A World Without Currency

[TheXRatedDodo]

How would such a world work? How would goverment's run? How would jobs work?
I could write a full wall of text to bore you guys, but instead I want to see your opinions on it. I personally think a world without currency would have MAJOR ups and downs but I believe we could run it smoothly after getting used to it.

I'll wait for your opinion before I write one.
Night.

There is always currency. But it may not be coins, it may be rice, or bread, or grain, or hugs, or sex, whatever.
And I am a supporter of such ideas but on a large scale I could never see it working. People wouldn't take to the idea, considering how conditioned we are to be materialist little shits.

 

[TheMatsjo]

Snip

The central flaw remains the same as in communism though, and that's what I was pointing out. You suggest an "honor system," which would only work if all parties involved are in mutual agreement to what constitutes as work and services rendered. In an ideal communist society, people would want to think that their work is not more than the work of others, and that they are getting the same as every other person for the simple fact that they are doing the same workload as every other person.

I understand what you mean to say, however Communism does not imply that everyone's work is equal or the price for everything should be the same. Moreover I don't suggest an honor system, I was merely remarking that all societies make use of transactions, they simply may or may not involve money.

Even in what is now colloquially known as communism some goods are scarcer than others and require different transactions to achieve; the actual salary made by a worker is only one aspect of price and value.

I'm at risk of mixing two things in this topic: 1) the actual question, which regarded a world without currency and 2) whether or not the lack of money is a necessary aspect of "communism". I'm trying to stick to 1), but it's tempting to digress.
To 1) I say: I think we can move towards a world without money, and I would welcome it; but that does not take away the need for a method of transaction.
To 2) I say: Communism is a very small word which is applied to a great deal of phenomena, usually inaccurately. Communism as a political theory makes no statements about money or its uses or lack thereof; what the USSR did in this regard does not pertain to it. One can argue that communism necessarily leads to obsolescence of currency, but this is a highly disputable point which would need its own topic.

If I came off as rude before, that was not my intention and I hope I did not seem aggressive, it's kind of a peeve for me that a complex theory like communism/socialism is so easily caricatured.

Cheers,
Matsjo

 

[midknight129]

All this talk about "unlimited resources" is ridiculous. First and foremost, there is no such thing as "unlimited resources". Second, this is all based on the presumption that all people are incapable of living on sufficiency and always strive for overabundance. A person doesn't need a mansion or 47 cars or a private jet. There are far better things to strive for; knowledge, wisdom, understanding. The problem is that people establish material, concrete, and transient goals; foremost among them is "money". There are certain people who don't see money as a goal. Money is a tool; a tool for doing a specific job. When that job becomes obsolete, so does the tool. The job is external motivation of people to work. When that is replaced with internal motivation to work, the tool of "money" will no longer be needed. This isn't about replacing it with another form of the tool: paper money, gold coins, barter chickens; they're all the same thing essentially. We're talking about taking that system as a whole and chucking it in favor of people working for the simple, uncomplicated, and self-motivated concept of "it needs to be done; I'll do it". There are people in the world right now who already possess that mentality. To say that it's impossible because of human nature is a colossal fallacy. What makes it difficult is the proportion of people that have realized the potential of such a system and are willing to do it and the people who ignore the potential and refuse to do it. Yes, under such a system, not all work is equal; the work of a doctor is harder than that of a janitor. But the work is equitable. Janitorial work may be easy but it's no less important than Medicine. Why shouldn't a Doctor get more social benefit than a Janitor? Why should he? A Doctor practices medicine and keeps people healthy, but the Janitor keeps us from living in filth. Neither job is more or less important than the other. The brain, heart, and lungs are all important to life and if any one of them fail to function, the organism dies. The same way with society.

Work random jobs or society collapses is rather harsh... but it's always been that way. Moreover, society is collapsing with the economic system we have now. So how, exactly, is it any worse to have a world society that runs, not on money, but on good will?

