{"id":39090,"date":"2024-10-24T19:34:27","date_gmt":"2024-10-25T02:34:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=39090"},"modified":"2024-10-24T19:34:27","modified_gmt":"2024-10-25T02:34:27","slug":"left-to-our-own-devices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/left-to-our-own-devices\/","title":{"rendered":"Left to our own devices"},"content":{"rendered":"

While The Great Transformation, The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time<\/em> by Karl Polanyi goes through historical times and the relationship of the economy, the purpose of this book was not simply a history book. According to economic historian, Karl Polanyi, he was searching for an explanation about why trends occurred and the impact the market had on the balance of power and peace[1]<\/a>.\u00a0 This book is dense with historical information, descriptions of market impacts and conversations about economic strategies that would temporarily seem to work but ultimately fail. Including an analysis of everything would require much more time and research than this blog allows. To that end, I will focus my attention on some basic concepts and definitions. \u00a0If I was searching for this book in a library, I would first search economic sociology because Polanyi\u2019s book highlights not only the ways markets functioned but the impact they have had on the lives of the people living in the societies utilizing the various market strategies.<\/p>\n

I want to first lay some groundwork with some basic definitions that are brought forth by Polanyi.<\/p>\n

Markets: <\/strong>Meeting places to buy (also barter) and sell things[2]<\/a>. Markets are formed around the production and distribution of goods and commodities.<\/p>\n

Market Economy: <\/strong>An economy that\u2019s foundation is the buying and selling of goods for a profit.<\/p>\n

Commodity: <\/strong>Something that is made, created, or produced for the purpose of being sold for a profit.<\/p>\n

Fictitious Commodities:<\/strong> \u00a0Something that is not made but rather an important part of industry and thus the market. Fictitious commodities include labor, land and money[3]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Labor<\/u>: The human activity associated with creating something, not the actual things. that is a part of life.<\/p>\n

Land<\/u>: The places on earth that people do not create.<\/p>\n

Money<\/u>: The tender used to purchase something[4]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fictitious commodities contributed to the downfall of the gold standard[5]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gold Standard:<\/strong> The term used for an economy where bank notes and currency was backed by gold. At one time it was used in many nations, yet it failed. The rise and fall of the gold standard impacted international market functionality[6]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Self-Regulating Market, SRM: <\/strong>This is the philosophy and practice that the market is not dependent on anything except the buying and selling of commodities. When the market was in trouble, leaders let it run its course with the thought that prices would decline putting more money in the hands of the buyers. Yet, it didn\u2019t always happen that way. The difficulty with this according to Polanyi was that this was disconnected, or disembedded, from the social constraints on the market, specifically the impact on people living in the place where a SRM was in place[7]<\/a>. \u00a0One of Polanyi\u2019s central themes was that SRMs never work[8]<\/a><\/p>\n

Embedded Market: <\/strong>Economy was subject to social limitations on its functioning. This could be manifested with subsidies for the poor.<\/p>\n

Polanyi believed that the concept and practice of the Self-Regulating Market was detrimental to society. Throughout history when the economy becomes fragile, governments step in or out in various ways, either embedding or disembedding. Left to its own devices, when the market would rise and fall the impact on the common people could be dire. There would be no help for unemployment, poverty, or hunger. Polanyi took it farther with the idea that society could experience acute dislocation[9]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jason Clark\u2019s faculty dissertation clearly looks at the connection of capitalism with evangelicalism. While reading both of these works, a secular application came to mind in relation to the Self-Regulating Market. The idea of self-regulation does not have to just be related to market economies caught my attention. The nonprofit where I work has a number of programs and services for children, adults, and families living with developmental differences that are licensed by the State of FL. Some of the services we offer are 5 community-based group homes and an adult-day training center. I share this because in just those six programs amid all our services, our agency has more than 95 inspections each year. It is time-consuming and seems pointless when year after year we score very high, not to mention the cost of staff time accompanying inspectors for each visit. It can get exhausting and sometimes seems redundant and overly zealous on the part of the State.\u00a0 However, when I looked into some of these inspections more closely, each one was put in place because someone had done something wrong somewhere in the State. I also considered the number of medications that are given in our programs and the consequences if staff made mistakes. It might cost a life. While I think our organization is terrific and our inspections go well, I am sure that just knowing that someone is watching prompts staff to check behind themselves. People, organizations, or markets \u00a0can become forgetful, lazy, or simply blind to what is right in front of their faces.<\/p>\n

I agree with Polanyi that a market can\u2019t really survive in a vacuum. \u00a0Can anything or person?<\/p>\n

When I started this book, it was difficult to wrap my brain around it. But the more I read the more I would get lost in the weeds of the details. An area that I would like to revisit at another time was the Speenhamland laws that was a form of paternalism which tried to protect people from the risks associated with the market system[10]<\/a>. While it was meant to be a help, people realized that they could collect wages without working since they were subsidized by public funds. \u00a0I would also like to revisit the Poor Laws and the Workhouses that regulated whether a person received funds based on the price of a loaf of bread or had to work in deplorable conditions for food.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[1] Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation, The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time<\/em> (Boston, Beacon press, 2001), 4-5.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Polanyi, 59.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Polanyi, 75.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Polanyi, 75<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Polanyi, 204.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Polanyi, 26.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Clark, Jason Paul, \u201cEvangelicalism and Capitalism: A Reparative Account and Diagnosis of Pathogeneses in the Relationship\u201d (2018). Faculty Publications \u2013 Portland Seminary<\/em>, 127.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/digitalcommons.georgefox.edu\/gfes\/132<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Polanyi, vii.<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Noah Zerbe, Karl Polanyi and Market Embeddedness, accessed, October, 23, 2024, 16.47. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=pcjLxcmQXcU<\/a>, 16.47,<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> Polanyi, 82.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While The Great Transformation, The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time by Karl Polanyi goes through historical times and the relationship of the economy, the purpose of this book was not simply a history book. According to economic historian, Karl Polanyi, he was searching for an explanation about why trends occurred and the impact […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":211,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2969,467,4],"class_list":["post-39090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dlgp3","tag-clark","tag-polanyi","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/211"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39090"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39091,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39090\/revisions\/39091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}