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I still disagree. Words like 'work', 'capital' and 'productive' are pure capitalist theology.

I doubt Amazon tribespeople think in those terms at all. So far as I can tell, based on a little reading and no experience, they have a much richer and more complex relationship with their environment and with their history.

It's true that people need food and shelter, and some kind of social structure. But that is not the same as accepting that the provision of food and shelter are a primary problem for everyone, in the way they are in capitalist cultures.

It's a famous factoid - it may even be true - that in some cultures, provision of necessities takes no more than four hours a day. So why it does take between eight and twelve in this supposedly superior one?

To paraphrase Iain Banks, economics is synonymous with poverty. If you want global prosperity, you're very unlikely to get it by thinking purely in terms of resource allocation, 'work', and 'capital'.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Wed Nov 20th, 2013 at 11:39:52 AM EST
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