Humanity's tendency towards commodification of things ought to be resisted.

Rebuttals Why are things commodified? Trade as originating with human communication is an assertion. Large brains along with the biological & neurological development for the productive use of sound i.e. language, is not a product of trade, nor trade a result of communication. Language/communication is a product of evolutionary development; it had value toward survival [22. http://tinyurl.com... ]. Yes, commodification is as defined in R1, but is extrapolated “…referring to the way that market values can replace other social values, or the way a market can replace a communal system. “..human functions has become commodified.” Commodification is more of a crime of the market against humanity”, Douglas Rushkoff, scholar [23. http://tinyurl.com...; 24. http://tinyurl.com...]. The things we think of in non-economic terms; human functions, biological or social interactions are commodified as a saleable items [25. http://tinyurl.com... ]. How does commodifying what it is to be human as a part of the Laissez-faire market place allows us to live and thrive? Better off? If so, how? Bartering indeed allows for exchange of goods that are needed or wanted, but the act of bartering is done in a social context, it’s a social activity. It has rules or rites that are a part of a particular society’s culture. Often, but not limited to, bartering occurs in natural labor systems. Cultures or societies that work directly with nature to produce food or goods, a farmer, brick maker, basket weaver etc. If certain resources aren’t available or there’s a surplus, trading is done outside their community; mutually agreed upon obligations of reciprocity based on moral codes remain. I trade vegetables I grew for beef from a farmer down the road. A fair deal is had because the valuating schema for our products is mutually understood. The beef farmer would fall short if he bartered with a Hindus vegetable farmer. The value of goods is relative to the culture. What happens when you strip the culture away by commodifying it, as done with the tourist industry (R2)? Who then determines the value of goods? The dominant economic system that commodifies “an experience” for tourist. Moral cultural codes of reciprocity no longer have value [26. http://tinyurl.com... ]. Yes, our labor is commodified, wages for work. But labor value has to be in surplus to the value of the goods produced. Johnny is paid $40 to make a shoe, the shoe is sold for $60; a labor surplus of $20 that Johnny does not directly benefit. An employer would be out of business if labor-product value were equal. A reasonable premise, the purpose of business is profits; through expansion creates more jobs. But this isn’t actually occurring. During the course of the last 40 yrs there’s been a diminishing return on labor. Wage growth has not kept pace with inflation. From the 60’s-80’s one member of a household supported a family of 4, this is no more it now takes two. Over the years manufacturing jobs have gone over seas for cheap labor, unions weakened & automation has reduced the need for personnel. This results in a surplus of Johnnys’ needing work. Foreign Jane is paid $4 for a shoe selling for $60. Technological advancements requires higher education to compete in the work force at a cost of financial debt with no guarantee you will obtain a position or hold it for long if you do; these positions are also outsourced for less expensive labor. [27. http://tinyurl.com...; 28. http://tinyurl.com... ] “…. Yet our lives are so much more full and filled with experiences… because.. commodification does not just allow us to live -- it allows us to thrive.” You’re fortunate you can purchase experiences; there are few who can. With rising cost of housing, healthcare, child care & education, purchasing the basics is all most can afford. The demand for goods & services beyond necessities is now skewed to higher incomes, which are few in number. Jobs created to make luxury goods are small due to the number of people with the purchase power. We have less discretionary income, which at one time fueled our economy. [29. http://tinyurl.com...] Instead, job growth is seen in the financial sector which serves the wealthy. Money moves around in the form of intangible financial products rather than US investment in industry at home. [30. http://tinyurl.com... 31. http://tinyurl.com... ] Our incomes are squeezed, but still need clothing and food. Many people of modern economies can’t afford traditionally grown or produced goods, overhead costs of shelter and healthcare are prohibitive. To keep commodities moving, industrialized farming and import of cheap labor from 3rd world countries work the land reducing food prices. Think about the poor person who picked your orange. But the income