skyscan

Abolish Money

I admit the site is probably two animated .gifs short of the worst site ever made but hey, the idea is so off the wall who cares. Now, at first I got this large feeling of communism coming from the idea. Remember, Communism by any other name is still Communism. The webmaster already thought of that. Their answer is here.

OK, so from what I understand of the idea is this, we quit using money and everyone gets what they want. Want to start a business? Go right ahead. Want to go on vacation? Free of charge. Now, I fail to understand why people would continue to do the basic needs of the people. If you can get everything you want, even if you don't work, why get a job picking up the trash?

True, some people do a job because they love to do it. I understand that, but I would argue that people are inherently lazy. If anyone gets how this would work without 40% of the workers of the world giving up their occupation I would like to know. This article at least accomplished one thing, it made me think.

Journeyman

While my first instinct is to ask "Who would work for what is free?", my immediate thought thereafter is that bottled water can cost more per gallon than gasoline, and it's quite a thriving business.

Not like water falls out of the sky or anything, but people pay for it anyway. Who knows what people would do in a society without currency.

Lebell

And you've already answered the question of why not to abolish money: Most people will not work unless they have to, especially "picking up trash", as you put it.

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"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." – C. S. Lewis

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The Phenomenon

Will never work. What is going to keep the people working?

Scipio

He seems to think that money limits our production. He's wrong.

He says that a money economy is inherently unstable and inefficient. He's wrong.

He thinks that eliminating money will eliminate greed. He's wrong.

It's all wrong.

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Zeld2.0

What Scipio said.

To be honest though, the only possibility of money ever being eliminated would be in one of those sci-fi created worlds in teh future where resources are theoretically limitless and thus there is no actual need for work.

Though I like the thought of not having work anymore (heh, who wouldn't) while getting anything I wanted... it will not happen anytime soon, if ever.

Cappy

I have long thought that it would be a great replacement of our tax sytem (I'm in the US) if the government were just allowed to print money.

so that's not exactly money-less, but instead it diminishes.

just like it does already but now without all the overhead.

imagine all the workers that could do something more productive - accountants, tax lawyers, a mass of paperworkers and paper itself.

the downside I see is that once companies no longer HAVE to account for everything, they might not watch the bottom line and get into financial trouble easier. Also since people wouldn't need tax ID nubers anymore it would be harder for government to track and control us.

Other countries may not avoid our currency if in fact the system was such a boon to our economy that the value of the dollar went up rather than down. you never know.

Eric

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nanofever

"AbolishMoney.com was created to present a new idea: Digital Economics. The goal of the web site is to spread the word to the online community that it is possible to free the human race from the bounds of the budget constraint, the profit motive, and the greed that they create.

My name is Jonathan Carr, and this site is about an idea I have to create an economy where we can all live in affluence. I have a masters degree in social theory from the University of Maryland."

I somehow think if the economists at the University of Maryland saw this site they would either double over laughing or hand their heads in shame.

The guy's problem is that he doesn't understand the implications of really simple economic ideas like scarcity. His test proposal is that we have a tiny island supported by the rest of the whole freaking world. He is basically creating a sitution where the island doesn't have to deal with scarcity problems. His plan would work perfectly; if like the island, Earth could be supported by a planet 10^100 Earth's size. His island proposal does not deal with the issue of scarcity it simple outsources the scarcity problem to a much larger area not under digital economics where its effect is dissipated. His proposal is basically a multi-tier pyramid scheme for the entire world, and we all know how those recover when they fail.

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I'm leaving for the University of California: Santa Barbara in 5 hours, give me your best college advice - things I need, good ideas, bad ideas, nooky, ect.

Originally Posted by Norseman on another forum:
"Yeah, the problem with the world is the stupid people are all cocksure of themselves and the intellectuals are full of doubt."

skyscan

Well, the next idea regarding money comes to us from NORFED.

Click here to read about it.

Any arguments against having private silver/gold backed currency?