Alternatives to the market economy..

Can We Make the Gift Economy Work?
Readers know I'm an advocate of the Gift (or 'Generosity') Economy as a replacement for the Market Economy. Where the Market Economy tends to concentrate wealth, rewards distortion and abuse by the rich and powerful, is predicated on self-interest and scarcity, and is amoral, the Gift Economy (<-- this is an excellent link, BTW) distributes wealth, provides no significant incentive for abuse, is predicated on collective interest and abundance, and is profoundly moral.

One of the principles of the Gift Economy is that the gift must always move (each time we receive, we must pay it forward). A second principle is that in the Gift Economy we are agents, not (passive) consumers -- and what we give is generally what we have some mastery over, something we do well. Market Economy fans work hard to undermine these principles: The 'value' of every exchange, they say (usually some product in return for money, a surrogate for 'equivalent' goods or services) must be provided back to the giver, rather than forward to someone else. And the act of consumption is advertised as a pleasure in and of itself, a reward for previous personal sacrifice (unpleasant work), which imposes no obligation or responsibility on the consumer (or on the producer, for that matter).

It is hard to overcome the constant propaganda barrage of the Market Economy, whose adherents invest billions of dollars in their 'commercial messages' and take up between 10% (some radio stations) and 75% (many magazines) of the total 'information bandwidth' of the media -- a cost we 'passive consumers' of course pay back to them in the final cost of the product.

Let's not kid ourselves: This is war. File-sharing is just the tip of the iceberg in the battle between advocates of the Gift Economy and the Market Economy. Believers in the Market Economy see everything as property, and the use of any property without payment as theft. They are using absurdly anti-innovative patent law, armies of lawyers and their control of major political parties to try to crush every aspect of the Gift Economy. Even philanthropy is viewed through a Market lens -- they expect a generous tax deduction, and will spend more on self-aggrandizing commercials (for which they also get a tax write-off) telling 'consumers' about their 'generosity' (for which they expect consumers to give them a lot of additional full-price business in gratitude) than they spend on the philanthropic contribution itself. They don't like the Internet, which they see as anarchic and uncontrolled, and once planned to set up an Alternate Internet which would be run as a commercial operation.

http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/2005/07/31.html
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Gift-economy
http://www.free-culture.cc/freecontent/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_each_according_to_his_ability,_to_each_according_to_his_need

But has it ever really worked?

Priofit hungry insatiable empires and rich people make sure no alternatives to the market survive.
I do know this mode of functioning ,expected by the market is one of psychopathy and it isn't a success either, in fact it's killing us.

a new type of man must be educated.

He is called "Communist Man" and he works not for the benefit of himself, but for the greater good of society as a whole.

It may take a few generations for 'Communist Man' to develop, so in the intervening time, the state must dictate the direction of society run as a dictatorship of the proletariot. Then as time goes by, the state can wither and die as 'Cmmunist Man' takes over.

Yeah - I was a history major during the 70's when Marxism was the rule in every history department in America. It was the future, and all in vogue for everyone with an education.

I graduated a Marxist, but it only lasted a year afetr I got my first job. Then I realized 'Communist Man' was just not natural, and the state would never wither and die, but would turn itself into a permanent dictatorship just like it did in each state that tried it.

Sounded good in college though.

capitalist thief came around.Mankind existed on other economies for eons before greedy man created the big exploitation called"civilization".A system of exploitation built for the few most greedy carried on the backs of the many duped and lured by a dream never to come true.