4 ms·
I'd suggest reading about David Graeber and the myth of bartering.
by jasonwatkinspdx 6d ago
I'd suggest reading about David Graeber and the myth of bartering.
- throwaway_7274 5d agoI'm sure Graeber is right about the ahistoricity of the orthodox just-so story of money, but I've always wondered if perhaps he misread the kind of claim that story is actually making. What if economists don't really intend to make a factual historical claim? What if it's more like the principle of virtual work, if you take the analogy? What if it's saying, look, here are two possible configurations of the world: one with barter and one with monetary exchange. One of these configurations is "more stable" than the other. That's a reasonable explanation for "why" we use money, if you read "why" in a non-causal way. Or maybe economists are straightforwardly careless historians. I don't know!