 

[DefunctTheory]

All this talk about "unlimited resources" is ridiculous. First and foremost, there is no such thing as "unlimited resources". Second, this is all based on the presumption that all people are incapable of living on sufficiency and always strive for overabundance. A person doesn't need a mansion or 47 cars or a private jet. There are far better things to strive for; knowledge, wisdom, understanding. The problem is that people establish material, concrete, and transient goals; foremost among them is "money". There are certain people who don't see money as a goal. Money is a tool; a tool for doing a specific job. When that job becomes obsolete, so does the tool. The job is external motivation of people to work. When that is replaced with internal motivation to work, the tool of "money" will no longer be needed. This isn't about replacing it with another form of the tool: paper money, gold coins, barter chickens; they're all the same thing essentially. We're talking about taking that system as a whole and chucking it in favor of people working for the simple, uncomplicated, and self-motivated concept of "it needs to be done; I'll do it". There are people in the world right now who already possess that mentality. To say that it's impossible because of human nature is a colossal fallacy. What makes it difficult is the proportion of people that have realized the potential of such a system and are willing to do it and the people who ignore the potential and refuse to do it. Yes, under such a system, not all work is equal; the work of a doctor is harder than that of a janitor. But the work is equitable. Janitorial work may be easy but it's no less important than Medicine. Why shouldn't a Doctor get more social benefit than a Janitor? Why should he? A Doctor practices medicine and keeps people healthy, but the Janitor keeps us from living in filth. Neither job is more or less important than the other. The brain, heart, and lungs are all important to life and if any one of them fail to function, the organism dies. The same way with society.

Work random jobs or society collapses is rather harsh... but it's always been that way. Moreover, society is collapsing with the economic system we have now. So how, exactly, is it any worse to have a world society that runs, not on money, but on good will?

What a wall. Let me break it for you.

First, we know there is no such thing an an infinite resource (except for heat).

Second, it IS human nature to hoard, and to strive for as much as possible. We hoarded food whenever we could before could even write.

Three, equality that ignores the individual (Such as rewarding a janitor the same as a doctor) is a system I'm reasonable sure no one wants, unless you're the janitor.

What I'm trying to say is, screw hippy nonsense, long live capitalism. Equal rewards for equal skill level/work done are what got us here, and it will continue to strive us forwards.

 

[Toaster Hunter]

Good idea in theory, but in practice, it wouldn't work. It may be good on paper, but you are discounting human nature. many people need some sort of incentive to do things, and money is a great incentive.

 

[shiny_elmo]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EewGMBOB4Gg

 

[midknight129]

@ Generic Gamer:

Who'd want do do all that? Discipline is all about doing what needs to be done; regardless of whether you want to or not. Do you realize how many useless and redundant jobs we currently have in society? By removing competition and replacing it with cooperation, you increase efficiency. This means that a person doesn't need to work 8 hours a day; more like 8 hours a week. If it means society operates smoothly, don't you think it's worth 8 hours out of your week? There are some people who like farming; it's practically recreational for them. One man's meat is another man's poison; just because you can't conceive of someone doing it for free without a problem doesn't mean that such a person doesn't exist. I speak from personal experience when I say 'Money gets in the way more than it helps'. How many times does a company short-staff because it doesn't want to spend the money for sufficient help? Take money out of the equation and replace it with a simple willingness do do what needs to be done, and that problem solves itself.

A society without money is not difficult. That's just the problem; it's easy, simple, and un-complicated. Simple to the point that people can't un-learn all the complicated BS they've been brainwashed with to accept it as a better system. Tell me; who told you that human nature is to be selfish and greedy? Human nature is to progress and evolve. Human nature is to do better than we are currently doing. By stagnating at this stage in social evolution and clinging to money-based economics out of fear of what comes next, we aren't adhering to human nature but rather acting against it.

