A World Without Currency
- Thread starter Griffstar
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Given how people function in today, I seriously don't see this working. What would the incentive for being, say, a medical doctor be if there was no benefit and all work. Currency definitely has it's ups and downs but humans ultimately need some kind of reward for actions and currency appeals to pretty much everywhere. Sure, some people can be saints and help other people because they can but this way everyone wants to do something. I know about poverty and all that but I don't see society functioning without currency sadly.
I was gonna say a world without currency is communism but looks like someone already beat me to it =(mercifulwrath said:
Also, a world without currency will instead focus on goods being taken on the need basis. People would only take what they need. This type of idea is based on the notion of utopia, which needless to say, does not exist therefore currency is a necessity in our day and age. If it was several thousand years ago when people lived in small tribes and commerce did not exist, then it is likely that currency was not used.
It would run on a barter system, and eventaully would evolve back into currency once someone found something that was nice and pretty and new people wanted it.
So it wouldnt last long, and many people would die (at least if you just did it out of he blue today). Though Africa could probably do rather well financially.
So it wouldnt last long, and many people would die (at least if you just did it out of he blue today). Though Africa could probably do rather well financially.
Depends. Is the world SUDDENLY without currency, never HAD it, or evolved to it?
If the first...war
The second, then bartering probably would have been used, thus there would be alot of things, which would replace currency, or services. This would hinder the development of big buisness most likely.
Robots. Money keeps the crappy jobs filled. Without money, we better have automated workers to do it. This would require a true communism to work best, with mandatory robotics engineering as the main focus of education.
If the first...war
The second, then bartering probably would have been used, thus there would be alot of things, which would replace currency, or services. This would hinder the development of big buisness most likely.
Robots. Money keeps the crappy jobs filled. Without money, we better have automated workers to do it. This would require a true communism to work best, with mandatory robotics engineering as the main focus of education.
Science and technology would most likely die. Kinda hard to barter with a paper on a slightly modified model of the universe.
Communism, as Marx wrote it, has a lot of pre-reqs before a system without currency would work I believe. I don't think cavemen fit very well into communism.
Communism, as Marx wrote it, has a lot of pre-reqs before a system without currency would work I believe. I don't think cavemen fit very well into communism.
We'd probably barter for goods and services, but this would have problems in that two people would not be likely to need each other's services at the same time, so some kind of written IOU system would have to be introduced. This could easily be abused through fraud and forgery though, so printing these IOUs would have to be done by government only, and they would need to use special inks and paper to prevent forgery. Then people could trade these IOUs with each other without even having to end up performing a service in turn. We could call this a special name, maybe something like "finance".
Paksenarrion said:
"Religion, ideology, resources, land, spite, love or just because... No matter how pathetic the reason, it's enough to start war. War will never cease to exist... reasons can be thought up after the fact... Human nature pursues strife."
Yeah. We're not gone to get rid of war, just by ditching money.
:/
Actually, I believe what I was trying to say was that we'll never get rid of war, so we can't ever ditch money.Asuka Soryu said:
I agree with this analysis. Getting rid of money would be improbable, impossible, and/or world ending.AccursedTheory said:
Currency is pretty much the only reason math teachers bother trying to teach kids these days about math, since most don't bother with any job requiring numbers other than with currency. So to take away currency, you'd have a massive suicide increase of math teachers in the world, plus more students who end up slacking off in life doing only hard labor for food. Who would work at factories and such? Why work for an hour to get an apple when you could just steal parts off the factory belt every few seconds and trade off for later?
I mean honestly, taking away currency would cause chaos. We'd all love to believe it'd be like Star Trek. Hell, I'd love that. It would be so much better. But we all know a world without currency wouldn't flourish like Star Trek did. It just wouldn't. Shame, really.
I mean honestly, taking away currency would cause chaos. We'd all love to believe it'd be like Star Trek. Hell, I'd love that. It would be so much better. But we all know a world without currency wouldn't flourish like Star Trek did. It just wouldn't. Shame, really.
Not Post-scarcity: world would operate on barter and contract servitude. Basically a currency substitute and feudalism. Not the greatest thing, frankly.
Post-scarcity: think Star Trek. Economics begins to break down as supply approaches infinity. Chocolate and blowjobs for everyone.
Post-scarcity: think Star Trek. Economics begins to break down as supply approaches infinity. Chocolate and blowjobs for everyone.
- sniperoo -
For a really funny example, see Monty Python's Book-of-the-Month Club/dung/dead indian sketch.
[A dead indian comes as a bonus for purchasing a specific oven (trust me, its in the fine print). Wot? the indian's not dead? Uh-oh, it must be a faulty oven!]
Capcha is tired of Yahtzee's needling at stupid action-game hero names and suggests an exotic name that can't fail to be original: Guers Venataf
This is a good example why a currency of some sort is needed. Without a commonly accepted, fungible media, fixing valuation would be difficult. More to the point, corporations would assert that their products (made with horrible quality control) are worth more than they were allegedly worth before. What if the TV wasn't worth it, do you do a crappy job mowing the lawn, just in case?dslatch said:
For a really funny example, see Monty Python's Book-of-the-Month Club/dung/dead indian sketch.
[A dead indian comes as a bonus for purchasing a specific oven (trust me, its in the fine print). Wot? the indian's not dead? Uh-oh, it must be a faulty oven!]
Capcha is tired of Yahtzee's needling at stupid action-game hero names and suggests an exotic name that can't fail to be original: Guers Venataf