I think the market is an abstraction, but nevertheless can mean something. In this case, a system where goods can be sold for a price, and which tends to allow for neutral or impersonal exchanges (which can be an advantage), and a general way to allocate scarce resources through the pricing info. Capitalism is a particular implementation where a certain type of market becomes dominant and which is based on infinite growth. I think the latter cannot survive longterm, but since many people appreciate the freedom to produce and work for the market, I think we need to respect that freedom. But you are right that there may be not only different types of market (think of currently fair trade, social entrepreneurship, base of the pyramid approaches, etc..) but also other ways of allocating scarce resources, including personalized ones (gift economy), but also impersonal ones (relying on strangers) such as the adventure economy principles of couchsurfing.com. What we need is a pluralist economy, but which has a central value the respect of all human ‘peers’ (including nature and its beings as dignified for partnership approaches) Mbauwens Says: July 16th, 2007 at 7:52 am and I forget: look forward to see you at the venue with chris stewart then. Interested people can ask for my agenda at michelsub2003 at yahoo dot com
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