Market economy
Many people have lived their entire lives under a shallow misunderstanding of the market economy. It is generally assumed that a market economy is only a means of making money, of trading and of developing the economy. We are accustomed to the idea that it needs efficiency, that it needs equity, that it is a neutral, manipulative economic machine。
But from a bottom-up perspective of political economics, telling you the truth about a subversive perception: the market economy was not a mere economic tool at all; it was a whole-of-the-art path for reshaping society as a whole。
It is not just about buying and selling, it is about value standards, about resource flows, about social relations, about the way people live, about your language, about your mind and about your vision. It is the most hidden, powerful and pervasive bottom operating system of contemporary society。
First, a market economy is a social platform for value-based adjudication。
What's value? What's useful? What's success
Until the logic of the market spreads, the values of society are diverse: virtues, commitment, morality, dedication, craftsmanship and home-grown, all respected。
However, once the market economy has become the dominant route, the whole society will voluntarily unify the single ruler: rate of return, liquidity, value for money, commercial value。
There is value in earning money, arbitrating and adding value。
Long cycles, slow results, public goods, non-profits are worthless。
There is no need for anyone to force indoctrination, and the rules of survival of the market automatically tame everyone. Slowly, you will find that education is an investment, health care is a consumption, humans is a resource swap, efforts are a realization, stability is a loss。
This is the scariest place: it silently rewrites the language system and the logic of thinking for all, so that everyone does not feel free to live in the single dimension of “all for money”。
More crucially, the market logic is extremely expansionary, and it will never be self-restraint。
It will not stay at the mall, the factory and the writing building. It can infiltrate spontaneously, extend indefinitely and engulf all areas that are not utilised。
Intimacy, ethics, public goods, culture, ideals, love, which are already warm, non-tradable social relationships are gradually being broken down, priced and commercialized。
It constantly screens people and strengthens itself: those who follow the logic of profit-oriented gain-making, and those who adhere to long-standing morality are marginalized. Over time, the route has created a self-reinforcing, closed-ringed social stability。
Once the route has been fixed, the momentum is set from the very beginning。
This explains all the current social dilemmas。
First, resources are bound to be absent。
Capital is born to pursue short, smooth, high-rotation, low-risk arbitrage patterns. Financial speculation, empty traffic, virtual arbitrage, and large, long-term, slow-impact physical industries, basic research, human security, natural capital, dilution and abandonment。
Ultimately, the real economy is empty, the virtual economy is bloated, jobs are scarce, internal rolls are increasing, and the number of people is becoming normal。
Secondly, the mentality of the population is bound to be extremely utilitarian。
When the assessment criteria for society as a whole are only “realizable”, there is no one who wants to farm deep, no one who wants to sink and no one who wants to hold on. Short-term speculation replaces long-termism and self-serving self-interest replaces collective solidarity, and all people are held hostage by their insides and cannot stop。
Thirdly, the stratification must continue。
The market economy has an eternal iron law: the rate at which capital is added and the rate at which labour gains are always crushed。
Working with both hands, we can only sustain ourselves; capital arbitrage is the only way to cross the class. The widening of the gap between rich and poor and the entrenchment of barriers at the class level are structural consequences of the route itself and are not incidental social problems。
Speaking of which, a lot of people would ask, "are we going to deny the market economy?"
Absolutely not。
The market economy itself was not absolutely right or wrong, but it was a necessary tool for development, enabling dynamism, efficiency and the mobilization of social resources。
The real central issue was never “whether or not to market”, but “who controls the market and who controls its boundaries”。
If ownership is left entirely to capital and the logic of the market expands unbridled and unbridled, it must end up as capital prevails over rules, benefits consume people's lives, the public interest gives way to profit, and society as a whole is caught in a cycle of profit-seeking。
A truly healthy social ecology will always be people-centred and market-oriented。
The market is given an insurmountable red line, and it is forbidden to invade the people's bottom line, erode the public interest and deconstruct social ethics. The market is responsible only for efficiency and dynamism and must not be allowed to dominate social values, reshape humanity and take control of the times。
You see the floor, and you finally understand:
The economy is just the appearance, and the route is the essence. Tools can be used for me, but they must not be allowed to tame the entire era。
