Quote from: myrkul on November 09, 2012, 01:07:44 AM

Quote from: mobodick on November 09, 2012, 12:42:33 AM

Quote from: myrkul on November 09, 2012, 12:25:10 AM

Quote from: mobodick on November 09, 2012, 12:15:17 AM

The market is a system created and used by humans as a way of exchange.

That's where you're wrong.

The market is the sum total of the voluntary interactions of the people. Nothing more, nothing less. The market is humans, and humans are the market.

So kissing my girlfriend is part of the economic market?
And saying hello to the neighbour too?

The humans are participants in the market, but saying that they ARE the market is a redefinition of the word human.

You are an unqualified master at missing the point, aren't you?
Yes, they are part of the economic market. You kiss your girlfriend why? To show her affection. In return, she shows you affection. Likewise saying hello to the neighbor. This one might even be a little more mercenary than kissing your girlfriend. You are polite to your neighbor so that he will be polite to you. If you are forward thinking enough, you might even be doing it so that he is positively predisposed toward lending you his hedge trimmers next weekend.

Now, I hear your hamster wheel squeaking, so I know what your next question will be. "But where's the money?" You have to realize that not all exchanges are monetary, and that every decision you make is an economic one. You do everything you do because it is more profitable to you than the alternatives. Again, not all profit is money.

Why did you select the food item that you had for lunch today? Because it was the best option you had available to you. Perhaps if you had more money you would have had better options available, but you made an economic decision to purchase the food item that gave you the most utility (taste, nutrition, fullness) for your money. You chose your girlfriend because she gave you the most utility (returned affection, good looks, enjoyable conversation - whatever you value in a woman) for your affection.

Every voluntary interaction is part of the market, because every voluntary interaction is an exchange of one thing for another.

Quote from: mobodick on November 09, 2012, 12:25:24 AM

For now we are getting the hang of balancing biological systems in relation to sustainability but again not thanks to the market but to the researchers who gathered the information about how we interact with our environment.
Energy is still a problem and the market itself cannot provide a solution. It can, however, make efficient use of what we have.

The researchers did that as part of the market (well, I suppose they could be government researchers, forced to study at gunpoint, but I doubt it). Again, every voluntary interaction. Saying that the market cannot itself provide a solution to the energy crisis is like saying the sea cannot itself provide any fish. True enough, from a certain perspective, but utterly lacking. The market (to be more specific, a human market actor) can, and will, provide a solution, if you let it.

Edit: If you think about it, this explains why every attempt at calling "profit" evil, whether Marxism, RBE, or any other, is doomed to fail. Because the profit motive is what makes us tick. it's what keeps us alive. To deny profit is to deny life.

Complete nonsense (like the rest that depends on it being true).
There are many many non-economy driven choices a human makes.
Economy may consider these choices, but the maker of the choice does not need to intend it to be economical.

There are, for instance, many human behaviours driven by instinct and hormones.
Then we have social behaviour, of which economy is only a part.
We have drugs, we have environment.
Then we have emotion and reason and ideology etc.
All these are drives for human behaviour so what you say is nonsense.
Not every decision is an economic one.
Maybe i choose my fruit largely at random, maybe i just don't care.
The market could include the outcome of my choice, but the market does not dictate my choices. Not by a long shot. There is an influence, for sure. But there are many influences. Saying the market is all there is is a gross oversimplification.

I don't know how much you understand about average people but an average human being doesnt choose a life partner on basis of future return.
It's mostly a genetically driven biological process to ensure the existance of a population of genes. Thinking it roots in economics is silly.

Thinking in terms of profit is just a stupid bug that made us top predator. But it isn't anything special and it certainly is not the only way to live or think.

If for you profit is all you live for then i can tell you that you cannot generalize that to the world population.