Money is the root of evil

[MargaretR]

Originally Posted by kestrelx

I'll watch it Margaret - thanks for posting - meanwhile do you ever think we'll have a society not based on money?

We might - and it would end greed and corruption.
People will be judged by their personal value to society and not by monetary value. So start by being nice and generous to others to accumulate respect. Respect and barter will be the way to trade for what you need.

Utopia - I know - but people survived before money was invented, and may need to do again.

The long term destruction of power grids by solar flares could be the start of it.... ie. banking systems would collapse.

[garinda]

Originally Posted by MargaretR

Utopia - I know - but people survived before money was invented, and may need to do again.

Yes, and the average mortality age was forty.

Guess the aged, weak, and disabled didn't have much to barter.

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by MargaretR

Utopia - I know - but people survived before money was invented, and may need to do again.

.

Not a cat in hells chance Margaret, have you known anything that has been turned back and reverted to kind, nor me neither, we now live in a world where money is god and nothing will ever change that. Its long been stated that you could take the wealth of the whole world divide it out equally between the earths inhabitants and within 5 years it would be status quo the haves would have and the have nots would have not and I think thats not far off the mark

[garinda]

Originally Posted by jaysay

Not a cat in hells chance Margaret, have you known anything that has been turned back and reverted to kind, nor me neither, we now live in a world where money is god and nothing will ever change that. Its long been stated that you could take the wealth of the whole world divide it out equally between the earths inhabitants and within 5 years it would be status quo the haves would have and the have nots would have not and I think thats not far off the mark

I am with Margaret, to some extent.

At some distance time, when there's no oil, coal, etc, we could enter another Dark Ages, and because we've lost the ability to be self-sufficent, it'll be survival of the fittest.

Not my idea of Utopia though.

Happily I'll be long gone, so won't be honing my bartering skills.

[Pudwoppa]

I think it's strange how people refer to a society without money as a regression. Maybe it could be a step forward rather than a step back: a natural and meaningful progression. Talking about it in a derogatory sense only shows how engrained our reliance on a financial system has become. Maybe future thinking or technology will create the possibility of moving past a money based society whilst maintaining our current standard of life; or even improving it. Who knows.

We are not the finality of human evolution or technology - as with every other generation we will be surpassed. Many aspects of our way of life and thinking will almost certainly be obsolete one day, and thinking otherwise is delusional. Permanence is temporary given a long enough timescale.

I have to say though, thinking that a lack of money would solve all of the worlds problems is a bit naive if I may be so bold. There will always be people who will take advantage of any system and people who fall victim to it - that's just life.

[garinda]

Originally Posted by Pudwoppa

I think it's strange how people refer to a society without money as a regression. Maybe it could be a step forward rather than a step back: a natural and meaningful progression. Talking about it in a derogatory sense only shows how engrained our reliance on a financial system has become. Maybe future thinking or technology will create the possibility of moving past a money based society whilst maintaining our current standard of life; or even improving it. Who knows.

We are not the finality of human evolution or technology - as with every other generation we will be surpassed. Many aspects of our way of life and thinking will almost certainly be obsolete one day, and thinking otherwise is delusional. Permanence is temporary given a long enough timescale.

I have to say though, thinking that a lack of money would solve all of the worlds problems is a bit naive if I may be so bold. There will always be people who will take advantage of any system and people who fall victim to it - that's just life.

Care to give an example of this Utopia?

A caring society, that exists/existed, without some sort of monetarist/bartering system.

There wasn't one.

If you were too old, weak, or infirm to hunt, or to gather for yourself, you died of old age...at thirty seven.

[cashman]

Money isn't everything, But its way ahead of whatevers in second place.

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by cashman

Money isn't everything, But its way ahead of whatevers in second place.

What is in second place

[garinda]

Originally Posted by jaysay

What is in second place

You put up a shelf for me, and I give you a pie.

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by garinda

You put up a shelf for me, and I give you a pie.

What only one bloody pie

[garinda]

Originally Posted by jaysay

What only one bloody pie

I think that's a fair price...for two weeks of your work.

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by garinda

I think that's a fair price...for two weeks of your work.

I'll tell ya in mi prime one pie wouldn't have been enough for two hours let alone 2 weeks

[cashman]

Originally Posted by jaysay

I'll tell ya in mi prime one pie wouldn't have been enough for two hours let alone 2 weeks

more chance of winning the lottery than getting 2 weeks outa you these days.

[Pudwoppa]

Originally Posted by garinda

Care to give an example of this Utopia?

A caring society, that exists/existed, without some sort of monetarist/bartering system.

There wasn't one.

If you were too old, weak, or infirm to hunt, or to gather for yourself, you died of old age...at thirty seven.

I didn't say that one exists or had ever existed. I said it's daft to rule out the possibility that society would progress past money, and that it may or may not be better than what we have now. I made no assertions as to how the logistics would pan out.

[garinda]

Originally Posted by Pudwoppa

I didn't say that one exists or had ever existed. I said it's daft to rule out the possibility that society would progress past money, and that it may or may not be better than what we have now. I made no assertions as to how the logistics would pan out.

No, you talked of a 'society without money' not being a 'regression'.

Utopia.

Every unconnected society that's ever existed on this planet, have eventually evolved some sort of monetarist/bartering system, when they've evolved from being hunter gatherers.

It's what made us civilised, rather than just providing food and shelter for ourselves.

Make enough pots to sell, and hopefully you'll have earned enough money to feed yourself when you're old, and racked with arthritis, and no longer able to work.

A place with no money, where we only provide for our own immediate needs, in a survival of the fittest, dog eat dog world, wouldn't be some utopian idyll...it would be a nightmare.