My philosophy on money and society. Do you agree? Do you have any ideas?

Question

I don't know how to explain my philosophy. We all know that everything costs money. And for companies to make their products they need to buy materials.
But, what if everything wa free? You might say about the companies and how they have to pay for materials. But when I say EVERYTHING is free, everything is free.
How did the way of money or exchanging stuff for materials come into play? Well, it was probably over thousands of years.
But still, if products were free and if the stuff the manufacturers buy were free, then the world can be really free. Why can't our lives be like that?
Do you have anything to add to this. Whoever writes the best, gets 10 points.

Answer 1

Well originally there was the barter system. You would just exchange the things you made with someone else for the things that they produced: farmers, shoemakers, bakers, butchers etc just traded their goods with each other. Eventually as society progressed, they found that it would be more expedient to have a currency to exchange for products. So money was produced & given a value, based on the society's (country's) wealth. (This coin represents 25 cents, this piece of paper is $5 etc...) This dollar value could go up & down in relation to other countries (as you see, Canada's dollar less valuable than the American dollar...sniff sniff).

Anyway, while your idea sounds nice in theory, it is not practiceable because if everything was free, no one would stay in business. Why would companies continue if they were not making a profit? This would be the end of capitalism. It would be more along the lines of communism, which also sounds nice in theory. Everyone shares & everyone is equal. Isn't that sweet? Except in practice it doesn't turn out that way. The reality is in communist society that everyone is poor & has nothing, except the corrupt rulers who are wealthy & keep everything to themselves. For all its faults, capitalism is still the best way to go. A little bit of greed is what drives business. Take money away, take this drive away & there's no reason to succeed, no reason to strive. If everything is free, you can sit around & make no effort. It just doesn't work. What are we working for if not money? Ok, so no one would have to work. Cool! But then who's going to produce all the things that we need? Why would they bother? Just to be nice? Money is the motivator for almost everything in our society. Take it away & there is no motivation. So, no more farmers, no more shoemakers, bakers etc. No more anything. It would be free but we would all be living in poverty. Welcome to communism & standing in line 4 hours for a loaf of bread...

Anyway, I see what you're saying. It's nice to dream of a utopia where everything were free but then our choices would be limited. There would be no more variety. Only the basics of anything. No more Ferraris. No more diamonds. Manufacturers are not going to give away valuable & rare commodities, they'll just stop making them. There would be no incentive to work or to get ahead since you're not being paid & there's nothing to get ahead for.

Answer 2

That's only been the case in limited tribal societies that found themselves isolated. Even North American Indians invented a monetary system, because they would trade with far-away tribes.
The problem with your theory is what would be the incentive to produce anything? If I'm giving everything for free, why would I produce it? If anyone can just pick up whatever they want for free, why would I bother to go to work? It's much easier for me to stay home and have somebody else produce it. But pretty soon, everybody will do the same. So nothing will get produced.
The closest I can think of what you want to achieve would be communism, where prices are fixed by a central authority and the market is strictly regulated. But even then, things are not 'free' and people still get a salary to work. It eliminates a lot of the inequality, but has also proven less efficient than capitalism. I personally think the capitalist system is producing way too much junk we're getting addicted to, as opposed to stuff we actually need, so maybe there exists a happy medium somewhere. I don't know. Interesting idea, though.

Answer 3

Money was a natural evolution of the barter system used by primitive economies. Person A has something Person B wants. Person B offers something that Person A wants in return. This process works fine for direct exchange, but what if person A wants something from person C and has to trade something to person B to get something from person D to offer to person C? Well, it's a real pain. So, money comes into play as a universal medium of exchange. On the whole there is not nearly enough purity and altruism in the world today to produce a functional society where everything is completely without cost simply because we cannot resist assigning value to things (even when they're "free"). Also, it isn't practical. Supply is a finite thing, and it would be simple indeed for demand to outstrip supply. Highrise penthouses in NYC? Betcha there are lot more people that want them than the number in existence. How do you decide who gets them? Clearly not everyone can have them. How about beef tenderloin? What if every person in the world wanted to have that for dinner, how do you decide how has to settle for pork/chicken/whatever? Money is the key to Managing demand. The cost of an good or service eventually self regulates (provided the applicable laws permit it to) to where the supply and demand match one another. Without assigning a cost (money, goats, gold, whatever) this would not be possible.

Answer 4

Yes It might work.
You can work hard for the rest of your life for me for free, give me all your property for free...
It doesn't sound good when you have to give things for free does it? That might even make you a slave.
You might say... Yes but I would also take things for free so I wouldn't mind.

So the real question is how do we as a society can make sure that you don't get more than you contribute. Because if you did, then somebody else will get less than he contributes. (If you can answer that your theory will be complete.)

So we get to the real problem is the way of the distribution of wealth (money are just a measure of wealth).

Economists have suggested theories about different systems in which the societies should work so as the total wealth is increased and distributed fairly. But none of them is perfect.

I guess that you may be of young age so you have the choice to study those theories and maybe even come up with a better one.

Answer 5

Unfortunately our world is full of people who want better than "the Jone's" so even if things didn't cost money and we just traded in order to get what we wanted, we'd still have problems. Whether or not you live in a capitalist or communist society, there will always be the greedy ones clawing their way to the top and making sure we can't compete. This really shouldn't bother anyone. I've had both sides of this plate; I've had nothing and I've had a ton. Believe it or not, but money REALLY isn't the answer. Material is only important to those who are shallow and not deep enough to find what's most important; and that is God.

Answer 6

You can't have everything for free because there would be tremendous waste and/or hording. That's why there are commodities markets for so many things. Prices fluctuate with
production, demand, transportation and other costs. This system works better than you understand. It is a very creative, responsive system.

You don't have to barter for wool to knit socks and then barter the extra socks for grain or take that time consuming way of marketing unless you choose to and seek it out.

Currency was a good invention that has only been improved over the years.

Answer 7

Great question. Many wise persons have worried about this issue. Spinoza, Dutch philosopher of the 1600s, believed that only a small minority could rise above the shallow mass by studying philosophy. Ortega y Gassett, Spanish philosopher, wrote a great book, Revolt of the Masses, basically saying that he was disgusted with the technologically advanced ignorants. Nietzsche thought that with effort everyone could surpass his/her shallowness but that has never happened. And so on. Throughout history the multitude can be shallow as they pursue money, power, fame, etc. It takes extra effort for someone to reach insight and depth through thinking, studying, creating, psychotherapy, etc. The trick is to find the right balance between depth and shallowness so you can enjoy the entire range of experience.

Answer 8

Utopia.

Utopia, like communism, works great on paper, and for small
groups of people, but neither is viable for more then a short
period of time.

Capitalism is far from being the best way to go. But no one has
come up with a better plan, that is one that will work for everyone
over thousands of years.

Answer 9

Thats is never going to happen.
Money is probably a great thing,though its hard to realize.Money challenges us.To create better technology and help society grow.
Money can be like soldiers and the more money you have the bigger your army gets and better you are at fighting on the battle grounds.
And without money i think that nothing would be stable,probably be fighting alot more because there would nothing to control people.

Answer 10

your philosophy works really well for an ideal world... but see, we humans want to best each other... one person wants to be better than the other... so that is where the money comes in... money is power... how do you say who is better than the other... by money...
if everything is free, than the owner of the company is as good as the employee in the company... so, money... molah is power!