Saturday, June 25, 2005
Economoids
Wonderful word, coined by Larry Lessig, one of today's best thinkers.
Economoids go around singing that old '60s favorite,
Everything is fungible in its own way,
Like a starry summer night
or a snow covered winter's day.
Everybody's fungible in their own way,
Under God's market, the world's gonna find a way.
They believe markets are always efficient, and everything not only can but must be bought and sold.
Their basic point is good and necessary. Overall, competitive business is the cure for bad politics. This is a L'Amour theme: if you're selling something that folks can buy elsewhere, you're not going to get involved in the feud between nesters and ranchers, or between Shia and Sunni. You can't afford to lose anyone's patronage. If your own work goes into adding value, this neutrality becomes even stronger. But if you're digging gold or drilling oil, you can afford the luxury of taking a side, because the buyers need your product so badly that they're willing to jump through your hoops to get it.
So a country where most folks are adding value and competing is more stable and calm than a country where most folks are extracting natural resources.
However! Maintaining civilization sometimes requires limits on buying and selling.
Let's say the land agent knows that old Red O'Hanrahan buys abandoned ranches and turns them into outlaw hangouts. The land agent should be allowed to tell Red to vamoose. Even better, all the land agents should be allowed to "conspire" against Red.
In modern terms, let's say our government knows that old Red O'China buys oil companies and turns them into tools of conquest. We should be entitled to tell Red to buy his oil companies elsewhere, even if he offers a great price.
From what I'm hearing, the Bush administration is taking an economoid line here. China is trying to buy Unocal, and Treasury Sec'y Snow is saying that their money is as good as anyone else's. When Roger Hedgecock interviewed some trade rep yesterday, the trade rep kept saying "It would be premature for us to judge this transaction." Unless he's hiding an ace up his sleeve, this is dangerous neutrality. ¶ 9:48 AM
Economoids go around singing that old '60s favorite,
Everything is fungible in its own way,
Like a starry summer night
or a snow covered winter's day.
Everybody's fungible in their own way,
Under God's market, the world's gonna find a way.
They believe markets are always efficient, and everything not only can but must be bought and sold.
Their basic point is good and necessary. Overall, competitive business is the cure for bad politics. This is a L'Amour theme: if you're selling something that folks can buy elsewhere, you're not going to get involved in the feud between nesters and ranchers, or between Shia and Sunni. You can't afford to lose anyone's patronage. If your own work goes into adding value, this neutrality becomes even stronger. But if you're digging gold or drilling oil, you can afford the luxury of taking a side, because the buyers need your product so badly that they're willing to jump through your hoops to get it.
So a country where most folks are adding value and competing is more stable and calm than a country where most folks are extracting natural resources.
However! Maintaining civilization sometimes requires limits on buying and selling.
Let's say the land agent knows that old Red O'Hanrahan buys abandoned ranches and turns them into outlaw hangouts. The land agent should be allowed to tell Red to vamoose. Even better, all the land agents should be allowed to "conspire" against Red.
In modern terms, let's say our government knows that old Red O'China buys oil companies and turns them into tools of conquest. We should be entitled to tell Red to buy his oil companies elsewhere, even if he offers a great price.
From what I'm hearing, the Bush administration is taking an economoid line here. China is trying to buy Unocal, and Treasury Sec'y Snow is saying that their money is as good as anyone else's. When Roger Hedgecock interviewed some trade rep yesterday, the trade rep kept saying "It would be premature for us to judge this transaction." Unless he's hiding an ace up his sleeve, this is dangerous neutrality. ¶ 9:48 AM
