A Discourse on John R Commons

Having just finished the almost 200 pages of ch. 8 of institutional economics, it seems like a good time for a few reflections. This enormous chapter with a lot in it, some of which I discussed earlier.  The perhaps key point that Commons is trying to make is that economists have gotten their thinking very mixed up on some issues related to use value and scarcity value and efficiency and scarcity which have hampered overall economic thinking. Summarizing the 200 pages, it seems to come down to that there is an engineering economy and a proprietary economy.  The engineering economy way of thinking is based on the creation of wealth, labor power and managerial transactions, power over nature, human to nature relationships, output/input ratios and efficiency.  This is the economy as thought of by Ricardo, Marx and Taylor of scientific engineering.  It is based on the maximizing output and overcoming the difficulties of nature. The proprietary economy, on the other h...

Tae Hee Jo, from SUNY Buffalolo, just published a working paper on the institutionalist theory of business enterprises. It can be found at: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/84036/1/MPRA_paper_84036.pdf. In the paper Jo covers some thoughts on Common's contributions.  Starting on page 4, Jo discusses Commons idea of a going concern.  According to Jo, Commons view is of a business as an ongoing concern facing the conflicting needs between employers and employees and the working rules and  addressing of these conflicts over time.  The good will value of the business occurs as long as the working rules intermediate between conflicts and ensure the ongoing operation of the concern. An important point of commonality between Commons and Veblen is that the business is a social enterprise and not simply a single production function as Jo writes. Jo also writes that, "ITBE pioneered by Commons and Veblen should never remain fixed because capitalism and its master institut...

Charles Whalen is a well known commons scholar who has now decided to throw his hat in the ring for the 23rd congressional district of New York in the Ithaca area.  While we don't endorse candidates here, it is important to hear about how people are translating some of commons thinking into policy today. We will highlight other ideas across the political spectrum across the rest of the campaign. see this link to hear more about Charles thinking...... https://www.facebook.com/Whalen23NY/posts/409427929477414