I've been wondering.....could we solve the worlds problems by eliminating currency?

Question

Think about this...If every country in the world united and decided to get rid of currency and pledged to share their resources with the rest of the world freely and likewise receive resources from all the other countrys pledged to doing the same thing could we eliminate the worlds problems primarly poverty but there are lots of other positive things that come to mind. Everybody would have to do a job and in return receive whatever they needed to live comfortably. Companies and businesses would continue freely manufacturing, and would in turn receive whatever they require to grow and deliver their products. In a nutshell every aspect of modern day society would continue doing what they do but for free and in return receiving all the elements they need to continue growing and producing to support the rest of the world. Would this work or have i just smoked too much hydro this morning?

Answer 1

Trolling is right, and in addition to money serving as an incentive ... you make references to people receiving what they "needed" and companies receiving what they "required". You don't appreciate the incredibly complex information problem this is.

Many products consist of materials, parts, and labor from many different countries. Economics is a process of allocating those millions of resources to where they're needed, in just the right quantities, in just the right time, and doing this simultaneously for tens of millions of different companies and 6 billion different people, who all have competing interests -- because if I have a pencil in my hand, you do not have it.

So who decides who "needs" what? How do you collect the information? How do you weigh competing interests? And then how do you make choices as to allocation?

This makes up for the most complex problem humanity faces, and there is not a supercomputer in the world that is powerful enough to process the program -- even assuming the information could be collected and people could agree on allocation priorities, which they wouldn't.

What solves this problem is money, along with the pricing mechanism. Money and markets make up a communication network that ties together billion of processors (human brains and also computers), all constantly processing a program to solve for the most optimum allocation, with information contained in pricing. This money-network is the greatest achievement of human civilization, although not too many people realize that.

Currency is an absolute necessity to the network and its problem solving. There can be no sophisticated economy without it, period. You ideas are as impossible as having a telephone network without telephones or cables or wireless transmitters or electricity. It just cannot exist.

Answer 2

i'd say you've smoked a bit much...i can see where you're coming from, and in an ideal world where everyone is good, it would work, but not in this one. i think that it's impossible to live without money the way things are now. the reason i think this is because, for starters, the worlds richer countries are obvously used to being in control. if we were to eliminate currency, they'd have nothing, because it's the poorer nations that have all the resources; the rich ones just have money. in a way, the no-currency system would benefit poor countries and harm rich ones, but it would still not be very beneficial for the poor ones, because, while they may have resources, they haven't got the money to create technology which they need in order to make use of those resources.
also, i think it would cause huge problems because people need money to have their little luxuries, which they wouldn't be able to get if everyone earned the same. so you probably say "screw them", but then there'd be no doctors or engineers because everyone would get the same in return for their jobs. the doctors would think "why should i work harder thana cleaner if we earn the same?".
also, i don't think the rich countries would ever even hear of it, because they have all the power and don't want to lose it.

Answer 3

There are people who live the way you describe. They call their way of life communes. While it seems OK in premise, it cannot work for the entire World. Food distribution alone would be impossible. Have you ever seen the pictures of poverty stricken Nations? People standing in lines by trucks with bowls for a little rice or whatever is being given out. As for jobs/working---no currency---what would you do with two pigs, a chicken and a sack of potatoes for your pay? Would you want to butcher the animals, plant the potatoes in your window box?
I recommend you stop the dope and return to the real world. It's like a thing that stops existing when you stop the dope, but eventually you'll see the light and appreciate the real World. Try it, and tear up your ridiculous premise. There is only lack of freedom in your proposition.

Answer 4

Wouldn't work because of trade purposes. Consider this..Country 1 produces product A. Country 2 and 3, produces B and C. Country 1 Wants product B, but country B wants product C. And Country 3 wants product A. No two countrys have similar wants. The only way to satisfy these wants is to trade what they produce for currency, and then trade that currency for products that fulfills that countrys wants.

Answer 5

Russia tried this, it did not work. People need an incentive to work hard, If you know you will get what you want whether you work or not, then most people would not choose to work, as far as bartering is concerned, there is never enough of the goods that people want to exchange, If it were possible for it to work, Communism is a wonderful system, People are not machines, some are greedy, some are lazy. some are dishonest and this is why a barter system cannot work.

Answer 6

Peace and progression are the two sides of comparable coin. in basic terms while we've peace, we are able to have solace in our suggestions. in basic terms while we've solace in our suggestions, our strikes can revolutionize the society. while there is no peace in our united states of america, how do we expect it to grow to be a stepped forward united states of america via 2020. it somewhat is all interior the arms of childrens. we could continuously undergo in our suggestions that violence isn't the only thank you to realize our demands. The end results of violence are in no way candy. Gandhiji inspired Indians to realize independence from British by way of non violence. If we have been violent, we would have nevertheless been as slaves of British. The end results of non violence is sweet. enable us to all pray that our total united states of america is surrounded via peace in coming days...

Answer 7

Why would anyone do what they do right now for free.

If a janitor didn't need to scrub dried up crap off of a toilet seat to feed his family, do you think he'd keep doing it?

Extreme example of course, but I'd say probably 99% of the world would not do their current job for free. And people who have spent 6-7 years of college learning technical business skills would probably resent getting the same resources allocated to them as said janitor.


In short, there's not any incentive to learn any particular skillset, technological innovation drops off, and we're back to 854 AD.

Answer 8

If you mean eliminating currency as in eliminating paper money and coins.. then yes!

The system would like to eliminate paper money and coins, so that the black market and illegal trade would find it much more difficult to transfer illicit funds.

Every now and again articles crop up on how much it costs our governments to maintain the paper and coin currency... their theory is let money exist.. as long as it is trackable [read: taxable] funds.. checks, credit cards, et cetera..

But if you are talking about eliminating money all together.. I don't think the world populace would encourage that at all.

Answer 9

Surely you know nothing about accounting... This aspect of modern society CANNOT continue without currency. :)

Seriously, though, poverty has NOTHING to do with currency. It has to do with wars and repressive government policies. Abolition of currency would do nothing to forestall wars or curb a government's inclunation to oppress its own people. Read up on Incas; they have built a VERY oppressive civilization with no currency of any kind...

Answer 10

The world's problems are caused by greed, not currency. As long as greed exists there will be poverty.