Why do we have money?

Question

What is the purpose of money? Well we all know that. But it is the root of all evil. If we eliminated money from the Political System, there would be no wars, etc. People could get what they wanted for free (no bartering) and everyone will be happy. What do you feel?

Except everyone can be happy...we can go to bestbuy and get a new T.V. if we wanted...the gov't can require businesses and no one will be singled out to be homeless etc.

Answer 1

In THEORY, your idea is a good one,,,,that's sort of what communism is like, but as we all know, communism isn't the ideal situation. However, in practice, without money, how would you get people to produce the goods that you say we could get for free? Food, clothes, cars, etc don't just appear out of nowhere...someone needs to produce them. It would create problems because while some hard working people would play their role, others would take advantage and mooch off of society and just take without contributing anything. Without money or some other sort of incentive many people would not work, therefore creating an unfair situation and probably a lack of necessities that we all need such as food. With money, everyone gets paid for the work they do, which in turn allows them to purchase food and other goods. Not having money I think would cause wars as well because without set rules and boundaries, people would practically self destruct by arguing over fairness and fighting over possession.

Answer 2

Would you give away something that you worked hard to produce, when no one else is producing it? No. That's why bartering came around. Money came in as a equalizer so that you didn't have to argue about how many chickens a cow is worth. Soon, people realized that the more money you had, the more power you had over those that didn't have it. But I doubt you could function in a society with out at least bartering. You would have to become completely self sufficient. Most people in America couldn't find food if you couldn't go to a grocery store and buy it.

Answer 3

Nice thought! You let me know when you get a politician to sign on!

Their is very little cash and the government gets much of it's money from money laundering drug money!

The CIA is the #1 supplier in the world!

You saw what Congress just did!! Denied a raise of minimum wage from $5.15 an hour, which is about $4,800 a year after taxes for those who work 40 hours a week!! Tell me, how many of you can live on that? And then Congress turned right around and accepted a $3, 400 increase!!

Shame on all of them!

Answer 4

Money removes the problems with the bartering system (modern day equivalents are pawn shops). $100 has $100 worth of buying power everywhere, but a vase worth $100 will have less value to someone who doesn't like vases or who cannot convert that vase into something perceived as being worth just as much because each individual has their own perception based on preferences. The result of bartering was tremendous losses. Currency provides a middle ground that allows people to convert something of value into something generally accepted at a value in a marketplace.

Answer 5

You are talking about Utopia. Unfortunately, we live here on earth. Money is not the root of all evil. The desire for money is the root of evil.

Money is simply a tool that converts effort (work) into something that you can use to get what you want. In ancient history, if you wanted corn, you had to plant it and wait six months. Now, someone else will do that so that you can have corn whenever you want without waiting. You do your job (that somebody wants done) and you get money. That lets you buy stuff you want without actually doing or making it yourself.

I like Utopian ideals. Unfortunately, it will make many hundreds of years more before people are ready for that.

Answer 6

Eliminating money would have no great affect on the political systems of the world, nor would it put an end to wars. To say that people could get what they wanted for free, with no bartering, ignores a number of very basic aspects.
If, for example, you wanted to get a new table and chair set for your home, where would you go to get it? To a store? Okay, so how did the store get there? Someone had to build it. Someone has to provide heat and light. Someone has to staff it. If the staff are there at the store so you can come in and pick out your table and chair, that means they are not free to do other things, or to go get other things.
Even something as simple as a loaf of bread has to have a value set on it, and we use money to represent that value. What it actually represents is units of work. The farmer puts in so many units of work to grow the wheat. The baker puts in so many units of work to prepare it. The store owner puts in so many units of work in order to have a place where you can go and get your loaf of bread. And in return, you do so many units of work, in exchange for the money that you pay them. And so it goes.
It would be nice if everyone could get what they wanted for free, but they have to give something in return -- either barter, work units, or money. It's a sad fact that if people could get things without having to make any contribution themselves, there would be people who would take advantage of the system and take what they needed without giving anything in return. Others would take more than they needed, because human nature is like that.
So, although it is a very Utopian idea, if you don't have money, you have to have something else that measures the contributions of the individual against the needs of society and balances them out. Either that or we all go back to living on a farm and being totally self sufficient. Oh -- that would mean no doctors, no nurses, because they would be out farming. No newspapers, no media, so would wouldn't know what was going on in the rest of the world. No entertainment, because people would be too busy growing food, and spinning cloth, and cobbling their own shoes. No internet, either, because there wouldn't be anyone to build computers or run the internet. They'd have too much to do looking after their own family's needs.
Anyway, that's my response to your question. I'm sure you'll get many others.

Answer 7

Money, simply put, represents credit that can be exchanged for goods and services (technically, it must be exchanged--if someone does not accept money, it voids the debt under US law).

Without money, we'd go back to using gold and silver. If not that, then we'd have to go back to bartering with larger items (trade you this horse for that painting).

As far as the "people could get what they want for free" comment, that's simple naivety. If I have something you want, that means you get it for free and I don't get compensated in any way? The entire world would become self-sufficient hermits overnight. And then nobody would be happy.

Human beings are materialistic. If they cannot gather money, they will gather something else that can be used for trade. It's that simple.

Answer 8

the LOVE of money is the root of all evil. Not money itself.

If we eliminate money, there would be no bartering system. for which we could use as a means for trade among the baker, the house builder, the clothes maker, etc.

We as human beings never do things for free just to give away because there are always those that leach off of others (even now, with money) and when no one makes to give for free in that system, the leaches increase and people will inherently die of starvation because there is no food distribution

Answer 9

I only read the headline question before answering this question.
That is a very good question. If you think about it for awhile, what would we do if we did not have money?. How would we buy things?. How would we get things, if money never existed? How would people get compensated for products or service? We could, barter and trade. Would we be rich because we had more things in our inventory than average people do to barter and trade with? If that never happens, who would be rich and how would people decide what being rich is? It almost comes down to survival of the fittest. Who ever can make or acquire more and better things will succeed.

Answer 10

Our pockets got too small to carry enough in real goods to exchange for what we needed to survive.
As a medium of exchange, money is one such example. Money in our sense of the word is a promise of our government to pay the amount indicated on the bill or coin. The value of that promise changes, in relation to other government's promises to do the same thing. It is an efficient way to exchange value.
If there were no efficient way to exchange value, political systems would become irrelevant - people would be so occupied with finding the best exchange for their value, there would be no time to debate the direction of society.
Of course, there would be no wars. Do you know how many pigs it would cost to build a tank? Can you imagine the stink?