Exchange, Honesty, Ethics
Society was born. Even those more insensitive and cold among us have the sound reasons above to cooperate with their fellow men.
The consequence of specialization was exchange: I do the fishing, you do the farming, so in order to provide everyone with every product, we exchange.
In exchanging, we discovered ethics. If one takes without giving, or gives less than what one takes, one robs others. One thing is caring for those who are in good faith willing to contribute and be part of the group but just can’t because they’re too young, old, weak, sick, or something. Quite another thing it’s those whose intention is to exploit, if not harm, their fellows.
To be exact, it has been said there are four types, four levels, four conditions of exchange:
giving nothing in exchange for what one receives is called criminal exchange, which is the type of exchange practiced by criminals, whether unlawful or lawful;
giving in exchange less than what one receives is called partial exchange, which is merely a departure from fair exchange towards criminal exchange;
giving in exchange something of equal value than what one receives is called fair exchange, which is honest;
giving in exchange a little more than what one receives is called exchange in abundance, which is ideal.
“Out exchange” is a colloquial term for either criminal or partial exchange.
To fully appreciate the value of these, one has to look at them from the viewpoint of the society, not merely of the individual: the level of survival for all depends in the first place on the level of production and exchange in the society, and these in turn depend on the conditions of exchange taking place in it.