File puptcrit/puptcrit.0811, message 372


From: Gregory Ballora <gregballora-AT-sbcglobal.net>
Date: Sat, 22 Nov 2008 09:55:30 -0800
To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Gift Economy



On Nov 22, 2008, at 9:01 AM, Christopher Hudert wrote:

> The biggest worm to tame seems to be
> the very nature of the inequity of the gift - one may be extremely
> "gifted" while another is lacking.

Seems like two different kinds of gift working here. One is the gift  
of a thing outside of yourself, like a loaf of bread, a poem, a  
refrigerator. The idea of trying to find equity with these and to  
make it all fair is sort of like putting a price on it. So you are  
basically back to money.

The other idea of a gift is the gifts we all have inside ourselves,  
our ability to create, love, produce, care. Those are unequal and  
basically tend to lead to what our society values- your salary. Money  
can be seen as a way of quantifying the gifts. It is just that we, as  
artists, don't always agree with how things are quantified. Why is a  
lawyer's time worth so much more than mine?

For a Gift society to work, doesn't it seem that everyone would have  
to be assured of what they all agree are the necessities? Then the  
gifts are solely for what might desire, but not need. The impossible  
part is that everyone needs to agree on what is necessary, and what  
is just desirable, and to actually be content to live with only what  
is necessary. Then the gifts are freely given-no strings attached.
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