 

[zehydra]

@ Generic Gamer:

Who'd want do do all that? Discipline is all about doing what needs to be done; regardless of whether you want to or not. Do you realize how many useless and redundant jobs we currently have in society? By removing competition and replacing it with cooperation, you increase efficiency. This means that a person doesn't need to work 8 hours a day; more like 8 hours a week. If it means society operates smoothly, don't you think it's worth 8 hours out of your week? There are some people who like farming; it's practically recreational for them. One man's meat is another man's poison; just because you can't conceive of someone doing it for free without a problem doesn't mean that such a person doesn't exist. I speak from personal experience when I say 'Money gets in the way more than it helps'. How many times does a company short-staff because it doesn't want to spend the money for sufficient help? Take money out of the equation and replace it with a simple willingness do do what needs to be done, and that problem solves itself.

A society without money is not difficult. That's just the problem; it's easy, simple, and un-complicated. Simple to the point that people can't un-learn all the complicated BS they've been brainwashed with to accept it as a better system. Tell me; who told you that human nature is to be selfish and greedy? Human nature is to progress and evolve. Human nature is to do better than we are currently doing. By stagnating at this stage in social evolution and clinging to money-based economics out of fear of what comes next, we aren't adhering to human nature but rather acting against it.

It is very very difficult to reach the kind of society you describe.

And while it is Human Nature to progress and evolve, it is only in the sense of the progressing and evolving the self, not the species.

 

[zehydra]

@ Generic Gamer:

Who'd want do do all that? Discipline is all about doing what needs to be done; regardless of whether you want to or not. Do you realize how many useless and redundant jobs we currently have in society? By removing competition and replacing it with cooperation, you increase efficiency. This means that a person doesn't need to work 8 hours a day; more like 8 hours a week. If it means society operates smoothly, don't you think it's worth 8 hours out of your week? There are some people who like farming; it's practically recreational for them. One man's meat is another man's poison; just because you can't conceive of someone doing it for free without a problem doesn't mean that such a person doesn't exist. I speak from personal experience when I say 'Money gets in the way more than it helps'. How many times does a company short-staff because it doesn't want to spend the money for sufficient help? Take money out of the equation and replace it with a simple willingness do do what needs to be done, and that problem solves itself.

A society without money is not difficult. That's just the problem; it's easy, simple, and un-complicated. Simple to the point that people can't un-learn all the complicated BS they've been brainwashed with to accept it as a better system. Tell me; who told you that human nature is to be selfish and greedy? Human nature is to progress and evolve. Human nature is to do better than we are currently doing. By stagnating at this stage in social evolution and clinging to money-based economics out of fear of what comes next, we aren't adhering to human nature but rather acting against it.

another thing is that in this society, all non-essential commodities would cease to exist. If the society relies on self-discipline and the willingness for people to get things done, then there will be absolutely no incentive to make things which are unnecessary, like nice cars. Or nice anything really.

 

[Verlander]

It wouldn't work, although a single world currency would solve a fuck loads of problems in the third world.

 

[Emilin_Rose]

Maybe I come from the bad side of things, but i think a world with something else might be nice.

Keeping in mind if humans were capable of anything even remotely nice to one another it wouldn't be needed at all, so it would never happen.

If i could go against human nature itself and think of what would fill that void, what system could make the world work at least a little better, i would.

But between the republican paranoia and the democrat's inability to stand on any issue whatsoever, nothing like that will ever happen.

I remember years ago writing something just to get my stress out. I'll post it here.

I had someone once tell me to be grateful that i wasn't one of these people, people who were so poor off that even the help that was supposedly to help them they couldn't afford. Like having to give up a scholarship because you can't afford the bus fare to the school.

I know how many people are going to say "they deserve the money because they were born with it because some ancestor worked to earn it", well these people aren't the ancestor.

You know what, maybe once every 100 years or so we need to redistribute(the word only the wealthy hate) the money. People who actually worked to earn their money can earn it again, people who didn't won't, and the money will give people with something to offer a chance to do something with their lives. Something they can't do because they can't afford it because all the money is now going into Paris Hilton's jewel encrusted thong or whatever.

