I get the history as to why we got to our current economic situations, but no one is arguing for a system that casts off current economic issues that are pushing humanity towards destruction. I’m not saying this can happen over night or even within our current life time, but it’s obvious that capitalism and even socialism has reached the end of their usefulness.

  • crashfrog@lemm.ee
    0·
    2 months ago

    If trade occurs, then by definition they have currency; there are no barter economies.

    • JayleneSlide@lemmy.world
      0·
      2 months ago

      You are confidently incorrect on this. Currency == money. Money is, for we hoi polloi, a barely consentual conversion and exchange system for our labor, hypothetically allowing us to convert our labor into readily fungible exchange units. Money, at the Capital Class level, is debt, and therefore control, i.e. power. Money is just how they keep score.

      There are plenty of barter gifting and Communist (“from those of ability to those of need”) economies, just on scales that fly below the radar of most economists. Your sweeping assertion leads me to believe that you may simply be ignorant of those non-monetary exchanges. Would you be willing to add more context to your assertion?

      Edit: I misspoke; crashfrog raises a valid point, and I meant gift economies.

      • crashfrog@lemm.ee
        1·
        2 months ago

        No ethnographic studies have shown that any present or past society has used barter without any other medium of exchange or measurement, and anthropologists have found no evidence that money emerged from barter.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barter

        What would be an example of the barter economy you’re certain exists? How do they overcome the need for double coincidence?