Re: [ox-en] Commons in a taxonomy of goods

On 2010-06-19 03:38, Alex Rollin wrote:
> > > If you have 5 apples and 6 persons, and every person want an
> > > apple you can say that apples are scarce
> > 
> > No, the availability of apples may be limited at one time at a
> > location. Limitedness and scarcity are two different things. If
> > you need more apples, then more apples can be produced to overcome
> > current limitations. However, if you produce apples as
> > commodities, then they are scarce and none of the 6 persons
> > wanting apples get one of the million apples being produced unless
> > they exchange them with money. Scarcity is a precondition of being
> > a commodity, thus a social form of products being produced as
> > commodities.
> > 
> > > so you need people and apples, its a social problem
> > 
> > That's what I say: The way of production is a social (societal)
> > question.
> 
> This is like saying that scarcity is always by design, but this would
> not be true for, say, something where their are physical limits to
> the production of the resource.  Is there another word for that?  Or
> is it just a hard limit instead of scarcity?

Yes, my proposal is to distinguish between limitation -- and there are 
limitations for a lot of resources -- and scarcity, which I would agree 
is "artificial limitation" or as you put it "limitation by design".

Limitations can be overcome, it is only a question of creativity in 
which ways: by increased production, by replacement, by other social 
solutions. Please note: overcoming limitations does not necessarily mean 
to produce "more", but to find appropriate ways to satisfy needs, 
because production in general is a means to satisfy needs.

However, satisfying needs is only a secondary effect of producing goods 
as commodities, the first and alien goal is to make money. In order to 
make money goods must be scarce. Thus scarcity is a defect by design, 
because due to being a precondition of selling commodities scarcity can 
never be overcome.

Ciao,
Stefan

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