Month: July 2014

• July 29, 2014

  The tragedy of the commons: Existential homelessness

  I have been discussing the three ways of making a living, one of which is concerned with using the property we have. One good test of my first maxim–using properly what you’ve got–would be the ‘tragedy of the commons.’ In a now famous paper, ‘The Tragedy of the Commons,’ which was originally published in Science in 1968,…
• July 28, 2014

  Using properly what you’ve got: An analysis

  One of the three ways of making a living, I have urged, involves ‘using properly what you’ve got.’ In other posts, I have called this Category I. Let me analyze each part of this formulation. 1.) Got. One can get something by (a) finding, (b) taking, or (c) making. One could find truffles in a…
• July 25, 2014

  Making room for, and sense of, largesse

  In his otherwise scathing New York Review of Books review of Jean Starobinski’s Largesse, Ernst Gombrich notes at the outset that the term refers not just to gift giving of any sort but, ‘in a more technical context, [to] the ceremonial scattering of gifts expected from a king or prince on festive occasions.’ Largesse, Starobinski asserts, is an…
• July 24, 2014

  The virtues corresponding to our economic relationships

  I have been discussing three ways of making a living, which correspond also to three kinds of economic relationships. Cast as maxims, these ways are: I. Use what you’ve got. II. Exchange what’s in hand. III. Offer what you can. I. ‘Using what you’ve got’ is a territorial as well as a (for lack of…
• July 23, 2014

  Why Kickstarter can’t work and other related matters

  I now want to begin the slow and steady work of teasing out the implications of this tripartite model of making a living. Here is that schema again: I. Use what you’ve got. The ‘getting’ part refers to acquiring something or other. The ‘using’ part may have as its referent land, waste, plants, animals, tools, people,…