Money

[NewtC]

I just recently had this odd thought

 

"Hey what if no one ever had thought of money, and no one ever would? What would this world look like?"

 

It's an interesting thought, so I'm going to ask the forum members:

1. What do you think the world would look like if the above statement was true?

2. Do you think value of something would exist?

3. Do you think the world would be a better place?

4. Show your work.(Just kidding.)

 

IMPORTANT: When I say money, I mean any thing that is used to measure a objects value -- gold, coins, dollars, euros, anything that is used as currency EVER.

 

Personally

1. People would probably argue less, do more work themselves, help others out. Every thing you made is technically yours, and you can help others make there own.

2. No

3. Yes

4. Remember, I did say I was kidding.

[freddycashmercury]

1. I don't think civilization would exist as we know it without money.

 

2.No, because currency was created to assign values to things.

 

3.I am not sure. Could go either way.

 

4.Work is overrated! :P

[Lord Slyther]

1. Without money, greed would haunt the world, plus thieves might steal your stuff. That's why the world is best suited with money.

2. Same agreed with Freddy. No. Currency assigned values to every item.

3. The world would be a much better place if everyone knew to get along. People need to think about how serious the pain from war is.(I hope I'm staying on topic....)

4. Money is the protection of merchandise. We cannot take everything for free, because the world wouldn't be fair. Everything gets stolen every now on and then without money. This is why we need money. Rumors say that money is 'the root of the devil', but this may be not necessarily true for what I believe in. Money is power.

[freddycashmercury]

To add to my earlier post, although many people say "Money is the root of all evil", this is not true. They should actually say "The love of money is the root of all evil".

[NewtC]

Yes but if every one simply asked for help to make there own, wouldn't that accomplish the same thing? Plus, if something you bought gets stolen, wouldn't you just buy another? :mellow:

[Abramul]

1: Barter economy, or else most things would be community property.

2: Value is a property inherent to anything people can access, and fluctuates based on whatever conditions are current. Some things can have negative value, and value can be different to different people.

3: 'Better', when applied to two or more vastly different society forms, is not a very useful concept, especially when day-to-day conditions are undefined.

4: Man-hours are one of the most fundamental units of value.

[Malchik]

With small self-sufficient egalitarian groups it would be possible to do without money. Experiments have been tried throughout the centuries to establish such societies. They seldom survive for long.

 

The problem is that it is very hard for all property to be communal, not least because of the concept of leadership, status and reward. If possession of any item implies privilege it has a value. Whether you measure the value in shell beads, numbers of camels or paper money it is an item that people will want to obtain if they can.

 

And obtaining it by theft or murder may be the only possibility. As such behaviour is endemic in the animal kingdom (where the valuable item is food) I do not believe the invention of money has any significant impact. Of course as Abramul points out the word 'better' has little meaning unless more specifically defined but if the intention is 'more peaceful, less violent, less materialistic' I doubt if it makes that much difference.

 

Where problems arise is with the relative value given to some items. But that is a different debate entirely.

[ninja_lord666]

Actually, I believe the world is a better place with money. Humans are comparative creatures by nature. Everything we do, everything we are is in comparison to something. We, as a species, could not physically exist without comparison. In fact, there was more argument about value before a uniformly accepted form of currency was established.

Example:

Let's say money didn't exist. Now there are two farmers; one has cows, and one has chickens. The cow owner wants chickens, and the chicken owner wants cows. How are you supposed to compare value between cows and chickens without money? Do you base it on the size of the animals? The amount the animals eat? The amount the animals produce? What the animals produce? Is one cow worth five chickens? Or is one chicken worth twelve cows? Or are they the same? Of course both farmers want the best deal, and, therefore, never reach an agreement on the transaction of cows and chickens. Now if you introduce money saying a cow is worth $20 and a chicken is worth $10 (example numbers), then the farmers know that one cow is worth two chickens and easily, quickly, and efficiently trade their cows and chickens.

As for the phrase "Money is the root of all evil'" that is completely wrong in every way. An inanimate object can't express emotions, and evil is an emotion. That would be like saying "Drywall is the root of all happiness". That doesn't make sense now does it? When have you ever seen happy drywall? Do you walk into your house and see your walls smiling? Money isn't, and cannot possibly be evil. Evil is an expression of emotions, so only things that express emotions can be evil. That means that a correct phrase would be "Humans are the root of all evil" since humans can express emotions such as evil or good.

If money didn't exist, would there be value? Yes, definitely. Humans would just establish something else as acceptable currency. Did you know that people in the southern states once used tobacco leaves as currency?

Better place, no. As I stated before, money makes things easier and better.

[Lord Slyther]

Agreed with Ninja Lord. The world as I said before in my post is best with money. Without it, greed would haunt the world. Cheers, Ninja! You explained it for me!

[freddycashmercury]

Exactly what I meant, thank you Ninja for putting it more eloquently!