If money didn't exist...

[Rokkit]

Or had no value, what would become of this world?
Would it be for better or worse?
Why is it that money has so much control of the world we live in?

[IToleratePhilosophy]

Resource based economy. Woo!

[Maestrotx]

there is a list of lectures on this issue on this site: http://thevenusproject.com/

watch them. its fun to listen to and a fun idea to entertain.

[ObnoxiousCynic]

If money didn't exist violence would become the main substitute when it concerns enforcing value and exchanges.

[Solaris]

Or had no value, what would become of this world?
Would it be for better or worse?
Why is it that money has so much control of the world we live in?

That doesn't really make sense, money represents resources that are valuable in relation to our desires. How could it not exist or not have value with a consciousness interpreting it as such?

[Dan~]

If money didn't exist, we could use something with real value as a currency, like the gold standard.
If we got rid of fractional banking, there'd be way less international debts, too.

[Jayson]

If money didn't exist, or had no value, we would create money.

[ObnoxiousCynic]

If money didn't exist, we could use something with real value as a currency, like the gold standard.
If we got rid of fractional banking, there'd be way less international debts, too.

I'm assuming the person meant, what would happen if we got rid of all currency?

[ObnoxiousCynic]

If money didn't exist, or had no value, we would create money.

Human beings existed for a long time without money before it was created.

[Jayson]

If money didn't exist, or had no value, we would create money.

Human beings existed for a long time without money before it was created.

And we ended up creating currency and eventually money.

Which is what I said would happen if we didn't have money.

[Phoebus]

I agree with both Stumps and Dan here.

There will 'always'* be a monetary system in some rudimentary sense simply because it's useful to have one the moment people start exchanging goods. In the first instance those goods are transient / perishable and not instantly readily available and money basically exists as a form of standardised IOUs. In this form it is incredibly useful as a method of regulating trade. Then, when you start including the classic conception of value as derived from labour (not entirely right but a useful concept) money is useful as an abstract representation of labour, which again is very useful as a a way of lubricating trade.

It's only with the increasing abstraction away from the basic premises of the system that problems start to occur, which is what Dan was pointing to. The question should not be 'can we remove money?' but 'What internal restrictions and external counterbalances can we place on the monetary system and what should our purposes behind these actions be?'

A bit longer, but then the simple question is so rarely the right one.

[Jacinta]

Come on people! the only reason money has stuck around so long is because a group of people figured out that they could control all the other people very easily with money but it is not the way anymore! we are smarter that, we are smart enough and have the technology to get rid of this plastic paper shit and there is no way people would go back to bartering because we have moved past that to the money system, now we need to move on from this money system to something else not just go back to the past method because it kindof used to work so we'll just do that again.. how lazy.. Please look into a man named Jacque Fresco he and many others have the knowhow and the ideas to fix this world. He started trying to get this idea out to people in the 70's, he is now about 94 years old and people still arn't listening, I think its about time we listen. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVOPkGAtt48

[brevel_monkey]

Come on people! the only reason money has stuck around so long is because a group of people figured out that they could control all the other people very easily with money but it is not the way anymore! we are smarter that, we are smart enough and have the technology to get rid of this plastic paper shit and there is no way people would go back to bartering because we have moved past that to the money system, now we need to move on from this money system to something else not just go back to the past method because it kindof used to work so we'll just do that again.. how lazy.

Not money. Not a bartering system. So what then? What is the third way that you are proposing.

If money didn't exist, we could use something with real value as a currency, like the gold standard.

The value of gold is as artificial as anything else. It's real value - in terms of how much there is to how much is actually needed, is really quite small. We have vast quantities of the substance and very little use for it. It's luxury goods trades and the purchase of gold for investment which keeps its value high, but both these things are quite artificial in that thet could change on a whim.

[James L Walker]

Resource based economy. Woo!

What they said......

[James L Walker]

People here do not realize that monetaryism has not always existed. It is feasible such a world can easily exist again.

[[Outside]]

Or had no value, what would become of this world?
Would it be for better or worse?
Why is it that money has so much control of the world we live in?

Money has no control and you are a example of that.
You dare to ask the question against it and many come to answer
if money control then places like this on the internet wouldn't
exist.... it shows that everyone can't be bought.

[James S Saint]

If one doesn't live for Love, they WILL live for Money,
..or simply die in the mix.