So this is how we did it – how we survived capitalism while retaining our humanity more or less intact. Capitalism is inevitable, to be sure, and it is unsurpassed in its ability to bring economic prosperity to individuals and societies, and economic prosperity in turn is associated with a long range of highly attractive social goods. Yet as the previous chapters have demonstrated, the expansion of markets also has a number of profoundly unsettling effects. We discussed two in particular – the alienation brought on by the division of labour and the erosion of values brought on by commodification. We are consequently faced with a conflict of imperatives. Since markets are beneficial, we want to extend them ever further, yet because they are also destructive, we want to restrict them. The question is not how capitalism can be replaced by some other kind of system – the question is how we can work out a solution to this dilemma.

As our overview has made clear, there are a large number of solutions here and they vary considerably from one society to the next. The problem is how to summarize this diversity, but also how to explain the pattern that emerges. The obvious answer – indeed, the one that seems to be implied by much of our discussion – is that protective arrangements are the products of the ‘traditions’ or the ‘culture’ of each society concerned.