Politics and commerce

Both politics and the ‘trade’ part of commerce are very old.  These institutions have survived for one reason: they fit perfectly in a zero sum society.

Politics is the allocation of zero sum resources, mostly political power.  It exists wherever humans convene.  Tribes use their complex and intimate networks to constantly re-allocate resources.  (He lost a leg hunting for all of us, we will provide his widow with food.) It can escalate to warfare as it has throughout most of history; particularly when zero sum becomes negative sum. (In drought years the Zuni raided their Pueblo neighbors.)  

The trade component of commerce is almost as old.  It is an effort to allocate zero sum resources to improve resource allocation to get more mutual satisfaction, voluntarily.  (The Zuni traded corn for clay pottery with neighbors.  The Zuni were good at irrigation, others had good mines for clay.)

Thanks to commerce, which uses many unnatural and non tribal elements, such as meritocracy, diversity, technology and open markets, most of us now live in a positive sum world.

Politics and modern commerce constantly come into conflict because one is dealing with the older zero sum world and commerce IS the modern positive sum world.