A planet with no money

Quote from Sanaz3:

There is no need to emphasize how much we humans have been enslaved by money, how our lives and futures depend on it, and how much pain and suffering it has brought to our lives. Ever woke up in the morning, knowing you got no job, the rent/mortgage is due, no health insurance, no money left to buy food for the family, and no prospect of things getting any better on the horizon? Well here is what I consider the solution to put an end to such miseries once and for all. A world without money: no more fears of job losses/cuts, no more fears of home foreclosures, no more fears of being behind with the rent, no more 9-5 40-60 hrs/week working, no more unemployment, no more deadlines to be met, no more Governments to tax, exploit, and oppress the nations, no more Federal Reserves and Central banks and debts, no more stock markets, nor recessions, nor inflation, nor housing bubbles, no more crimes and prisons, no more geographical borders, no more Communism, Capitalism, Democracy...politics, no more Robber barons and warmongers...none!


This ain't a daft idea and will work, no matter how ridiculous or silly it may appear in ages where making or having money is the key to everything. A planet without any monetary system, that is what we will need to have if we ALL want to enjoy happy lives alongside our friends and loved ones. It would be a win-win situation for everybody as cooperation and volunteering would replace competition, leading to EVERYBODY enjoying working together to produce goods and services which would meet our essential needs and demands.

As demand would absolutely surpass the supply since everything could be obtained for free, surely by getting everybody to volunteer ("work"), soon this issue would be resolved. We would then need to identify and prioritize the needs and goods in demand, and accordingly people with no jobs would plan to volunteer to meet those demands. As for the current industries and businesses, they would continue to do what they are doing now. The aim is to have a world in which money does not exist any more but people are working, producing, doing research, building, manufacturing, fishing, designing, etc while enjoying the activity of work and the company of each other and life in general.

There is absolutely no shortage of human and natural resources on this planet and that's all it takes to put science, knowledge, skills, expertise, and technology to work in order to provide a better future for ourselves. We just need to take the "money" out of the equation, that's all. Farmers would continue to grow the same crops, vegetables, etc and when they need more manpower in the agriculture or any other sectors such as mining, road construction, auto industry, aerospace....we would certainly have plenty of human resources (engineers, scientists, technicians, etc) to happily contribute in any way they can. In fact people would then love to work or help out wherever they want and for as much as they want, wouldn't they? There would be no profits to be made, nor any money or investments to be lost in any enterprise or jobs, simple as that!

You may ask why would people then be motivated to work if everything was free? Everything would be free so long as people would honestly and fairly contribute to their society in any way they can at any jobs or professions. I don't see any reason why people would then stop working, believing that from now on food will fall from the sky into their mouth and pre-fabricated houses would glide down to earth from above the clouds, etc. No, this is not a fantasy world, but an inevitable reality to happen at some point in the future. Money and pursuit of wealth throughout history has destroyed and will destroy not only the ideal standards of life, but also the lives.

To establish such an 'Utopian society', we would certainly need to develop an entirely new mindset and mentality towards the social life without money. A 100% volunteer-run society in a nutshell! What's wrong with that?


If you add contracts to put teeth to the transactions, the concept you describe is similar to islamic finance. They used legal contracts that do what money used in credit does. Have you ever thought about why/how the check was invented by the muslims? They required no interest, and for transactions that were distant in space and time, they had to invent the check.

In Italy, where there was interest, when they learned about the check they realized that one physical check could be used to get interest multiple times. The modern banking systems was then invented, in which there is the check and its new born friend: the paper money.
 
Quote from nitro:

It is impossible to be moneyless until resources are almost free...

The solution that the experts insist on is, well, these economic disasters are cyclical...

We will have money until resources are so cheap ...There can be no other way. The poor and defenseless continue to hope for a messiah...

Only when things are plentiful will money have no meaning.

nitro, as it turns out the proposition of having a money-less society is not a new idea, see this please: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcho-communism however, that's not exactly what I am advocating for.

What I said was: once the money is out of our lives for good, then there will no longer be a capitalism or economy in general to put a value on anything. The 'Things' you refer to to be plentiful are all the natural resources and farm lands, that are plentiful already. When we get rid of the currency/money, we will no longer need to mine Gold and Silver, keeping them inside vaults for no reason! Instead human resources could be allocated to produce necessities of life (shelter, food, clothing, medicines, hospitals...etc), enhancing the quality of life for everybody. JNJ, Airbus, Toshiba, Whirlpool, P&G ...would continue to do what they are doing now, no one would start looting and burning them down, if that's the picture that comes to mind when we speak of abolishing the money. I have given some examples in my previous posts, so I don't repeat them here.

The question is: Will such a money-less society fail or succeed? And my answer is: I have no doubt and reason to believe it will fail, so long as its people keep working/volunteering and honoring others contributions.
 
