T W O EC O NO MIE S: C O MMERC I A L A ND SH A R ING
145
ment on his face. Suffice it to say that I had found the single most potent insult to hurl at Josh. “What the fuck?” he spit back at me. “You think I do this for money? I’m happy to lend you one of these. But I don’t take money for this.” I had crossed a line. But with that crossing, my respect for Josh grew. I didn’t agree with how he had acquired his collection. Yet his rebuke reminded me of a different economy within which culture also lives. There exists not just the commercial economy, which meters access on the simple metric of price, but also a sharing economy, where access to culture is regulated not by price, but by a complex set of social relations. These social relations are not simple. Indeed, these relations are insulted by the simplicity of price. And though I hope not many trade on capital acquired as Josh acquired his, everyone reading this book has a rich life of relations governed in a sharing economy, free of the simplicity of price and markets. If the point isn’t completely obvious, consider some more examples: • You have friends. That friendship lives within a certain economy. If you only ever ask and never give, the friendship goes away. If you meter each interaction and demand a settlement after each exchange, the friendship also goes away. Certain moves appropriate in some places are inappropriate here. For example: “I need to talk to someone. Can I give you $200 for an hour- long session?” • You have, or have had, or will have, lovers. That relationship exists within a complex sharing economy. The statement “Wow, that was great. Here’s $500!” isn’t gratitude in such
80706 i-xxiv 001-328 r4nk.indd 145
8/12/08 1:55:23 AM