Have you ever sat down and thought what money actually is? It’s nothing. It used to be that we would barter with 8 apples for a watermelon or what have you. but now it’s just data on a bunch of hard drives. It’s nothing.
I’ve heard the bartering idea isn’t historically accurate, and that instead people just gave others in the communities things and just vaguely tracked the sense of “you owe me one”.
I recommend reading/listening to the book “Debt: The First 5000 Years” by David Graeber. It is a great book and talks about much more than just the myth of barter. The tl;dr is barter only happens between “strangers that you cant/wont enter into trade relationship with” or enemies. There is much more nuance in the book and many examples of indigenous peoples and their practices around debt (obviously) and barter.
I need to get this book, reading this Wikipedia page just made me feel like all the weird feelings I got in economics and anthropology class were justified. The everyday communism is so real, and I wish more people were aware of it.
Half of most economics classes are propaganda. We need a corporate veil to encourage investment. We need our wages to shrink every year to encourage investment.
that’s my understanding, too - that bartering was a rare thing only done between groups that didn’t know or trust one another - mostly people just shared things in common (what Marx called “primitive communism” when he started reading the anthropological accounts).
Be that as it may, it’s still required to have a home and food. I don’t like it any more than you do. Money isn’t the key to happiness, but the lack of money sure causes unhappiness.
Have you ever sat down and thought what money actually is? It’s nothing. It used to be that we would barter with 8 apples for a watermelon or what have you. but now it’s just data on a bunch of hard drives. It’s nothing.
I’ve heard the bartering idea isn’t historically accurate, and that instead people just gave others in the communities things and just vaguely tracked the sense of “you owe me one”.
I recommend reading/listening to the book “Debt: The First 5000 Years” by David Graeber. It is a great book and talks about much more than just the myth of barter. The tl;dr is barter only happens between “strangers that you cant/wont enter into trade relationship with” or enemies. There is much more nuance in the book and many examples of indigenous peoples and their practices around debt (obviously) and barter.
I need to get this book, reading this Wikipedia page just made me feel like all the weird feelings I got in economics and anthropology class were justified. The everyday communism is so real, and I wish more people were aware of it.
Half of most economics classes are propaganda. We need a corporate veil to encourage investment. We need our wages to shrink every year to encourage investment.
that’s my understanding, too - that bartering was a rare thing only done between groups that didn’t know or trust one another - mostly people just shared things in common (what Marx called “primitive communism” when he started reading the anthropological accounts).
Be that as it may, it’s still required to have a home and food. I don’t like it any more than you do. Money isn’t the key to happiness, but the lack of money sure causes unhappiness.
Absolutely, but I still think it’d be better if we were akin to star trek. Working to better ourselves, rather than making another trillion $
It’s a store of value. Simple as that.