Why does the Human race use curency?

[InnerRebellion]

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

Civilization? I think so. Ba-dum-tss.
[small]That's what you meant, right?[/small]

OT: People are selfish, and money is an incentive to work. Selfish people want to see their work rewarded, and an actually worthless currency fulfills that want.

 

[Trebort]

We use currency because most of the human race are to stupid, selfish and greedy to share everything equally, provide services in return for other services and generally work for the betterment of mankind instead of personal wealth.

Humans are fucking stupid as a whole.

 

[MirrorSweep]

Because you touch yourself at night.

 

[Thyunda]

Way I always saw it with currency - it was something of trade credit.

Hunter wants berries. Forager wants meat. So naturally, they trade. Forager gets meat, hunter gets berries.
But, what if the hunter wants spears, but the spear-maker wants berries? Rather than track down a forager to get the berries like some kind of LARP fetch-quest, the hunter could give him a little piece of bark which promises the spear-maker berries if he meets a forager.
Naturally, this would not work individually, so it would have started in smaller tribes. The small tribes work using this system, and would brand pieces of bark to say they were official, and to stop people making infinite monies. And then it evolves and adapts and eventually becomes the system we have today.
It just simplifies things.

 

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

To trade for goods. After all, goods cost resources. The world doesn't work for free. For example, you need money to build machines and equipment to extract metal ores. Then you need money to operate the machines and equipment to smelt it and cast it into products. If there were no money, then we would not be able to pay for the resources that go into extracting or producing stuff.
And it's much easier to use currency than say... farm animals.
And farm animals would not be able to make up the cost of say... extracting oil from a deep sea reserve or mining copper.

 

[legend forge]

What are you like 12? That is the single most unrealistic and naive idea I have ever heard.

 

[Mr C]

Currency is the particular type of money used in a country, so I assume you mean, why do we use money. As many have said it replaces an incredibly inefficient barter system. Money can be saved, it has a recognised value, which can then be applied to goods and services. It allows us to use our scant resources in a more efficient manner. Though the system is not perfect, how would people working without incentive decide what to produce, why would anyone for that matter go through the pain and trouble of learning to be a doctor etc?

 

[Nexoram]

We have to see what happened before currency was invented. People used to trade a commodity or service for another. For example a shepherd might exchange one of his/her sheep for a friendly man to give him some arrows, or a man might give one of his silver bracelets for a couple of cows. When currency got invented it was in the form of gold or silver. It already has value so trading gold or silver for something else was acceptable. These silver or gold pieces then became coins. These were given value so that they could be traded for other commodities. So society uses currency because it's easier to trade than gold or silver because coins have a set value.

 

[CrystalShadow]

Because few people can be relied upon to do the work that's required, and most people, given half a chance will want more than we can realistically give to them.

Economics as a subject is specifically meant to be about the most efficient ways to distribute limited resources.

That doesn't automatically imply a currency, but it does imply there's only so much stuff to go around.

And that implies you have to limit what any one person gets somehow.

Whether that's with money, or bureaucracy, or some other method, you still find you can't give everyone everything they want.

 

[Fuselage]

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.

NATURAL predator, There are many MECHANICAL predators for us.
OT: Because as most people stated, People are assholes.
Thats all the answer you need.

 

[SoranMBane]

Because, in a civilized society, no one should be expected to work and produce without being able to expect some sort of reward proportionate to the quality of their work, and the use of a standard currency is necessary in order for people to assign objective values to the goods and services they provide. The only way to create the kind of world you described would be to force the entire human population into slavery, because it runs counter to our basic nature; we are an inherently individualistic and selfish species, and there's just no way of getting around that fact, nor do I see anything wrong with it.

 

[Palademon]

Currency is used to regulate power in an unfair world.

 

[Phoxinator]

Because what we're doing is working ... sorta...

 

[Mordwyl]

Currency, or specifically coinage, was invented to assign value to commodities and services. Metal coins, especially ones made of common metals such as copper or iron, always shared the same value so it was far easier to determine what something is worth. While paper money inherently has no value at all in itself, it is a written certificate that declares the piece of paper can be traded for something of the value depicted on it, including coins amounting to that amount.

Try not to think of currency as a system but more as a commodity, then you'll see how important it is.

 

[Timeslament]

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

It also allows you to implement the guild system...

OT: Because the barter system is not worth the work. Plus altruism dosnt exist, people can't do something for free with out getting something in return, even if its just a warm fuzzy feeling inside.

 

[CatmanStu]

Firstly, I would like to thank the OP for asking a much more enlightened question than some posters here have given it credit (to all the negative, belittling replies I would like to remind them of the adage: there is no such thing as a stupid question only a stupid answer).

As far as my answer, I would say the reason that the "communist" ideal of everybody works for free doesn't work is fear. Fear of failure for those who have little and fear of loss for those with plenty.

Finally, to the person who asked how the world would be better without money, I would postulate that a world without money (and by proxy the greed and fear that make it necessary) would be a world without poverty (obviously), unemployment (no wages means that work would be done on an as needed bases with no reason to have restrictions on numbers of people doing same job, all working in harmony as you would be working to help your community rather than a faceless organisation), war (I personally believe all wars stem from fear and/or greed), and oppression as it would be counter-productive in a society that relies on co-operation.

A quick PS to anybody who might be thinking of labelling this with the inaccurate and oh so insightful "communism" tag; this was Gene Roddenberry's vision for the evolution of humanity, not a revolution of economics. Is it an unrealistic and fantastical dream? Most likely; but if you can't dream in a place called The Escapist, where can you.

 

[Plazmatic]

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

aye you have been watching too much zeitgeist. Contrary to what zeitgeist or that one episode of south park suggested, our species does not and will not do well with communism, we do not have a hive structure mind archtype, controlled by a universally accepted ruler, were we can all work together to achieve a common goal, we, pre agriculture, were in free relatively law less bands, leisure was our way, working only 2 hours a day (approximately) to catch food (most of the time). Its in our nature with out incentive to be lazy.

Also we would not experience "grand scientific advancement" as zeitgeist suggests, in fact just the opposite, all due to incentive and resources available, by restricting resources and making money a resource, we are forced to find ways to cut down on resource consumption, and find new ways to efficientise, and make things cheaper, easier to produce and far less waste full to save money. DUE to scarcity we have to innovate!

Science benefits from capitalism (as long as its not free market capitalism (the other side of the spectrum the "far Right") due to governments being able to support scientific projects that benefits the country, and often, the world (see NASA, and inevitably chinas space program too)

 

[The Seldom Seen Kid]

This is a really stupid question. Nothing ever works when it has to depend on the kindness of the human nature.

 

[Akyho]

To Quote Neil Asher from his Sci fi novel Gridlinked.

"Money: People need a form of currency that is not just registered somewere in a sillicon brain. Human corporations tried to ban cash money, but they failed. The resultant black economies in the end produced an entierly new currency. It is the case that so long as there are things of value to be exchanged , there will be money, without it somone, at some point, will write an IOU, and in reality that's how it all started.""

When you have your $1 dollar bill or £1 note that is an IOU. An IOU saying "i shall on demand pay the bearer this amount in gold". They only way to convert it is at the bank. So what everyone does is pass IOU's around anyways.

 

[kondroks]

It gives everything a sense of worth, however exaggerated that might be.