this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2025
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Privacy
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There's always barter. The vast majority of human beings that have ever lived never once handled currency of any kind.
Well yeah you don't need currency when value is based on physical stuff Catan style. I make brick, I trade for milk.
But when you have a trade that doesn't make physical goods or doesn't involve the stuff you have to offer you'll need a do-good coupon that everyone agrees to represent value.
Economies that worked without cash still had debt.
Debt and obligation do not require money, but they do require people that will give you the things you need in exchange for "I'll owe you one."
Tally Stick
Bartering is a replacement for currency. There is no anthropological evidence of bartering existing before the introduction of currency. You would think somewhere there would be, but there's not.
True. But gift economies aren't really something that can just be implemented by individuals living in a modern state. That requires an entire society to be organized around it. Barter can.
I would argue that it is currently a big part of the current economy if you know where to look. Lots of labor works via the principles of a gift economy.
E.g., you help your friend move to a new house, they help you redo your deck, you babysit your brother's kid, they cook you dinner, etc.
The problem with bartering is that it doesn't handle 3+ way trades (i.e., person A needs something from person B who needs something from person C, who needs something from person A), and it doesn't usually handle asynchronous trades.
In gift-based systems, people can literally retire based off the goodwill that they've cultivated. There are many old people who serve their families/communities for years who then get taken care of when they need it.
Yeah, except that most people are lazy and will default to whatever is most convinient, even if it goes against their best interest. People use social media services that creates entire psychological profiles on them simple because they friends are on it.