The Downside Of Money

[TruthBringer]

Accountable;1339486 wrote: It sounds like you have something against paper.

Money is currency to replace goods, so that we don't have to carry around a basket full of chickens when we go shopping. No matter what we are trading, be it pieces of paper or pounds of pepper, you've done nothing to change the fact that we will have have's and have-nots, only the identities of those people.

Now: You've got this money. I've got this item. Wanna buy it? Well, this item is really popular and in high demand, and people are willing to pay more. You'll have to give me more money.

After: You've got this item. I've got this item. You want my item? Well, I don't really need your item, but you need mine. You'll have to give me five or six of yours for one of mine.


If it ever came to that than it is up to the person whether they would still want to make a deal like that or not. They could always find someone better to barter with. Not the case with our currency system today. The prices are set for everyone, if you don't have as much money as the next guy, than you're not getting the item, period.

In a barter system, things can be worked out. In the end everyone comes out happy because a deal has been made where as there is absolutely no bartering involved in our current system that's in place at the moment. It's, "You don't have the money?" "Get lost".

[TruthBringer]

By the way the only people that would be carrying around baskets full of chickens would be individuals bartering with each other which in that case it would most likely mean locally and within their own cities. I'm sure chickens wouldn't do too well in baskets anyways. So cages would have to be used.

However...it wouldn't just be chickens that could be traded for something in a barter system. That's what I'm saying. Just about any goods at all that a person has that someone else wants or could use could be used. And in many cases it would require nothing more than innovation and creating things, and or hunting for things, and or gathering things. Clever ways of coming up with items or just having items in your possession that other people want.

On a national level, things could be traded in Bulk. On localized levels, things could be traded in either bulk or single item for single item. But at least in this way, there is little room for corruption on a massive scale because no one runs the system through banks of which the currency you have can't be created out of thin air but not so for the big boys at the top of the pyramid who OWN the printing presses to the currency who can whip it up in seconds as a blip on a screen and then print it up and transfer it to some offshore bank account where they can use it for literally whatever purpose they want to. Meanwhile you work your ass off day to day for a dollar that continues to weaken and weaken and weaken as Life goes on and as your Life only gets harder and harder and harder. This is exactly what's happening within our current system at the moment.

Now you tell me which system you like better? I'll go with the barter one.

First, we'd have to give people the option to farm again as well. We'd have to tear down most of the strip malls and the other brick bla buildings around every corner. We'd have to be willing to do away with everything that we're used to at the moment. It wouldn't be easy. But we would get used to it. I am convinced that we would love it in the end.

I don't know as far as the evolution of that process only time would tell but I would suspect you would eventually have things like trading stands where people would bring up items to trade with other people and just talk to each other like civilized people instead of standing in front of a cashier without looking them in the eyes for too long and sliding an electronic card through a machine and then moving on your merry way. Some people like it that way yes, but it's not a very social system at all. With barter systems, you'd have people looking at your items and saying, hey, I'll trade you this for that. And you'd be looking at their items thinking...ok...good deal, I'll give you this for that. And then who knows you might even make a friend through it all. Someone who would want to trade with you on a regular basis. The same thing would apply on the national level with nations becoming friends and trusting each other more.

When it comes to the evolution of things nothing is ever certain. But I know that we could make a system like that work. It would just take the letting go of the past like I mentioned before.

But the people at the top of the pyramid are already discussing a new system of currency. That's what I was trying to get at before. They are planning to change the way we do things anyways. Whether we like it or not. Only, with their new system, the only thing that DOESN'T change is that they continue to be at the top and hold all the power and use it to enrich themselves, while all of us "peasants" remain at the bottom, feeding on all of the scraps.

[TruthBringer]

I should also add that in an almost perfect system running water and electricity would be free for all. Internet access as well. I've said that before those are things that make most people happy today although they have never been and never will be absolute necessities for survival. However, they are still good things and all that would be required in a system like that is figuring out exactly who would work to keep those things going. Machines do most of the work these days for Human Beings anyways, all we would need Human Beings to do is to repair the machines when they went down.

So you'd have your water, your electricity, and your internet access in place. Hopefully food would be taken care of as well to a point where it wouldn't be a problem of mass starvation. And you could trade for all of your other toys and blankets and other things that you would wish to own.

A work system could be set in place where everyone (excluding those with major mental and physical handicaps of course) from a young age (I'm guessing around 15?) is trained in how to maintain at least one of the facilities that we would be using for food, for water, for electricity, etc. Those who excelled in one of those areas of study more than the others would have to work 1 or 2 days mandatory duty every 6 months to a year at that particular branch of the facilities without pay but knowing that everyone in their society including themselves would continue to receive those benefits for free. And each person would be absolutely required to work at at least one of the facilities for the 1 or 2 days regardless of whether they were less good at it than another but always at the facility that they did the best with their studies for. And when your 1 or 2 mandatory duty days is up someone else would step in for their 1 or 2 days, etc. It wouldn't be a problem. Everyone who maintained them would have already been properly trained to do so.

It wouldn't be like it is now though where a person has to pay for this kind of education. No this kind of education in order for the system to fully work would have to be standard for every person born. Everyone would need to know and understand how to keep at least one of the things going that they love to use. And no one would be left out because in order for the system to work everyone would have to understand how to do so.

Just a rough sketch, but you see 1 mind can only do so much. Many people coming up with a system like this one could do way better. This is just putting some toes in the water.