Do we need money?

Discussion in 'Science & Society' started by Jez, Mar 25, 2002.

  1. BornOfZapatasGuns Registered Member

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    ok, IMO, money is not necessary for society nor has it ever been necessary but I do believe that unless the whole world is willing to end a society built on money it would be very hard to implement.
     
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  3. Riomacleod Registered Senior Member

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    How do you come to this opinion?
     
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  5. BornOfZapatasGuns Registered Member

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    Money is a tool only needed for wants and society should be built only on needs. You cannot have equality in a society based on wants. Necessities should be free to all people.

    Because no country has all the raw materials needed, they have to buy them from other countries which needs money.
     
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  7. Riomacleod Registered Senior Member

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    We only have 3 basic needs.
    Food, Water, and Shelter.
    Nearly every country has the raw materials available to fill those needs. The places where that isn't the case probably shouldn't have people living on it.

    Why do we have to have equality in a society? Shouldn't the more talented or more skilled get more than the less skilled? Should doctors, janitors, waiters and scientists all get the same comforts? Why be a doctor? Why innovate if there's no reward for it?

    Beyond that, please suggest one country or soceity that didn't use money. Even communist utopias had money... in theory.

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  8. BornOfZapatasGuns Registered Member

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    Nearly, being the key word. Many countries are

    Yes they are the 3 basic needs for survival but when you come down to health care etc, this is something that is not available in many countries.

    There's hasn't been any country that has worked without money. Most communist theories were based more on single countries than the whole world and this is why they needed currency. Trotsky was maybe one of the only communist theorists who based his theories on a world wide basis and the only one who could have created a society without money.
     
  9. Ender Registered Senior Member

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    Money is a manifestation of the hard work that people do. ie if you work for 10 hours at $5 and hour, you get $50. Your hard work is worth $50!

    Money isn't evil, its good. It makes lazy people work, it gives rise to cometition, and the endless prusuit of perfection.

    So do we need money? Need it no, if you mean only surviving, food, water, clothing. However if we only have food and water what makes us different form other animals?

    Communism failed not because of money, but because it was based on the idea that man is naturaly good, until he learns to be evil. That isn't true because even a lion tries to make itself look better than another lion, no matter if it means killing it.
     
  10. Venomous Prodigy Registered Member

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    Im glad that I found this thread because I have recently been pondering this question deeply. What ive come to is that money (currency) and an economy had become necessary for civilization to attain a sense of order among its citizens. Our current government systems and technology level has made us dependant on an economy in my opinion. Money is not the root of all evil since their has been conflict for many other reasons which include religious belief systems and personal transgressions between two people or groups of people.
    This question in all honesty is larger than what many of you think because money and economy is intimatly linked with all aspects of a future or modern society including everything from energy, to government, to means of production. It is a philosophical and deep question that can be easily answered once you look at how currency has been used in our history and how we could eliminate the problems that come with currency and money.
    I probably didnt help much but im just trying to give you the basis of what ive discovered in my own reseach into this question.
     
  11. Zephyr Humans are ONE Registered Senior Member

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    In low-scarcity America, money is needed to put food on the table, but that can be done with time to spare. Some people use their leftover time to give freely to society. For example, open source software. They gain nothing from it except whuffie.

    In a post scarcity society, money could be completely replaced by whuffie. It's still a currency, but not a material one.
     
  12. Nasor Valued Senior Member

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    Even in a post-scarcity economy there will still be a demand for services. If tomorrow someone invented magic nanomachines that manufacture anything from piles of raw elements in seconds, you would still need to pay people to teach you Spanish, or perform your heart operation, or whatever. Presumably the service industry would still operate under normal “supply and demand” economics. If there aren't many people who are qualified to perform heart surgery and lots of people who need it, you can expect the heart surgeons to demand some form of compensation for their valuable time.
     
  13. Jeff 152 Registered Senior Member

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    The only way there could be a society without money would be if this society had an infinite amount of everything that can be produced instantly by anyone for absolutely no cost and in no time. Just getting rid of scarcity is not enough because people might want one product faster for instance and thus would have to pay by some means for this extra want. In this society, basically every person is a god and thus needs nor wants anything, so there can be nothing that one person could ever want of another. As long as man is not a magical god with infinite power, man will need money.

