OK, lets say tomorrow we woke up and there was no system of barter or currency. How would humans on the personal, continental and global level? We all would have no money to work for but have very little else to fill our time with, we also have to work or else humanity would regress. Not only are there short term effects (good/bad) but long term ones. Also, would the corruption fo capitolism have to be bread out of people, would it work its way out in a short while, or will it undermine the system and restart. Just a thought... What are your ideas?Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
If tomorrow the world were suddenly rid of money, we'd be trading in cloth and fine silks. If you took that away, it'd be trinkets, lifestock and sheep. Take that away too, and its pebbles. No more pretty pebbles, then its pillars of salt or people we'd be trading in as it's been done for thousands of years. As long as there is a man living there too will always be goals set , and as long as there are goals and a future to work for there is going to be currency and competition as a means to get there.
I would say something like a communist society is possible (which seems to be what you are describing). But like gendanken said, competition is pretty much ingrained into man. I'd say this is definitely changeable, but such a change would take many upon many years.
Personally i think the immediate currency would fall to cigarettes, junkfood/pop, ammo and guns, and gasoline. Things we are either used to having in day to day or ways to take them. If there is no money the most useful and wanted thigs become money. You also run into a small problem of governments collapsing and utter chaos world wide. I'm all for it. When do we start?
I'm not sure I know what you mean by "the corruption of Capitalism." From your choices I pick undermine the system, capitalism is based on desire. You would have to either meet everyone's selfish desires or remove them. If you remove them what do you replace them with, unselfish desires? The complexity of our society requires some medium of exchange that compensates you for your effort. Without compensation why would the baggage handler at the airport handle baggage? Two answers to that question: He wouldn't - So he needs compensation to continue to handle baggage. Without money you have to give him food, shelter, clothes, security, entertainment, etc. That becomes a complex mess if you can't use some means of representing the value of those items. He would for the Greater Good - So he would not act selfishly, he would handle baggage because it is what he is supposed to do. I assume we have met his basic needs. I'll skip the selfish/unselfish argument and assume you can get all of humanity to act unselfishly. Who selects his job of baggage handler for him? What is the greater good? Who chooses the greater good? Would actions that don't serve the greater good be eliminated? Seems to me humanity becomes a giant ant colony.
Says Mephura: How bout now? gotta toke? (*puff*) Yeppers, you're right, this immediate currency (*puff*) is allright, feels better than (*puff* *puff*) paper money. Wonder how long.....(*puff*) livestock and pretty pebbles (*puff* *puff*) sheep are one groovy species man, did you know they smelled like bluecheese ? (*puff* *puff*. Long pause) What was I talking about?
Very little would change. We would simply build the economic system back up. As long as people have needs and there is an uneven distribution of goods, Ta Da!.. things roll on as usual. Now.... if you somehow took the memory of our system away........
Humans are still young and foolish. In all the time that we have had to evolve our technology why have are minds been left so far behind. I think it is because, the average human is a sheep they will be lead by whom ever grabs there attention and directs them. The unexamined life is not worth living. Essential with out the realization of self awareness we are nothing but livestock(Not that I diminsh the value of any human, but in comparative rolls). Unless one makes there decisions intentional, they are a slave. Hence they will follow any mob rule be it government or other wise. There is nothing more important to your existance then making your actions deliberate. Since it is only then when you may truely begin to exist.
There would be worldwide chaos with the exception of a few third world countries. A majority of the people living in cities would starve to death due to trucking shipments being stopped, or due to water shortages. Farmers living in the country would be raided for their supplies. However, due to human race's reliance on a medium of exchange for such a long period of history, I highly suspect that local forms of currency would develop in scattered places until it once again was developed into the rather strange system we have now. ...or were you imagining everything trying to continue on working as it is suddenly without the system of money? I unfortunately don't think has any possibility of happening.... ~Fatal
