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Money is a measure of importance. Without it you make it VERY hard to determine what to do next, or whether what you did so far is sustainable. For example, at

Money is a measure of importance. Without it you make it VERY hard to determine what to do next, or whether what you did so far is sustainable. For example, at the end of the current month I "spent" five chicken and twenty bushes of lavender (I live in the countryside :D) and acquired two dogs and fifty kilos of grain. Was that good? Can I keep doing the same thing next month, or should I change my "prices"? Do not dismiss money lightly, it's far more important than you might think.

whakim 6y ago
Societies which aren't/weren't heavily monetized (and did most of their transactions in kind) tended to not really understand most of the basic theories of modern economics. Merchants (like you just described) actually tended to be held in very low esteem precisely because they were applying the foundations of ideas like supply and demand - ideas that weren't well understood, and thus it just seemed like merchants were preying on you and providing nothing of value in return. tl;dr you can't just undo monetization but keep everything else intact.
pietrovismara 6y ago
On the contrary, I would say that money is a (admittedly sometimes useful) abstraction that detached us from the real value and scarcity of things. > Was that good? Only you can tell. Has your quality of life improved? Do you have what you need to live well? Then it was good, otherwise not. Money won't help you at all to understand this. Only you can tell the value something has for you. And I'm sure you do this already all the time. How many times were you advertised a great deal (in terms of price/product value) that you decided wasn't necessary? That was you overriding the value money gives to something. Even though just looking at the price it seemed like a great deal, you realized that maybe you didn't need a third washing machine.

whakim 6y ago

Societies which aren't/weren't heavily monetized (and did most of their transactions in kind) tended to not really understand most of the basic theories of modern economics. Merchants (like you just described) actually tended to be held in very low esteem precisely because they were applying the foundations of ideas like supply and demand - ideas that weren't well understood, and thus it just seemed like merchants were preying on you and providing nothing of value in return. tl;dr you can't just undo monetization but keep everything else intact.

pietrovismara 6y ago

On the contrary, I would say that money is a (admittedly sometimes useful) abstraction that detached us from the real value and scarcity of things. > Was that good? Only you can tell. Has your quality of life improved? Do you have what you need to live well? Then it was good, otherwise not. Money won't help you at all to understand this. Only you can tell the value something has for you. And I'm sure you do this already all the time. How many times were you advertised a great deal (in terms of price/product value) that you decided wasn't necessary? That was you overriding the value money gives to something. Even though just looking at the price it seemed like a great deal, you realized that maybe you didn't need a third washing machine.