[P2P-F] Product Maximizing Corporations (was: "corporateperson")

[Michel Bauwens]

martin,

would you agree that there is a difference between profit making (i.e. an
accidental or regular surplus in money after an exchange, which enables you
to continue to operate  in a money system) and a system    based on profit
maximisation (i.e.capitalism), i.e. between a mere market and capitalism
... this is a classic distinction made by marx (m-c-m vs c-m-c), polanyi,
braudel, de landa, and even by anarchist anthropoligists like david graeber
...

pre-capitalist markets were always subsumed to broader economic and social
goals (i.e. fixed price in Indian villages, 'just price', also pretty much
fixed, in medieval europe, etc ...)

it seems to me that cartels/etc .. are a inevitable feature of capitalism,
but are they a necessary feature of market systems in general, especially
when the market dynamics are subsumed?

perhaps any class-based allocation system is marred by power law and
concentration dynamics, since it was also certainly the case in feudal
systems, where it is the land that was being concentrated,

to me it seems logically that any competitive allocation system, where some
players can win, immediately favours the winner, since they already obtain
more resources in the second round

without counter-measures, are these not inevitable?

my understanding is that tribal societies had such active countermeasures?

Michel

On Fri, Nov 25, 2011 at 6:14 PM, mp <mp at aktivix.org> wrote:

>
>
> On 25/11/11 08:22, Michel Bauwens wrote:
> > On Fri, Nov 25, 2011 at 12:22 PM, Natalie Golovin <10natalie at cox.net>
> wrote:
>
> >> Scarcity of resources and risk-taking play major roles in allocation,
> and
> >> choices become skewed as decisions are controlled by govt policies,
> >> religion, culture & personal ethics. Consider the simple example of
> >> providing HIV drugs to poor populations. Lengthening lives results in
> the
> >> infection of many more individuals unless the culture �buys in� to
> >> prevention like condom use. Profits pay for the returns to risk in
> bringing
> >> a product to market. Once a product successfully hits the street,
> >> competitors are encouraged until a dynamic equilibrium is reached and in
> >> the long-run profit is roughly equivalent to the interest rate plus
> >> depreciation. Today we have nothing close to that due to cartels,
> monopoly
> >> behavior, collusion, FED manipulation of interest rates, insufficient or
> >> over-regulation & favoritism etc. etc.,, all now made more complex on a
> >> global scale.
> >>
> >
> > we can agree on this ..
>
> are these problems (cartels, monopolies etc.) hindering a well
> functioning a profit system, or are they rather problems made by a
> profit system?
>
>
>
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