Sadly, the freedom spoken of so often is not the liberty to create and be individual. No, ours is merely freedom from human interconnectedness. A vivid example of this freedom's effect on our communities is the current paranoia about crime. The freedom of disconnectedness brings with it ignorance of the social mores that encourage us to live peaceably with one another. While there is a place for anonymous transactions between people, when anonymity is carried into all aspects of personal and communal life it becomes a simple matter to rob, rape, or even kill another human being for personal gain.
People mean only as much as to an individual as the price of that individual's needs that they fill.
One particular reason the discussion of gift economies has fallen into decay in the West is semantic. Over the past century or so the dichotomy between the gift economy and the market economy has been couched in terms of Communism and Capitalism, an easy pair of antagonistic labels which belies the ancient nature of the two economies and has served to set up a false competition between the two mutually dependent poles of our cultures and lives. When one of the two poles is absent or dominated by the other, the passive economy will inevitably demand attention and focus in order to bring the system back into balance. Given these conditions, it is not difficult to understand the situation Western cultures find themselves in today. Politicians and spiritual leaders bemoan our lack of social concern and community, and yet by way of public policy and sermon they reinforce the increasingly drastic imbalance in the system, which consists of an almost cultic belief that the market is capable of solving problems that, in truth, it cannot even begin to address.