> [...] – if you go back long enough, you will notice we have used barter systems that exchanged goods and services for other goods and services. Is the any ev

> [...] – if you go back long enough, you will notice we have used barter systems that exchanged goods and services for other goods and services. Is the any evidence that barter economies existed in large scale? I know this is a complicated question. But I think the author is not quite right. Most probably, people did not exchange pigs for wheat and then wheat for leather as its just too complicated. I think it's more likely that there was a common good that acted as a means of exchange (salt, cigarettes, gold, etc.). > I should be able to pay you $150 (or whatever price we both agree on) without anyone taking a chunk off that transaction, or even knowing it happened. Note that your father already paid his taxes for the transaction when he purchased the Gameboy, 30 years ago. I accept your opinion here. But I it's not more than an opinion and other people and governments might think different about this. Legal systems and hence tax systems are socially constructed and so there's no inherent truth against which you can argue. > Gold is a finite resource because we know that there is a limit to the amount of gold on the planet, therefore it’s valuable. Fiat currency, on the other hand, holds value just because a governing entity is endorsing it. Gold and money require both a working government that endorses basic rights to own and exchange goods. There's not need to bring forward all these myths just to let people know that you like privacy and are against data mining and use of AI in this case.