"a gift economy or gift culture is a mode of exchange where valuables are not traded or sold, but rather given without an explicit agreement for immediate or future rewards."
I like the concept of gift economies and I fully appreciate the advantages that they convey. However, it is difficult to find modern examples of viable gift economies that make any sense. Most examples of gift cultures are dated and decidedly anthropological. Such ideals are never going to be broadly adopted so long as people believe that the alternative to an economic life where you simply buy things with money is an economy where everything is given for free - that is entirely impractical and quite impossible for people to wrap their heads around.
One also finds that more pragmatic descriptions of alternative economic systems go well beyond gifts. I propose that gift economies are simply one manifestation of a much better alternative paradigm: qualitative economies.
What are Qualitative Economies?
My research is devoted to exploring the differences and consequential impacts of quantitative versus qualitative values. A quantitative (or number-based) value system is one where, by definition, more is always worth more. The modern status quo economy is a quantitative economy, in that it uses quantitative values (overwhelmingly, money) to measure its success. A qualitative economy (a term which I'm essentially creating here) is one measured by qualitative values, such as satisfaction, product longevity and reliability, and the relationships formed between people. (This is not to be confused with qualitative economics, which is apparently a term in quantitative theory when actual measurements are unavailable - a decidedly inferior appropriation of the term.) Let's look at some examples:
Gifts - As I said, a gift economy is but one of multiple facets of qualitative economies. Gifts create joy for both giver and recipient. They also create desirable social obligations which strengthen human relationships, and furthermore motivate recipients to become givers to new recipients (as well as possibly reciprocating the original gift).
Pay-What-You-Choose - Some entrepreneurs and self-employed service providers prefer a less rigid form of transactions whereby the recipient of the service pays what they believe the service to be worth. This opens up services to a wider market and allows compensation to be influenced by available wealth as well as quality of work, relationship, etc. Variations on this model are more common than one might think.
Libraries/Sharing - These days, the term "libraries" extends beyond books into tools, seeds, bicycles, cars - any resources which are shared within a community at little or no charge. (To be sure, it does NOT include Uber, AirBnB, and other access economy corporations that simply monetize your possessions and are the antithesis of sharing!) Sharing can also include interest-free loans - money is not forbidden in qualitative economies.
Donations - Donations come in many forms, including volunteerism, charitable giving of funds, unwanted household items going to thrift shops, and even free or open source software. Wikipedia, for example, is part of a qualitative economy, where many thousands of people donate time, knowledge, and editing skills in order to provide the resource free to everyone on the internet.
Refocused Traditional - For those who still struggle with the above examples, I maintain that simply by shifting the focus of value, one can achieve qualitative economics in what might appear to be a traditional monetary transaction. The key is to emphasize qualitative values such as longevity, environmental friendliness, and aesthetics over price and market share. Examples include one-of-a-kind craftsmanship, original artwork transactions, community-sponsored agriculture, and local economies which emphasize relationship over cost.
Barter - Because most barter is unique to each transaction and relationship, and barter is often a win-win where the value on both sides goes up, it could probably be included as yet another facet of a qualitative economy. (One must take care that it does not get redefined in monetary terms.)
What Distinguishes Quantitative and Qualitative Economies?
Attributes
|
Quantitative
Economy
|
Qualitative Economy
|
Value measured by:
|
Quantity – more is always worth more
|
Quality – longevity, aesthetics, relationship-building
|
Basis:
|
Dead relationship between items in transaction
|
Living relationship between people in transaction
|
Key to increasing value:
|
Scarcity, minimizing investment in individual items, ownership
|
Abundance, maximizing investment in individual items, sharing
|
Values after transfer:
|
Won & lost – zero-sum game
|
Win-win – transactions build value on both sides
|
Amounts ('price') determined by:
|
Seller/Receiver
|
Buyer/Giver
|
Motivations:
|
Enjoying the end result (but unreachable maximum)
|
Enjoying the journey (but not always positive)
|
Global measures:
|
GDP (Gross Domestic Product)
|
GWI (Genuine Wellness Index), or GNH (Gross National Happiness)
|
Examples:
|
Purchases, theft (note how theft fits all of the attributes in this column and none in the other)
|
Barter, gifts, pay-what-you-choose, donations, libraries, craftsmanship
|
Benefits:
|
Massive scalability, accelerated progress, easily mathematized
|
Sustainability, repairability, open source, satisfies human needs
|
Disadvantages:
|
Dissatisfaction, ecological destruction, proprietary
|
Slower, limited scope, trust-based
|
End results:
|
Objective comparisons, inequity, oppression, deception
rewarded, monetize and consume global resources, dismissal of human values,
race to the bottom
|
Subjective comparisons, cooperation, deception punished,
honours interconnectedness of all things, promotes joy and well-being
|
In Summary
It should be clear that altering our perception of how our economies must work is not all about giving everything away, trusting in the inherent generosity of strangers, and singing Kumbaya around a communal campfire. The advantages of qualitative economies are things that we all want: Quality, repairable, aesthetically-pleasing products, in abundance, and with joyful relationships. And, perhaps most importantly, we don't have to replace our status quo monetary economies across the board. It is entirely feasible and practical to have both styles of economic activity exist simultaneously within the same population - they do so now!
The key is to allow both value systems equal weight so that money does not always trump human qualities, and also to re-examine the role of single-track entities, such as commercial corporations, which are unable to operate in qualitative economies, and are thus incapable of being part of a balanced society.
