Commons Way of Life vs. Market Way of Life

by Silke Helfrich

The market has always been with us. What’s new about life in the last three hundred years — and especially the last thirty — is that the buying and selling of goods is the overriding goal of human civilization. The market is seen not just as an efficient way to do some things — it’s increasingly heralded as the only way to organize our society. The market has become the ruling paradigm of the world, a way of life that is wiping out efficient, equitable and sustainable commons-based practices.

Silke Helfrich — a commons activist based in Jena, Germany — explores what we lose when the market is deployed as the solution to all our problems and answer to all our dreams. In this chart, she illustrates how radically different a market-based society operates compared to a commons-based society. This is excerpted from the book The Wealth of the Commons, which she edited with David Bollier. — Jay Walljasper

Commons Way of Life vs. Market Way of Life

	Market Way of Life	Commons Way of Life
Core Question	What can be bought and sold?	What do we need to live?
Idea of the Individual	Humans maximize benefits for themselves	Humans are primarily cooperative social beings
Social Practice	Competition predominates; we prevail at the expense of others	Cooperation predominates; commoning connects us with others
Power Relations	Centralization & monopoly	Decentralization & collaboration
Change Agents	Powerful political lobbies focus on institutionalized politics and government	Diverse communities working as distributed networks, with solutions coming from the margins
Decisionmaking	Hierarchical, top-down; command & control	Horizontial, bottom-up, decentralized, self-organized
Decision Principle	Majority rule(s)	Consensus
Property Relations	Exclusive private property: “I can do anything I want with what I own”	Collectively used possession: “I am co-responsible for what I co-use“
Core Focus	Market exchange and economic growth (GDP) is achieved through individual initiative, innovation and “efficiency”	Common weath and sustainable livelihoods is achieved through cooperation
Resources	Scarcity is maintained or created through social barriers and exclusions	There is enough for all through sharing (of finite resources) and a sense of abundance (of limitless resources)
Results for Resources	Depletion, exploitation, enclosure	Conservation, maintenance, reproduction, expansion
Knowledge	Knowledge regarded as scarce asset to be bought and sold	Knowledge regarded as a plentiful asset for the common good of society
Relationships to Nature & Other Humans	Separation	Interrelational
Society	Individual vs. collective interest >exclusion	My personal unfolding is a condition for the development of others, and vice-versa. >Emancipation through convivial connections