Buy > Sell ?

"Drifted in the Deeper Land" ~ Kerwin Whitnah

“Anthropologists have found that the single most important act for community-building is the reciprocity in gift exchanges.  

“If you need a box of nails you go to the hardware store and buy one. There’s no expectation by you or the shop assistant that any future reciprocity is involved. This is one of the main reasons why monetary exchanges are so efficient. Each transaction stands on its own. However, no community has been created either.

“Now, assume that you go out for another box of nails, and that your neighbor is sitting on his porch.  When you tell him you are going to buy a box of nails, he responds, “Oh, I bought six boxes just the other day.  Here is one, it will save you the trip to the hardware store.”  He also refuses your offer to pay.

“What has happened? From a purely material viewpoint, in both cases you end up with your box of nails. But an anthropologist would point out that in the second case something else has happened as well. When you meet that neighbor again, you will definitely say hello.  And if ever on a Saturday night he rings your doorbell because he forgot to buy some butter, you will most likely share some of yours.

“The gift of the box of nails is a community-building act.  Its purchase is not.

“A commercial transaction is a closed system: the nail versus the money.

“In contrast, a gift is an open system.  It leaves an imbalance in the transaction that some possible future transaction completes.  The gift process creates something that the monetary exchange does not.  A new thread has been woven into the community fabric.”

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