[p2p-research] anti-microfinance movement in nicaragua protests usury

[Ryan Lanham]

On Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 2:28 PM, Kevin Carson <
free.market.anticapitalist at gmail.com> wrote:


Possibly relevant is Hernando De Soto's "The
> Mystery of Capital," which argued that the informal property held by
> hundreds of millions of people in the Third World was an enormous
> potential  source of capital, if some mechanism existed for borrowing
> from it.  And I would argue that the existing productive potential of
> labor, if it could be leveraged as a source of credit, would be an
> analogous vehicle for investing in increased productive capacity.  Tom
> Greco's idea  of mutual credit-clearing networks is highly relevant
> IMO.
>
>
Default risk is everything with credit.  Since the day money was founded,
people have lent it and others have defaulted.  The only way to monetize
labor is the risk of effective slavery.

The trouble I have with getting my head around post-scarcity discussions is
the idea of value going in different directions.  Value seems relatively
straightforward to a capitalist.  If I am willing to pay for it, that's what
it is worth.  A market is an open auction on value.  It is an elegantly
simple system that has been rediscovered around the world many times and in
many cultures.  It would be interesting to encounter beings from off our
planet to see what work-arounds they might have found.

For now, value, collateral, interest and money just seem too elegant, simple
and obvious to not continue.

Ryan
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listcultures.org/pipermail/p2presearch_listcultures.org/attachments/20091119/2f9b509b/attachment.html>