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“Place holder” is a good expression. Instead of organizing
their labors directly, those living in a market economy deal
with each other in the monetary sphere, and the coordination
of production is the by-product of market outcomes. Of
course, such an indirect governance of production is
ineffective and crisis prone. Yesterday's terrorist attack
on the World Trade Center is predicted to have deep impacts
on production world wide, through its effects on stock
markets and consumers' saving behaviors. However tragic the
loss of 20,000 lives may be, the world economy is so big
that it should hardly make a dent. (And, these 20,000 were
in addition to the 20,000 children who died yesterday, and
the day before, and will die today, as a consequence of the
inhumanely cruel division of wealth in the world today.)
Last but not least, one-dimensional money is simply not able
to address the ecological limits which modern production
must heed. |
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