Why does the Human race use curency?
- Thread starter Kiyotaki
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Don't like currency? Blame the Egyptians and their bread (makes you wonder about the origin of the term "bread winner").
Yar... I be ninja'd. Seriously thought it was one of the few books in High School that I had an easy time reading. Ironically the OP seems to have the same ideas as Snowball, and we all "know" what happened to him.yamitami said:
If there were no currencies, then how would ownership work? What gives you the right to own something if you haven't done anything to earn it? If you haven't paid for it, then it's hard to just claim it. You might say, "But people would just say 'This is mine,' and it would be okay." It's true, people would, but that wouldn't work either. What if somebody just said "Everything is mine," and claimed everything for their own? Then you could say, "Well, we could set up a system where people can only own a certain amount." You could, but how would you compare the value of a biscuit to the value of a Porsche? Would they be worth the same amount? No, of course not. So, you'd give them a value based on the nature of their use, the availability, and other things.
So, people would then be assigned a certain amount of "Ownership Points". But, to get these points, people would have to do things, and the more they worked, and the more value their work had, the more of these points they'd earn.
Oh, hang on. You receive valued points, redeemable for things, that you have to earn through work? Sounds like a system I know...
So, people would then be assigned a certain amount of "Ownership Points". But, to get these points, people would have to do things, and the more they worked, and the more value their work had, the more of these points they'd earn.
Oh, hang on. You receive valued points, redeemable for things, that you have to earn through work? Sounds like a system I know...
If everyone did their own portion of work, we'd be ok... Maybe. We want to consume goods more than work. In order to, someone has to make them. No one wants to work, really... Lets make some robots and then we'll grow happy and fat like in WALL-E!
Currency is a thing you trade for goods and/or services, like a car or a haircut. We used to trade before currency became popular, but that led to a few problems.
If I wanted a cow back before currency, and I had a bazillion chickens, I'd want to trade my chickens. If the guy who had the cow didn't want my chickens, then I was S.o.L.. Even worse, what would happen if winter hit and I lost all my chickens? Now, currency is more or less a universal 'trade' thing within a culture that everyone wants, can't perish(animal), or lose value in itself(like a rotting fruit) (but still is affected by inflation.)
Currency is a thing you trade for goods and/or services, like a car or a haircut. We used to trade before currency became popular, but that led to a few problems.
If I wanted a cow back before currency, and I had a bazillion chickens, I'd want to trade my chickens. If the guy who had the cow didn't want my chickens, then I was S.o.L.. Even worse, what would happen if winter hit and I lost all my chickens? Now, currency is more or less a universal 'trade' thing within a culture that everyone wants, can't perish(animal), or lose value in itself(like a rotting fruit) (but still is affected by inflation.)
Money acts as a store of value, a medium of exchange, and a unit of account. It's easy to take with you, no haggle when it comes to transactions, and it is widely accepted.
Code of Laws is overrated. Just build the Pyramids, and you unlock any government you want.The_root_of_all_evil said:
I totally agree that communism doesn't work because of human bullshit and greed, and that we have to structure our systems accordingly, but I think that the philosophizing part in very important to do too. If we want to create the best government and economy we can, we need to look at why ideas that sound good, like communism, fail when used for real. By doing that we hopefully dont make the same mistake in a different direction.jaketaz said:
Well there needs to be a measuring agent for how valuable items are. Thus currency is used not only to trade with itself but to give items their value.
In Capitalism there's a little thing we like to call incentive. If you have no incentive to work, nothing to work for, nobody will a good job and the system will fall apart sooner than I can say 'Communism'.
I always thought it never worked because of this:Jestertrance said:
Although Communism looks good on paper (everybody gets free food, lodging, health care). Instead of bringing everyone up to the same level, like its supposed to. It beats everyone down to the same level.
It's the easiest way to evaluate the worth of someone to society. It's not perfect, but it's functional.
Totally true. I think I just meant neo-hippies and college kids talking about why communism is awesome without understanding why it doesn't work. There's nothing wrong with real philosophizing, especially when it helps us understand things better.Jestertrance said:
Because currency is a lot easier to carry around that livestock or anything else you could use to barter.Kiyotaki said:
As for why people don't everything for free, there's two reasons:
1) People act in their own best interests, almost always. If they can get something for nothing, they will. Thus, if they won't do any work unless it benefits them, and the most direct way to benefit is to be paid. Therefore, we can safely conclude that if everyone worked for free, nothing would get done.
2) That's not particularly fair is it? When people use a good or service, they are consuming something, usually time and resources but occasionally just time. It's not particularly fair to the guy who gave up their time to make it if they don't get any kind of recompense.