    **and a question to banshee though i think he/she left...

    so basically you wish to subject yourself to slavery, working for nothing? There is a reason the slaves revolted--being a slave blows. I don't care how altruistic and high and mighty you think you are you would not willingly make yourself a slave. If you would though, please come to my house I could use a slave to do all my work and I wouldn't even feel guilty because I would know you wanted to do it.
     
  14. Donnal Registered Member

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    it takes 20,000 litres of water to produce one kilo of beef
    on average day an adult spends 77 minutes eating
    male monkeys go bald the same way men do
    a lobsters kidneys are in their forehead and its teeth are in their stomach
    elephants and short tailed shrews get only two hours sleep aday
    a pelican breathes through its mouth it has no nostrils

    all this was found out with money if we dont have money we dont have knowledge
     
  15. Donnal Registered Member

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    spider silk matrial is stronger than steel on a wieght basis
    to get this informatin to precise detail through labs without anything thats worth value then man or smart women would not bothr to do it
    so the money thing is to give people value
    learning the value of money is important therwise you can give up a very expensive or worthy lets say cow or rare pot or sumthing thats of value without value or knowing the value how would you kow what its worth
     
  16. Donnal Registered Member

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    people can be of value too they may not be rich but the value they are worth is the future
    say jesus for instance do you think people back then if they knew his value now would they have done what they did to him knowing he has stigmata and churches that bend at the knees with billions of people saying his name
    well people can of value without money the money is to do with other payments
    it is an attraction of that little metal thing in your hands that is like a key to others how they percieve the future
    money makes them lower people think they can have a future and they want money all the time
    but the reality is you dont need money to be in the furure you have to be of sum importance and jesus is one man that showed us this way to be true
    your faith in sumthing you believe in can make and let you live side by side with this metal thing in your hand
     
  17. Donnal Registered Member

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    and still stand strait instad of bend like a ape
     
  18. Donnal Registered Member

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    let em think they can rule the future throw your two cents at em they will oick it up like dogs
    ket em think their helping the future cause theyre not jesus took it all
     
  19. Donnal Registered Member

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    you make or break their dreams cause their money is their faith
    throw money at em and they will run to pick it up like a pack of mongrel dogs
    yet your the one they wont member now
    but the future well who knows
    so why worry bout money
     
  20. Donnal Registered Member

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    my veiws of money is it looks like a ring you can mak a hole in it and wear it
    and one money rules em all
     
  21. madanthonywayne Morning in America Registered Senior Member

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    Star Trek has done that the same way they travel faster than light: IT'S FICTION!!!. But if you watch Voyager, a situation where they are stuck on the ship for years on end, they trade things like replicator credits and time on the holodeck. So, even on Star Trek, they end up using money.

    The only way for a human society to not use money is either a very small, probably low tech group united by family ties or perhaps a strong ideology (small communes have survived for a few years, but rarely more than one generation since the younger members aren't true believers); or an authoritatian system (such as the military or a fascist state) where you are simply issued what you need and expected to work or be shot.

    Even within a family unit, notice how much more enthusiastic kids are to do a job when they're getting paid. Human nature requires that the reward be commensurate with the effort. Otherwise, we all become a bunch of slackers.

    PS How'd the school project come out? You've had 5 years to finish it, so......
     
  22. Nasor Valued Senior Member

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    Even ST was pretty inconsistent about the whole "no money" thing. They sometimes say that they don't use money, but there are loads and loads of scenes from the show in which people haggle over the price of things.

    I don't think you could run a modern society without money. Even if everyone really is selfless and willing to work for free due to societal pressure/pride/whatever, you need some unit to act as a measure of value.
     
  23. TruthSeeker Fancy Virtual Reality Monkey Valued Senior Member

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    I've been working on this for a few years. The first 2 points are right. But people must also not want too much stuff. It all has to do with culture. A culture that is modest in spending will produce people who don't need much more then their basic needs to be fulfilled. It's quite a task. We live in an extremely consumerist world. Changing our focus from consumerism to some other form of philosohy that fulfills us can be quite challenging.
     

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