The Great Transformation Analysis

In Polanyi’s paper the emergence of market society is determined as “the great transformation”. First of all, what characterizes the market society is that it is a self-regulated market. People’s mentality changed and they were motivated by economy. That is to say, market society is based on three fictitious commodities: land, labor, and money. Work had to be converted into labor, and labor into wages. So as land converted to real-estate which converted to money (Polanyi, 68). Which mean that there is no rationality in the market. Once, Society controlled the market, but now the market controls the society. However market economy can only exist in market society. Now, the most important relationship in the society is the social status. In previous …show more content…
One is the Protestant work ethic and the other one is capitalist spirit. The Protestant worldview is about the concept that hard work, frugal living, and reserved manner is a duty that carries it’s own reward. Which basically means hard work equal grated gain. One type of Protestants was Calvinism. The Calvinist didn’t know what pleasure is. Their man wanted to work. They put hard work before themselves, not doing it for personal gain, and do it because they love hard work. By following this, the person maximized its profit, and put it into investment. Alternatively, they proved their love to God through hard work; for them work became a religious value. As a matter of fact, they developed the concept that time is money. As well as the concept, every penny saved is penny earned; A long term and rational profitability to gain wealth. Their ethics engaged people to work and trade. It was an important fact for the emergence of market society (Bendix, 56). The Protestant ethic of Weber ties to Taylor’s methods with the efficiency and time management in the factory. Both have the same concept that hard work brings economic gain. The “spirit of capitalism” is contrasted with traditionalism. This economic activity strives to work less and at the same time make more output; they were workers who looked for comfort at their working hours, and minimum exertion. They could alternate between leisure time and work time, as well as decide …show more content…
Previous days, people who specialized in work, knew all about its stages. These people also knew how to take care of their mechanics, and domestic problems. Today, the richer are people the less knowledgeable they are. Everything is done for them because of the exchange and trades. This is the fundamental aspect of the economic system; Labor division. The mind set of the person had to shift as well as their rationality toward work. Also in the past, market was so small because it existed in a society, they exchanged between goods and services. For that reason, the market was not capable of setting prices or has any currency of money. Only after the great transformation, after the creation of industrialization, society submerged into the market; bartering and treads became the