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First, there's a fundamental difference between monetary and non-monetary exchange. This is, I believe, related to the idea of "revealed preferences" - that peo

First, there's a fundamental difference between monetary and non-monetary exchange. This is, I believe, related to the idea of "revealed preferences" - that people spend differently than they say. There are people who are apparently deeply concerned with "equality" who live in gated communities. The "easier to track it" part is more telling, though - most economists will cop to being "drunks looking for their keys under the streetlight because the light is better."

InclinedPlane 13y ago
As to the first issue, what is "money"? That's a hole with no bottom. Are stocks money? So when a company buys another with stock, rather than cash, surely that's a monetary exchange right? Is property money? Gold? Oil? What about cows? Where do you draw the line. If I trade someone tickets to a play in exchange for, say, a cast iron skillet is that a monetary exchange or just bartering? If I give someone a box full of old Magic the Gathering cards and that person then selects out all the valuable ones and sells them and gains cash from it was that a monetary transaction? What if I intended for them to do that? What if I didn't? Economics is complicated, and the desire for economists to simplify it doesn't get rid of the complexity, it just changes what subset of the real economy economists actually talk about.