The Economy as a System with a Shape That Requires Shaping

The logic of choice understands allocation as the simultaneous optimization of everything available. In reality, by contrast, allocation takes place over time as a catallactic—that is, market-based—process.

This process has a shape and requires shaping. The shape of society emerges above all from exchange, which for good reasons takes place against money. It is an intersubjective, non-deterministic process that nevertheless produces social objectivity.

Shaping is carried out by people and institutions that participate in this process while also standing above it. The central institution is the state. State action claims coercive authority. The state is not primarily the creator of social order; it is its guardian and custodian. Yet by virtue of its power, it can also damage or destroy that order.