Why does the Human race use curency?

[zega frega omega]

The same reason communism hasn't worked. It's because people will either get exploitive or just not give a shit to the point that they stop working. Also, there's no accounting for nature. Say a storm comes in and blows some bricks off of my house (just go with it). If I don't have some sort of monthly ration of bricks, there needs to be some way I can fix my house. Sure, I could ask a smith to make some for me, but then he'd want something in return, and I'm screwed.

 

[Grigori361]

Society as a whole takes a lot of upkeep, money is used as a catch all resource to co-ordinate, it's also used for a lot of other less respectable purposes. See the recent depression and collapses of the North American and European economies.

To put it simply, that sort of thing is mathematically built into how our economy's work right now, it doesn't have to be, but it is.

 

[Sneaky Paladin]

It lets you build the marketplace, set up trade routes and leads to Code of Laws.

Did you just copy a small part of a Civilization games tech tree there?

And also the on topic part: People.Aren't.That.Charitable

 

[TAGM]

Well, besides everyone being lazy without it, it solves problems. See, if people want something, they can get it from other people, but said people usualy want something in return, and sometimes the first person does have that something and...

Well, this is getting confusing. Let's say there's two people. Person A has a hat, and Person B wants the hat, but they only have a Pogo Stick. Now, Person A doesn't want a pogo stick, they want their windows cleaned. Without money, what can you do? Trade the pogo stick for services? What if the window cleaner doesn't want a pogo stick?
But incert money, and it all becomes a lot less luck based. It goes something like this:
1) Person B finds someone who wants a pogo stick, and has some money, and they trade.
2) Person B gives Person A the money in return for the hat.
3) Person A gives a window cleaner the money for services.
See? Much simpler.

Plus, Money is small. If we didn't have money, there's a chance you'd have to bring cows and goats with you into the supermarket to get your weekly shopping, and times that by the other 100 people who need shopping, and... Well.

 

[empirialtank]

It's all ethopia's fualt really. They came up with the idea that food is rare and therefore valuable and needs to be kept locked up intil you can hand over something worth while to get it. And since the definition of worthwhile tends to range from person to person the egyptains laid down the law that gold in various quantities was worth anything else.

As for why we still do it, it's because people with money win. With out currency and a means of exchanging goods everyone would have to become a farmer to make enough food to keep themselves alive. If everyone was a farmer there would be no industrialists bankers cops soldiers traders or any of the other profession that makes waging war possible. So if someone who did have all of these things decided that they needed your natural reasorces they could kill you off fairly effortlessly. Even communist recognized this fact and had currency systems.

Further more currency preforms several necesary tasks in society. First is that it sorts out scarcity. There is not an infinite supply of products in the world so there are certain things that not everyone can have. This isn't a problem if its something like bull semen which only very very few people would wish to pocess. But if its something that everyone wouldn't mind like a Ferrai Enzo you need a system of deciding who gets it and who doesn't. Currency does that. Not everyone has vast ammounts of currency so the people with the most can afford exclusive products. Thus preventing people from fighting to the death everytime something very rare is put into circulation.

Second currency denotes the most valuable individuals in a society. People who preform the most important works in a society can charge a great deal of cash for their exclusive knowledge, gain vast ammounts of currency recognizing themselves as being vital to society.

Currency makes it possible for people to do work for which there is no visable product. Government is run at the expence of the rulers. It would be very dificult to convince a person that he ought to pay you to boss him around, but with currency people who wish to govern can build up enough to sustain themselves through the period in which they govern so that they don't have to. Charities are also only possible because people can freely donate money to their support. Religion also requires a tithe to support it. Teachers and professors can only work because money makes it possible to aquire goods with out having to convince someone that something they can't see or feel is worth giving up food to attain.

There are lots of other reason too, for further information take a history of ecconomics course at your local comunity college.

 

[samaugsch]

How come we use currency, what if everything was free and done by charity workers?

Only problem with that is that most people are selfish bastards (including myself). The only alternative is bartering and from what I remember from history (and from one of the very very few things I remember from history), bartering takes forever because you have to like, ask the person, "Ok, do you want to trade this for this, this for this, etc.?" and it can take hours (i think). An item that may be a priceless gem to one person may be a complete piece of shit to someone else. Currency works so much better because everyone can place a value on it.

 

[mooncalf]

A system of universal charity does not - on it's face - seem robust enough to me to survive humanity, even relatively good humans aren't that helpful. If life is a game, money's a convenient way of keeping score.

 

[Kruxxor]

How come we use currency, what if everything was free and done by charity workers?

It's very odd, because humans are the only species to use Currency and also is the only species without a natural predator.

 

[Singularly Datarific]

People cannot agree on worth when bartering, a set currency can alleviate some of that, although people still can't agree very well.

 

[Jake0fTrades]

Because "doing the right thing" isn't enough motivation to wake up at 7 in the morning, drive 45 minutes to work, be vocally assaulted by your boss and come home to an unloving family.

Plus how else would we know who is more important than anyone else?

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

I'll tell you what, OP. Why don't you come to my house every morning and make me breakfast? I won't pay you anything for your time or trouble, but you'd really be helping me out.

Not interested? Then maybe you see the flaw in your logic.

 

[emeraldrafael]

How come we use currency, what if everything was free and done by charity workers?

Cause we're greedy. And cause the world doesnt work like communism. Humans like to have something, to show they did the work for a reason.

 

[Lazy Kitty]

So people have a way of trading and thus a reason to work.

However, I believe the current system of currency is flawed, as it is based on the value of gold instead of the value of labour.

This is one of the things I would change if I ever were to become dictator of the world.

 

[Diligent]

Because the Chinese invented it, and it was handy, so it caught on.
Next question?

 

[TheTaco007]

I don't know, but I'm 3 eggs and a cow in debt right now.

 

[The Bucket]

This is..... disturbingly lacking in discussion value. Seriously, I think even the most extreme Left wingers would think this is a dumb idea, for all the reasons no doubt being listed now. Plus, theres nothing like the feeling of holding a crisp new money note.

 

[interspark]

we cant divide everything equally unfortunately, if we did, people would slack off and no-one would bother training for high paying jobs like doctors or scientists. money is an incentive to make sure the people who CAN be our doctors (etc) DO!

 

[deadpoolhulk]

also who's gonna convince everyone to go along with the barter? if you go round saying money is worthless and you should go into shops and buy stuff with a I.O.U.A.F (i owe you a favor) you will be laughed at, and rightly so.