A world without money.

[Reincarnate]

Originally Posted by Mechablob

I guess you're probably right, though: if we lived in a world without currency, we might be better off as equality would definitely be emphasised in the society we live in. I mean, various tribes around the planet manage to live without money, right? It wouldn't be a necessity if the society we were in completely dismissed of currency. Swings and roundabouts. Positives and negatives.

We got along for plenty of years without currency, sure. But the lack of standardization and the larger inherent transaction costs and heightened levels of information asymmetry means we also got by with a much lower standard of living.

The only way a moneyless system would function is if we were willing to work for potentially no return where resources are considered.

Take a really, really basic example: An economy of two people. You grow apples. I grow oranges. Everything is free. But I don't like apples and have no desire to acquire them from you. However, you'd still be able to take my oranges since they're free. Why would I ever want to agree to this sort of system?

How about a system where you provide apples and I provide cars -- only I put countless years of effort into educating myself into developing the technology, gathering materials, testing, etc -- and let's say it's something I really dislike doing. And say I *still* don't want apples. Still a fair trade?

Now expand that to a community of a greater population with a greater number of goods/services with different levels of inherent costs.