How would the world operate if all currency was eliminated?

it just wouldn’t :)

trade buffalo skins for corn?

I will answer this question if you can get me four rabbit skins.

edit :: funny how we both used skins.

fun aside, “currency” and “legal tender” are mere media to store value. If you’d take all money out of circulation tomorrow, humans would quickly find an alternative medium

Actually, a world without actual currency…that’s sort of the plan. At least if you believe in that sort of thing.

The world would operate in electronic transactions with nothing more than digital “credits” in their respective accounts. Gold and other precious and rare commodities would probably still create a backing for the economy.

We are already heading toward a cashless society. You may get to see for yourself.

@qualitycontrol & @johnpowell – yes and maybe I could make you a chair and table.

@GAMBIT :: I don’t want a chair. But I could use some cement.

either that or mass carnage among the nations…the world would implode on itself

@gambit – I’ll give you 2 buffalo skins and a beaver hide for a patio set

@GAMBIT – I would have to get my cousin to get the cement.

@gambitking Credits? That is currency. “A currency is a unit of exchange, facilitating the transfer of goods and/or services.” Doesn’t need to be backed by anything physical.

@qualitycontrol – That’s a deal and a handshake would be all that is needed.

40 pounds of cement for one skinny guy from the UK.

I’ll help mix your cement if you help split my wood pile.

@johnpowell SOLD

@Lupin – Give me the ax I’m ready to get to work. The kids have to eat so I will need a pie or a chicken to take back home.

The barter system is perfect.

We’ve got 50 working apple trees. Can I give you apples instead of a chicken? Apples are ready end of Sept.

Just thinking… If currency were eliminated, what would strip clubs, hookers and dope dealers do? Think how many people would be out of work.

Apples are a God send my wife can make apple pies, apple butter, apple sauce and apple cider. Plus if you have some extra ladders we will help pick them.

Your second question is a good one. My answer is a plain one you don’t work you don’t eat.

If you were to eliminate currency, there would be no more trading. Trading involves a currency by definition (if you trade, you represent the value of one thing in another, the currency). Thus, you’d have to create everything you use yourself. That wouldn’t be fun.

@Lupin You can still go to strip clubs, just bring a bunch of carrots and chickens with you to toss in the basket. As for the hookers, give their pimp some leopard skins and 22” spinners.

We have plenty of ladders since these are old trees. None of that pansy M105 or M99 root stock for us. The deer love it as do the hunters. OK how about if you help prune this week (I’m late) and you can hunt here November.

@ru2bz46 Good idea. I can just imagine carrots lined up in a G-string.

@Lupin – That sounds great and thanks to you we wont have to worry about meat for awhile which will give me time to work on more table and chairs when the snow falls. I’m sure we will have an abundance of green beans this year so I’ll keep you in mind come picking time.

@Lupin Can I hunt your property in exchange for help with your stripper habit? I’ve got carrots coming out my ass (well, not literally). @GAMBIT, I’d like some of those green beans, too. I’ve got some extra beaver skins.

lol the dope dealers…I’ll give 6 stripper hides for some crack…and then after maybe we can smoke some peace pipe. I think things are working out well with no currency

@ru2bz46 – Excellent we can use those skins to make a warm blanket or rug. It gets pretty cold come December.

@qualitycontrol – LOL

We would start bartering and trading, as we used to. Money is just an intermediary in the system of bartering and trading, it holds set values and is a common trading tool. So you can trade one thing to another man, and yet get what you want from another, even if you don’t have any items that he wants.

Maybe we don’t need money in a 100 years. I wouldn’t rule it out.

@squirbel, dude, if you have nothing tangible to offer up, we have no use for you here. What’ll you give me for all this corn I’ve got?

@Lupin illustrates exactly why physical currency was invented. It’s much easier to have an intermediary between exchanging an object for an object, because it allows for objects to be exchanged without making promises for compensation in the future.

The concept of a moneyless society has been evaluated by (of course) Star Trek. In the future on Earth, money does not exist, as humanity has evolved past the goal of collecting physical goods and money (replicators help a lot here). People work because they are passionate about their job, not because they are compensated.

If all currency was somehow eliminated, we would likely revert back to a bartering society until a new tool of currency was created. I think it’s really an inevitability that such a tool would be created.

Corn…hmmm….I sell air. Yeah. Processed air. Will you take my air from me for that corn you have thar?

Next we have to work on the transportation issue. I’ll trade you 2 bushels and the rights to the second week of deer season if you can bring Gambit and ru2bz46 here to help with pruning and splitting. @ru2bz46 You can use the corn to lure the deer in. – Oh wait…

That’s my corn.

I vote we use apples as currency. Probably you all have another opinion.

Yes, they spoil and don’t fit in my pockets. And I might get hungry.

by the way, I’m not a dude. :)

i can haz boobies? i haz em, yessir.

Oh, @Lupin, great idea! Sorry @squirbel, I won’t be needing your air, and I just lost all my corn to the deer herd, but now I have a crapload of venison. I have a bunch of carrots rotting, too, now that I kept them from @Lupin. Uh oh, I think I just broke the economy.

I’ll take that venison off of your hands, I’m selling water.

Carrots and venison go great together, @squirbel. Sorry, I didn’t notice the hooters.

I no like carrots, I’m a type o+ blood type. We like our meat!

@squirbel – Water that’s the ticket. The source of life. I’ve got ten head of cattle if you can fill my 500 gallon tank. I’ll even have my grandfather pick it up and haul it this way.

in Fallout 3 they used Bottle Caps and that was after the world was destroyed by Nuclear Holocaust…there will always be a need for currency!

We will always have money or a currency of some variety. The only way to eliminate it would be to equally distribute the workload among everyone, but the problem is motivation. Some people are lazier than others. Either everyone suddenly stops caring about things being “fair”, or money is here to stay.

Although abandoning our monetary system seems very futuristic and forward thinking, it’s actually the opposite.

TaoSan is right. The barter system isn’t perfect. You have to store value. Otherwise you’ll have the system they had in medieval Europe, when everything anyone wanted to trade (apart from local swaps) had to be transported to market and everything you acquired had to be carried home. It wasn’t until a monetary system came along that you could swap your goods for a medium of exchange that was much more manageable than a shipload of textiles or a barn full of grain. You could go to market or directly to your customer and make a deal, and then have the goods delivered instead of passing through a market town on the way.

I keep getting confused on this thread since it is so similar to this one.