Also Griffstar? Write your opinion so I know whether you understand the plight of those left to suffer, watching their parent die slowly, to leave a 14 year old and 21 year old mentally ill children alone, because they can't afford the surgery to extend her life, or whether you think an $18,000 dress is justifiable, and that people who can't afford to get their blood pressure medicine shouldn't be trying to "Live above their means"(god i want to kill anyone who says that. Not all of us waste our money on stupid shit. We need it to survive.)

Spoiler

We?re sorry you were abused, back in the 1970s, before a decent help system was built. We?re sorry that you couldn?t afford therapy. We?re sorry the only calming thing you could afford was cigarettes. We?re sorry your blood pressure is so high that if you were to quit smoking without some aid your heart would burst. We?re sorry that no other treatments have worked because it?s been so long. We?re sorry that your daughter needs special food because of her digestive problems. We?re sorry that your insurance doesn?t cover everything you need. But we?re not going to give you this stronger medicine to help you get better, because you don?t have the money to give us.

We?re sorry your family is poor. We?re sorry you can only afford to live in the middle of nowhere. We?re sorry that you had to fight a mental disorder growing up. We?re sorry the mental disorder was misdiagnosed for eight years. We?re sorry the medication given to you during that time may have ruined part of your brain?s connections(what?s that? Oh no! Of course we won?t actually examine it. That costs money and your insurance just won?t cover it). We?re sorry you can?t afford a psychologist to help deal with your problems. We?re sorry you have digestive problems that limit what you can eat. We?re sorry that you can?t always afford the food you need to replace what you can?t eat. We?re sorry your breathing disorder makes it hard to exercise. We?re sorry that you can?t afford the tuition for the college in your town. We?re sorry that you can?t afford internet to search for scholarships. We?re sorry the time limit at the library won?t let you finish a paper to get a scholarship you found. We?re sorry you can?t afford a medium to copy the paper from your home to the library computers. We?re sorry that you fought your disorder as much as you could alone to get a job. We?re sorry you lost the job because they couldn?t afford as many people as they hired. We?re sorry that the nearest affordable college is two and a half hours away. We?re sorry that you can?t afford a car. We?re sorry that your family can?t afford gas to drive so far. We?re sorry you spend every day confined because you have nowhere to go to get help. We?re sorry that bus fare to the college you can afford is so expensive. But we won?t give you a future, because you don?t have the money to give us.

Why is it that Jessica, the snotty girl from school, who never did work and copied everyone?s paper, gets to go to college to become a journalist, but Marie, who did all her own work, and wrote all her own papers, is forced to sit as the months go by, because even with the scholarships she?s gotten, she can?t afford to go to school.

Why is it that Brittany, who started smoking with her friends to be the life of the party, because she wanted that new boy to notice her, gets the medicine to stop the addiction, when Eliza, who was sexually abused and raped by her cousin, started smoking to find something to comfort her when no one else cared, is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, and given 6 months to live.

Why is it that Amelia, who refuses to eat anything she decides isn?t part of her new diet, to fit into that new dress she bought last week, gets all the low calorie milk and salad she wants, but Lily, who has a digestive infection that needs to heal, has to make due without any of the food she needs, forcing her to endure hours of pain and the prolonging the infection, or simply go without.

Why is it that little Mary-Sue, who has all the toys and clothes she wants, gets to have that entire restaurant for herself on her 7th birthday, and that 3 layer strawberry cake, and then to go back to that 2 story house to have a sleepover with her friends, when Kimmy, the same age, spends her days helping her mother keep the house clean, and sold the teddy bear her dead grandmother had given her to the kid down the road, and gave her mother the money for food, only gets a hug, and a promise that they?ll get her a gift on their next paycheck, for the third time?

