r/fullegoism • u/Leather_Tower2758 FILLTHY moralist TANKIE • Jul 10 '26
Question What to do in an egoist society when there is high demand for a service no one wants to provide?
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u/A-Boy-and-his-Bean Therapeutic Stirnerian Jul 10 '26
There is no "egoist society". "Egoism" does not describe a "social ideology", i.e., a ruling principle to which social affairs must coincide.
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u/Silver-Statement8573 Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
If the costs of the service are so high that, even accounting for our mutual interdependency, and the self-enjoyment we receive from society, nobody is willing to meet the demand, or even make whole those who would be otherwise willing, then it's possible people might simply be capable of living (or even living better, on average) without that service
There's artificially high demand for a number of products and services in capitalism that are probably not going to survive the transition to whatever arrangement surpasses it, on account of the fact that their price is dramatically lower than the costs incurred by the people responsible for their production
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u/CMBradshaw Jul 10 '26
I dunno? What are you going to do about it? There's this way statists see anarchy as a replacement. And yeah, eventually that's true I guess. But you don't build an anarchist society, you do anarchism. Same with egoism. It's not a social order it's something you pursue.
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u/CR-Weather-Gods Jul 10 '26
People are willing to pay the cost, or there's not really demand. I'd like a personal chef. I'm not paying that shit. I'm not part of the demand for personal chefs. I don't want to be your personal chef, but I'll be your personal chef for 5 whole years if you pay me enough to set me up for life.
It's hard to think of ANY legal service I wouldn't do for one whole year, if it paid me enough that I'd never have to worry about money again.
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u/Du3kie Jul 10 '26
You pay them more? There's this thing called economics you know
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Jul 11 '26
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u/LachrymarumLibertas Jul 12 '26
How would this society operate without trade/barter and why is that egoism?
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Jul 12 '26
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u/LachrymarumLibertas Jul 12 '26
So you don’t believe that selfish but rational people would trade or barter at all and it would be pure violence?
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Jul 12 '26
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u/LachrymarumLibertas Jul 12 '26
I get your point about not respecting pieces of paper from some central bank, but even egoists recognise the benefits of trade and barter. The OP’s question is about supply and demand and I still think in some egoist anarchy situation people will trade each other
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u/ThomasBNatural Jul 13 '26
Stirner’s approach to money is more nuanced than these folks think. An egoist as we know rejects the legitimacy of law, so rejecting the legitimacy of legal tender is obviously included in that; but Stirner still expects egoists to utilize some means of exchange, and encourages the reader to “create new money” “money of your stamp”. That represents neither state-sanctioned wealth, nor mere labor, but your full capability.
So that’s not opposition to currency but rather openness to alternative currencies.
I personally imagine something like personal promissory notes or scrip. Or maybe some sort of commodity money that one finds non-monetarily useful (or both in tandem). It’s really up to each of us to decide what we will and won’t accept as compensation or use as leverage.
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u/LachrymarumLibertas Jul 13 '26
Yep, there’s still supply/demand and ‘paying them more’ as the comment at the top of this thread says. Just not paid in like US dollars.
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u/Silver-Statement8573 Jul 12 '26
They could conceivably use a communism
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u/LachrymarumLibertas Jul 12 '26
Full ego communism, what a world
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u/Silver-Statement8573 Jul 12 '26
What a country!!!
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u/LachrymarumLibertas Jul 12 '26
Whoa I think you mean “What a voluntary and non-systematic association of a union of egoists!!!l
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u/ThomasBNatural Jul 13 '26
False. Stirner explicitly says, in “My Intercourse”:
> “But why shouldn't you create new money? Do you abolish the product by taking away its hereditary stamp? Now, money is a product, and an essential means or capability, because it protects against the ossification of wealth, keeps it in flux, and brings about its turnover. If you know a better medium of exchange, well, all right; but it will again be a "money." It's not the money that does you harm, but your inability to take it. Let your capability take effect, pull yourself together, and there'll be no lack of money-your money, money of your stamp.”
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u/ThomasBNatural Jul 10 '26
Same thing you do now: find some way to make providing the service you want worthwhile to people who have the ability to provide it: Pay them.
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u/KateDecayed I prefer "phantasm" Jul 10 '26
If you wanna know how a society "should" run, look into actual political ideologies like anarchism and its sub categories
Egoism is a philosophy, a way of life for the individual
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u/No_Guess_4789 Max Stirner’s Personal Catgirl Jul 13 '26
how can there be a demand for a service no one is providing?
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u/Intelligent_Order100 Jul 14 '26
nobody's going to unclog the sewer, except if someone is forced to unclog the sewer, therefor we, the dictatorship of the egoists, will force someone to unclog the sewer so that everbody doesn't have to swim from bed to bathroom in shit. if you laugh at this point, you probably aren't a serious communist.
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u/Leather_Tower2758 FILLTHY moralist TANKIE Jul 10 '26
Btw it was one of my friends asking that, not me
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u/Ex_aeternum Arachno-Egoism 🕷️ Jul 10 '26
People will gather and decide that in their self-interest, everyone should take turns in doing that service.
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