Why do we have or need money?

Question

For instance why do I pay the electric bill, its not like they take my check and put it into a machine to make the electricy generator work. Couldnt it be possible for us to live on a credit type system where we are given things in return for our work. It would eliminate the rich and poor and we would all be equal

Answer 1

Why do you need money??
Because we stopped tradeing livestalk a long time ago.

Answer 2

Prior to the "invention" of money - everyone did things on a barter system... however, this became too clumsy and unwieldy for everyday use and transaction.

Who's to say that this car is worth the same as two cows anyway??

Thus there became a need for a standard of trade.

... in the modern age - we're all pretty much living on imaginary "virtual" money anyway. The paycheck is just a series of numbers on a worthless piece of paper... the bank just adds these numbers to an account which is just electronic digits in a database. Very few people actually "live on" nothing but currency / money in everything they do.

Give it a few more years and everyone will be using nothing but debt-cards / credit cards / and cash-cards ... money may go the way of the dodo bird.

Answer 3

That is the original way things were until it got so complicated that bartering for goods became impossible. Money became the great equalizer of bartering for goods and services rendered.

Answer 4

Um, money IS the credit-type system where we are given things (the things we buy) for our work.

Answer 5

Sorry life don't work that way.I wished it does though.I am on a fixed income and some of my bills I can't pay at all.