Why is it that Paris Hilton, who has never had to lift a finger in her entire life, sitting on millions of dollars that she?s never done a thing to earn, when the girl down the road, who was beaten and molested by her parents until she was sent to foster care, where she was given nothing on her birthday or Christmas, where she was given only the old, torn, stained clothes for school that the other children didn?t want anymore, and only allowed to eat when the rest of the family had finished, who was given back to her parents when they got out of jail, who was beaten and raped until she was old enough to be kicked out of her parents house, who works scrubbing floors for ten hours a day every day of the week, forced to go without food or electricity in order to have a roof over her head. Why is it she?s forced to live on the streets when someone breaks into her house and takes the money she saved for her rent?

Why is it that Amanda is on 3 different kinds of antidepressants because her boyfriend of three months broke up with her, but Caroline is standing at an open window, five stories up, looking down at the ground below, only fearing the pain of the fall, because she feels that everything she?s ever become close to has been ripped away or died.

Why is it that people who?ve never done a thing in their life are handed everything, every opportunity, but people who?ve suffered, been forced to go without, been left by the world to die slowly, are teased with a little strand of so called hope, dangled out of their reach because the offer is made only to people who don?t have money, but they can?t afford the financial footstool needed to reach it?

Tell me. Tell me why?

But don?t tell me, because I may be gone by the time you read this.

Tell Marie.

Tell Marie why she?s worth less than Jessica.

Tell Eliza.

Tell Eliza why she?s worth less than Brittany.

Tell Kimmy.

Tell Kimmy why she?s worth less than Mary-Sue.

Tell Caroline.

Tell Caroline why she?s worth less than Amanda.

Tell the girl down the road.

Tell the girl down the road why she is worth less as a person and as a human being than Paris Hilton.

Tell them what they?ve done wrong. Tell them what mistake they made, to not have a family who can afford to give them what they need. Tell Marie how Jessica earned so much, as she sits on her bed crying because she can?t afford to go to college. And tell Eliza what Brittany did to make herself worth so much more, as she writhes in pain on her bed. Tell Kimmy what choices Mary-Sue made to have so much, as she tells her mother ?its okay. I don?t want anything?, and goes to bed, tears in her eyes as she tries to hid from the monsters her grandmother?s teddy bear used to fend off. Tell Caroline why Amanda?s life was so hard, as the wind rushes past her, the hard ground below coming ever closer. Tell the girl how much Paris Hilton has done, as she?s dragged into an alley, and brutally beaten and raped. Tell her of how little she?s worth as the knife slides across her throat. Tell her every mistake she?s made to be worth so little as she bleeds to death alone in that cold, dirty alleyway.

And then, come find me.

And tell me.

If I?m still here.

If I?m even still alive.

?Suddenly I know I'm not sleeping, Hello, I'm still here, All that's left of yesterday . . .? ~Evanescence - Hello

Heather Peterson

 

[MetalGenocide]

Take a look at..

Spoiler: ..this..

...before throwing thoughts out there.

 

[DefunctTheory]

Ah. yes I see the problem, humans don't work like that. We never have and we never will, we're fundamentally pack animals and we like to know and improve our place in society. No one is going to take a scraper down a sewer when they think anyone else will do it, that's just not how human beings work.

Seriously, how many people would inseminate cows, wake up at 4am to farm or scrub human-paste off a motorway without a direct correlation to bettering their lives? We're an organism concerned with efficiency, just as all organisms are. We don't carry out massively frivolous activities for no reason, remove the enjoyment from gaming and you'd need a fucking gun to get me to do it! Now, you can get us to do inefficient things out for enjoyment but there are jobs out there that shape our society that NO ONE will enjoy.

Someones been watching Dirty Jobs.

 

[DefunctTheory]

Genius. We wouldn't need any money, we could just trade materials for other materials directly. To make sure it was all done fairly though, we'd have to assign numbers to denote how much a material is worth, measured in some sort of unit to denote value... Oh.

