there’s no such thing as “the economy” Before you start to read this book, take this moment to think about making a donation to punctum books, an independent non-profit press, @ https://punctumbooks.com/support/ If you’re reading the e-book, you can click on the image below to go directly to our donations site. Any amount, no matter the size, is appreciated and will help us to keep our ship of fools afloat. Contri- butions from dedicated readers will also help us to keep our commons open and to cultivate new work that can’t find a welcoming port elsewhere. Our ad- venture is not possible without your support. Vive la open-access. Fig. 1. Hieronymus Bosch, Ship of Fools (1490–1500) there’s no such thing as “the economy”: essays on capitalist value. Copyright © 2018 by Samuel A. Chambers. This work carries a Creative Com- mons BY-NC-SA 4.0 International license, which means that you are free to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, and you may also remix, transform and build upon the material, as long as you clearly attribute the work to the authors (but not in a way that suggests the authors or punctum books en- dorses you and your work), you do not use this work for commercial gain in any form whatsoever, and that for any remixing and transformation, you distribute your rebuild under the same license. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by- nc-sa/4.0/ First published in 2018 by punctum books, Earth, Milky Way. https://punctumbooks.com ISBN-13: 978-1-947447-89-9 (print) ISBN-13: 978-1-947447-90-5 (ePDF) lccn: 2018959825 Library of Congress Cataloging Data is available from the Library of Congress Interior design: Annette Ding, Madison Mead, Noah Feiwell, and Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei Cover design: Madison Mead THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “THE ECONOMY”_ Essays on Capitalist Value Samuel A. Chambers_ to my teachers