Loc: Heart of Laughter
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Re: Stock Market Primitivism [Re: AnarchoTrip]
#8411238 - 05/16/08 10:40 PM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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Slave traders are sort of a primitive version of todays stock brokers. Brokers get peoples money working for them so they don't have too- same as having slaves. Corporations seek working capital via investors to expand their enterprises with, same as slaves were a form of raised working capital for earlier entrepreneurs.
Closest I can come to finding something comparable in the past.
I'm not a historian by any means though. Why do you ask this question?
-------------------- Ahuwale ka nane huna.
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AnarchoTrip
Young Blood
Registered: 03/26/07
Posts: 2,649
Last seen: 14 years, 5 months
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I don't really know what took me to this question. I think I began my thought-train with analyzing my stance on anarchism (in favour), and then I tried rationalizing me smoking cigarettes and still being an anarchist, and then I got annoyed because I realised it didn't really have anything to do with me affiliating myself with anarchism but more in my opinion on how wealth should be distributed (okay, I guess this kinda can fit into anarchism theories), then I decided I was, when it comes to wealth distribution, a socialist/communist, then I started thinking about primitivism (a random blurp into my head) and then I started thinking about anarcho-primitivism, and then with another random blurp I thought about modern economic systems, and then I thought up that question.
yup.
-------------------- YIPPIE!
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rubixcubies
porch monkey ferlyfe
Registered: 08/05/06
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Loc: ottawa on
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Re: Stock Market Primitivism [Re: AnarchoTrip]
#8412303 - 05/17/08 09:47 AM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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primitive= diy...
-------------------- i'm a very evolved ape you know.
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zouden
Neuroscientist
Registered: 11/12/07
Posts: 7,091
Loc: Australia
Last seen: 14 years, 5 months
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Re: Stock Market Primitivism [Re: rubixcubies]
#8415637 - 05/18/08 07:04 AM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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The stock market is nothing more than a device to make it easier to invest in things. Bradley had a good example of investing in your wheat field by providing fertiliser. The stock market just makes that whole process much easier and faster by, for example, enabling me to come in and purchase Bradley's investment in your wheat field, if he decides that the coming season won't produce a good harvest compared to what he hoped for. It's that rapid, convenient exchange of risk that makes the stock market such a useful invention.
-------------------- I know... that just the smallest part of the world belongs to me You know... I'm not a blind man but truth is the hardest thing to see
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Ferris
PsychedelicJourneyman
Registered: 03/12/06
Posts: 11,529
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Re: Stock Market Primitivism [Re: zouden]
#8415677 - 05/18/08 07:47 AM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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Long term investors are basically money lenders who expect a certain amount of "interest" (there have been money lenders for ages, I don't know how primitave you want to go). But even in hunting/gathering times, I'm sure there was still some dude who lent out his spear in return for a slab of meat.
Short term investors, who take advantage of small market fluctuations, could be compared to merchants, who take advantage of price differentials by region. Basically they are people who barter for something only to want to barter it again for even higher returns, taking advantage of need for the good of both parties. I doubt this was applicable on anything but the most minor scale in small tribal villages, but as soon as you have a society, especially multiple large groups, it starts to be more relevant/necessary.
If you take anything out of that, it's that short and long term investors need to be classified separately.
-------------------- Discuss Politics
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