But that would be mon...

I see what you did there.

 

[Pebblig]

It could resort to a form of barter system, if we achieved a society in which no one was greedy, then we'd just live in a society where people continued to work and manufacture...then just give the produce away. However I suppose you'd get people arguing over people having easier jobs than them, then sharing certain medicines and treatment between entire populations that have them available to them and want them. Get rid of some of the shameful things that make up our human nature such as greed, power and laziness? Then it may work.

 

[midknight129]

Here's a nice little example of what I'm talking about.

In Taoism, there are three epochs of human action. The Yin Phase, the Yang Phase, and the Holistic Phase. Work can be described in each of these three phases:

Yin Phase: Socially Necessary Cooperative Life Renewal Activity
Yang Phase: Coerced Labor
Holistic Phase: Creative Fulfillment of Material and Spiritual Needs.

Who is going to go down and scrape the sewers? The person who decides to do it. Many have insisted that no one would ever do such a thing. If you have such a keen understanding of all 7 billion people in the world and such accurate clairvoyance as to what could or couldn't happen in the future, why haven't you used these miraculous powers to win yourself some lottery jackpots if you're so obsessed with money? If you don't have the capacity to do that, you have to realize that you know next to nothing. There are many things that people think they know, but few things that they, in fact, do know.

You want to know who would do all the menial, undesirable tasks? Good people.

"The highest good is like water,
nourishing life effortlessly,
flowing without prejudice
to the lowliest places.

It springs from all
who nourish their community
with a benevolent heart as deep as an abyss,
who are incapable of lies and injustices,
who are rooted in the earth,
and whose natural rhythms of action
play midwife to the highest good
of each pregnant moment.

- Lao Tzu, The Tao te Ching."

Don't paralyze yourself with preconceptions and rationalizations; you do yourself a disservice. Broaden your horizons. Evolution only works on an individual basis? Tell that to the bee colony. The survival and betterment of society ensures the survival and betterment of the individual. Let me put it more simply. The only people who would have to work harder than they are right now, at this very moment are the people who don't have work. Everyone else's work would become easier and less stressful. We'd all be doing mostly the same stuff we're doing right now anyway. Get up, go to work, do the work, go home. No one would be homeless or hungry (there's a surplus of food in the developed countries of the world right now, most of it gets thrown away). It all starts with individuals. Tell yourself; other people have taken the steps, why am I not as capable as them? Do you want to think of yourself as inept? There's someone out there right now who's doing something you have said to yourself is impossible to do. No one has anything to lose, we all have everything to gain. So would you rather be a loser or a good person?

 

[DefunctTheory]

Here's a nice little example of what I'm talking about.

In Taoism, there are three epochs of human action. The Yin Phase, the Yang Phase, and the Holistic Phase. Work can be described in each of these three phases:

Yin Phase: Socially Necessary Cooperative Life Renewal Activity
Yang Phase: Coerced Labor
Holistic Phase: Creative Fulfillment of Material and Spiritual Needs.

Who is going to go down and scrape the sewers? The person who decides to do it. Many have insisted that no one would ever do such a thing. If you have such a keen understanding of all 7 billion people in the world and such accurate clairvoyance as to what could or couldn't happen in the future, why haven't you used these miraculous powers to win yourself some lottery jackpots if you're so obsessed with money? If you don't have the capacity to do that, you have to realize that you know next to nothing. There are many things that people think they know, but few things that they, in fact, do know.

You want to know who would do all the menial, undesirable tasks? Good people.

"The highest good is like water,
nourishing life effortlessly,
flowing without prejudice
to the lowliest places.

It springs from all
who nourish their community
with a benevolent heart as deep as an abyss,
who are incapable of lies and injustices,
who are rooted in the earth,
and whose natural rhythms of action
play midwife to the highest good
of each pregnant moment.

- Lao Tzu, The Tao te Ching."

