On cooperation and fairness as organizing principles
Subject: Re: [sasona] fine deadline approaching
To: Sasona Co-op Members mailing list
User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.1i
[...]
Also, even if 'fairness' had any objective meaning
with regards to the labor system, it would still be
an utterly irrelevant concept.
I am being quite serious.
Cooperation is about maximizing choice.
Maximizing choice maximizes individual benefit.
Individual benefit is necessarily personal and subjective.
Fairness is about minimizing difference.
Attempting to make things equivalent by some
objective external perception. It transforms systems
into zero-sum games in which nothing is maximized.
Even in unlikely cases where fairness results in a universal
benefit, the total benefit (to the members as a whole) is less,
and the individual benefit is likely less.
If something seems fair to you, you have ultimately
been cheated. If something seems unfair to you, reevaluate
the choices you have made.
Cooperation makes it likely that you get what you want.
Fairness makes it unlikely that anyone gets what you want.
Cooperation heals injury by sharing surplus.
Fairness avenges injury by redistributing deficits.
Trip
To: Sasona Co-op Members mailing list
User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.1i
[...]
Also, even if 'fairness' had any objective meaning
with regards to the labor system, it would still be
an utterly irrelevant concept.
I am being quite serious.
Cooperation is about maximizing choice.
Maximizing choice maximizes individual benefit.
Individual benefit is necessarily personal and subjective.
Fairness is about minimizing difference.
Attempting to make things equivalent by some
objective external perception. It transforms systems
into zero-sum games in which nothing is maximized.
Even in unlikely cases where fairness results in a universal
benefit, the total benefit (to the members as a whole) is less,
and the individual benefit is likely less.
If something seems fair to you, you have ultimately
been cheated. If something seems unfair to you, reevaluate
the choices you have made.
Cooperation makes it likely that you get what you want.
Fairness makes it unlikely that anyone gets what you want.
Cooperation heals injury by sharing surplus.
Fairness avenges injury by redistributing deficits.
Trip