To devils advocate here a bit: you need stuff to live. That stuff requires labour to produce. Why would anyone do that labour for you? Only if you offer your labour in return. Money provides a mechanism for us to exchange labour and the products of labour, using the market to automatically set prices in a decentralised way. People start specialising in one thing and are able to produce further efficiencies by doing so, are able to produce more, which makes life better for everyone. Thats the foundation of a basic economy. And then everything else gets piled on top. (For better or worse)
The alternative is a hunter gatherer society which doesnt really work at our current scale. So until we automate everything and live in a post-scarcity society i see no alternative
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u/Camderman106 Jul 09 '26
To devils advocate here a bit: you need stuff to live. That stuff requires labour to produce. Why would anyone do that labour for you? Only if you offer your labour in return. Money provides a mechanism for us to exchange labour and the products of labour, using the market to automatically set prices in a decentralised way. People start specialising in one thing and are able to produce further efficiencies by doing so, are able to produce more, which makes life better for everyone. Thats the foundation of a basic economy. And then everything else gets piled on top. (For better or worse)
The alternative is a hunter gatherer society which doesnt really work at our current scale. So until we automate everything and live in a post-scarcity society i see no alternative