Don't paralyze yourself with preconceptions and rationalizations; you do yourself a disservice.

Quit being naive. You're making yourself look silly.

Like you said, there are many things people think they know. Perhaps you should apply the same to yourself.

No one is going to volunteer to inseminate turkeys if...

1) They don't own a turkey farm.
2) Don't know you have to inseminate turkeys at a turkey farm (IE, Most people wouldn't even think of this)
3) The don't fucking have to

YOu bring up the notion that, somewhere out there, there are people that truly have a good enough soul to do the shitty stuff. Guess what: even if true, it's a small percentage.

And guess what happens when a small portion of the population is forced (And they would be forced, because someone has to do it and they're the only ones willing) to do demeaning, dangerous,hazardous, and disgusting work?

I don't even want to think about it.

And we haven't even brought up the issue of every damn person in existence trying to live out there hopes and dreams. So many space shuttles and race cars would crash...

So many....

 

[soulblade06]

If such a thing were to happen, it'd definately be temporary. If it happens through the collapse of civilization (and, let's face it, there aren't too many other reasons it would happen besides maybe a worldwide communism takeover), people will just barter until civilizations pop up, at which point they'll make their own currency.

 

[Daverson]

1. How would the world work
At the risk of sounding like a bit of c*nt, the world would work the same. Civilization though? That'd collapse. Or at least, it'd collapse as we know it. Infrastructure would fall apart, there are some things that can only exist through money, how much should a train ticket cost, for example? 5 loaves of bread? 10 bags of coal? Half a ton of eggs?

2. How would government's run?
Without any real means of controlling the economy, or any means of taxation, the only form of government would be "I'm the biggest, do what I say or I'll give you a darn good thrashing!"

3. How would jobs work?
You either work for your own benefit (or survival, as the case will probably be) or you band together with people capable of aiding you to survive in return for services (remeber, the worlds oldest profession ^^). Alternatively, you could try and create excess food in order to try and trade with those who may have a different kind of food, say, trade a steak for a loaf of bread. The only other option is to murder people who have food, and take theirs. At the risk of revealing how what little hope I have in humanity, this will most likely be the option taken by most, especially as a lack of government will make persecution difficult (though not impossible, of course)



You know, I started off trying to make this whole thing sound kinda dumb, but now I write it down, it does actually sound like a pretty good idea... dat might be 'kuz I'z da biggest Ork 'ere, 'course...



That said, I'm working from the perspective of a modern person, with modern technology, if you're familiar with the concept of a molecular assembler, this is a device which is believed could end the concept of currency as we know it (as almost any object imaginable can be built from something as simple as dirt, there's no real need to buy anything other than the assembler). Of course, this doesn't really remove the concept of money, it just changes it - rather than being the man with a million dollars, you're the man with a million tons of mass!

 

[midknight129]

I just really have to ask... why are so many so insistent that such a system wouldn't possibly under any circumstances work? What is your vested interest in convincing me and everyone else reading this thread that an economy based on good will and discipline rather than money is impossible? Are you being paid to convey that point of view? If not, then you're doing it... guess what... for free. You can do something that not only does the world no good, but actually spreads and reinforces the concepts of inequity, greed, and poverty for free but can't conceive of a world in which things actually beneficial to society are done for free?

For the record, I never said it would be random, un-trained people doing needed jobs. We have people in the world now that know how to do these jobs. People can also be trained. Who would be trained to do a job that requires training? The person who volunteers for it. Who would volunteer for it? A good person. The people bashing this concept are essentially proclaiming that there are no good people in the world. I know that there's at least one. Naive? I prefer the term 'Enlightened'. Wolves can't act like bees? Well, a lone wolf certainly can't act like a bee. But no man is an island unto himself. You can only do something if there's a benefit to yourself? I am the universe; I am all of mankind. That's the mentality that allows you to be cooperative and social; you are doing it for yourself, just with a broader definition of 'self'. The All is in the One and the One is in the All.