derived from import labor is exported to their country of origin, not replenishing demand in our economy stimulating growth. This mode of food production is rapidly reaching its tipping point [32. http://tinyurl.com... 33. http://tinyurl.com... ] In decades past wages that provided a higher standard of living circulated within our economy creating demand for goods & services fueling economic growth. But domestically produced goods were non-competitive in lesser economies. Western industries wished to expand its consumer base. To make goods affordable and expand markets, manufacturing moved to 3rd world countries for low cost labor. [34. http://tinyurl.com... ]. Impacts: US loss of jobs and flat wages, exploitation of 3rd world workers, child labor, abuse, slavery and unsafe conditions. [35. http://tinyurl.com...] The $6 T-shirt and name brand sneakers that give us a false illusion of status & self worth has cost lives. Profits reaped don’t benefit our economy, but are invested in financial markets & in furthering this scheme abroad; we are getting poorer. It does not lift the 3rd world’s living standards, but is exploitive of people, natural resources & pollutive to their environment, perpetuating urban squalor & poverty. The over 1,000 deaths resulting from the Rana Plaza factory collapse & other incidences like it, is a stain on the very clothing we wear & other products we consume. It harkens back to the working conditions of early US industrialization & the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire. The very conditions that our society deemed unacceptable in the 1900’s has been exported. Ethics don’t apply if impacts are out of our view [36.http://tinyurl.com..., 37. http://tinyurl.com..., 38. http://tinyurl.com... 39. http://tinyurl.com..., 40.http://tinyurl.com..., 41. http://tinyurl.com.... Human life should not be commodified. A. Education & Medicine K-12 level education has not yet been commodified. Higher education is quickly becoming so. Scholarship and enlightenment is being supplanted by the student as a consumer, lacking intellectual rigor in order to please for marketability. As resources to fund higher education shrinks, fewer people can afford it or are to assume dept lasting into middle age [42.http://tinyurl.com..., 43. http://tinyurl.com... ]. US medical school cost is in excess of $200K, pricing out even the brightest of minds, creating shortages of doctors [44. http://tinyurl.com... ]. A once noble profession has been corrupted. Health care is relegated to those who can pay (R2). Our quality of care has dwindled to 37th in the world as a result of commodification for profit [45. http://tinyurl.com..., 46. http://tinyurl.com...]. As stated earlier we’re getting poorer. Many are essentially slaves in keeping ourselves alive. Our desire for cheap food & goods has caused a boom in literal slavery of others [http://tinyurl.com...; video], [47.http://tinyurl.com..., 48. http://tinyurl.com...]. Morality and ethics are toss aways for the goods in our hands, on our backs and put in our mouth. Problems with commodification? Oh yes, the subjectivity of morality and ethics; the justification of slavery, sounds familiar. Art, the representation of cultural condition is lost when it’s valued beyond aesthetics and emotional response; commodified when its purchase lends social cache’; diminishing the intrinsic value of the work itself. [49. http://tinyurl.com...] Blood diamonds the sparkly thing that makes a girl swoon when one is placed on her finger; a product of civil wars, and unmentionable human suffering [50. http://tinyurl.com...] . Human lives in exchange for a trinket. Neo-liberal globalization emphasizes lifestyle & identity as a vehicle to sell goods, creating homogenization of cultures. It forms a capitalistic culture of fetish for self-identifying commodities. Example: Cultures have objects that have representative value. An amulet that one prays upon or holds close is seen as a spiritual conduit to the divine or is a reflection of traditional wisdom or aspect of life; cultural solidarity. Its use-value is not from the materials used to create it. The symbolic value transforms the object into a fetish commodity. Fetish commodities are embedded in cultural heritages. This makes each culture unique and rich. Western capitalism removes these cultural moorings replacing it with individualism and social stratification. An aboriginal teen who proudly wears a token representing his movement into manhood is replaced with gold chains representing social status, self identity and self worth. This fetish commodity has no heritage or collective human unifying value [51. http://tinyurl.com..., 52. http://tinyurl.com..., 53. http://tinyurl.com...;54.http://tinyurl.com... ]. Have run out of characters will continue rebuttal next round. To my valued opponent