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I find it hard to believe that people would just band together and volunteer to build things without a monetary (or an equivalent) incentive. Say, we're at the
by Jagat 8y ago
I find it hard to believe that people would just band together and volunteer to build things without a monetary (or an equivalent) incentive.
Say, we're at the beginning of the neolithic age, and our village has just discovered agriculture, and the magic of iron ploughs. We already have food supply enough for 6 months.
There's just one small farm left, someone needs to go mine for iron ores, and someone needs to plough the fields, someone needs to sow the seeds.
One person 'volunteers' to do all three tasks because they couldn't agree on who'll do the mining.
The village decides to feed this guy while he does all these things, because he can't hunt while he's working. The 'volunteer' realizes that he could share part of his food with someone else in exchange for some help with iron ore mining and plough-building.
Ok we're now back to the monetary system.
- ratacat 8y agoYou're coming at it with a framework of thinking that has already been immersed in present ideas about money. Check out, Debt: the first five thousand years. We tend to under estimate how differently people of different time periods and cultures think.
- nine_k 8y agoPeople absolutely band together and volunteer to build things without a financial or other material incentive. They do it for fun, from open-source projects to festivals like Burning Man. The catch is, of course, that they do so after having secured the material means for that. You don't go play music just for fun is you're starving. But when you reliably are not starving, you can find resources for having fun. maslow-pyramid.png should be attached here.
- Jagat 8y agoCompletely agree. I was responding to OPs assertion that even that is not necessary.