Quote from Sanaz3:

The question is: Will such a money-less society fail or succeed? And my answer is: I have no doubt and reason to believe it will fail, so long as its people keep working/volunteering and honoring others contributions.

And that's why it will fail miserably: the majority will act with their own interests in mind. You've been reading too many books on Buddhism it seems. Yes, the world would be a truly beautiful place if everyone was enlightened like Buddha, but that is not the case. Even old Tibet, which was more in tune with that philosophy, could not live that way: http://www.bestcyrano.org/cyrano/?p=507 What makes you think we in the West could?
 
Quote from Sanaz3:

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What I said was: once the money is out of our lives for good,. When we get rid of the currency/money.

The question is: Will such a money-less society fail or succeed? And my answer is: I have no doubt and reason to believe it will fail, so long as its people keep working/volunteering and honoring others contributions.
this will all happen at about the same time as ,war,famine ,disease,greed,,hatred ,banks all disappear,adam and eve come back without their fig leaves and the world is once again a big garden of eden....good stuff for novels..not much use otherwise
 
Quote from BVM88:

...the majority will act with their own interests in mind. You've been reading too many books on Buddhism it seems...

What makes you think we in the West could?

If there were no money to be made, what 'interests' would people then pursue? I don't see there would be any interests left any more upon transition.

And, no I haven't been reading any Buddhism books as I am not spiritual or religious (= delusional).
 
Quote from Sanaz3:

If there were no money to be made, what 'interests' would people then pursue? I don't see there would be any interests left any more upon transition.

And, no I haven't been reading any Buddhism books as I am not spiritual or religious (= delusional).

Then I suggest that you at least take a peek at Buddhism so you can understand our human nature better. It is part of our very fabric, our ego or false sense of self as some may call it, to have more than what we need, if not better than what others have. If it's not more money, it may be more cars, shoes, or even a better hair cut than others. If you can find a way to change people at such a fundamental level your vision may become reality. Until that day comes however it's just pure fantasy. Dream on if you wish.
 
most of you do not understand that no-money society cannot be forced upon people from some "authority" or government.

instead, it will naturally spark and grow from the bottom up, the more goods and services will become cheaper/free.
imagine electricity can be produced for free by millions of devices around the planet- anyone can have one. as a direct result, there is a massive shift to electric cars and electric transportation by trains.

oil and electric power industries are collapsing totally.
they are by far the largest industries bringing the most (about 60-80%!) money flow VS all the other sectors COMBINED like construction, computers, media, pharma, retail sales, telecommmunication.

the banking sector will not survive the 60% loss of revenues. The demand for credit and income from banking fees will drop to almost zero as the prices of EVERYTHING will go down VERY fast.

the society will transform into moneyless in 2 years or so, without ANY input from the government. The goverment and the ruling elite class will do EVERYTHING to prevent deflation and keep their power by desperate actions like raging wars. perhaps nuclear wars, which is insane.

Remember, the oil and banking gangs are your worst enemy. They are the ones who have no problem with nuking major cities just to keep their power.

kissinger said "power is the ultimate aphrodisiac".
 
Quote from BVM88:

It is part of our very fabric, our ego or false sense of self as some may call it, to have more than what we need, if not better than what others have.

you are correct- that is the nature of human ego.
however, this can be changed as the person grows spiritually.
the more people around you are without the ego problem (which acts like a parasite on your psyche) the more chances you will get rid of the ego dominance and lift yourself and your living on a higher, more happy and fulfilling level.
 
It all depends on what you mean by a "planet without money". A world without money of any kind is impossible due to the need for a medium of exchange each time a simple barter trade cannot be done. If you abolish one form of money, another form will simply evolve due to the need for a store of value.

However, a world without fiat currencies certainly *is* possible. These are not based on any real wealth but are decreed by governments to be legal tender, i.e. debts can be settled with them. There is no inherent reason (other than the obvious political one: governments can control people better if they control the money) why people cannot abandon artificial currencies and decide on their own medium, or media, of exchange.
 
Quote from Ash1972:

It all depends on what you mean by a "planet without money"

I mean burning and abolishing all our money/banknotes once and for all across the globe. This doesn't mean then chaos and anarchy would begin to spread and the streets would then be in turmoil. Many may conjure up images of people pouring into streets, smashing and setting cars and businesses on fire, busting doors of stores and banks and looting them, etc. NO way, that's not what will happen if we realize that we are not abolishing the government, but the money.

The very next morning after we burnt our money, both the employed and the jobless would start working for any employer they choose and for however hours they want. No more 9-5 Monday-Friday! Since everything would be free, no employer would ever have to worry about the cost of labour, equipment, ...because there simply will be no more money to be made/lost. We would certainly start seeing plenty of new entrepreneurs starting to expand existing manufacturing facilities and food production capabilities since they no longer need to have any funds or capital.

Abolishing money would instantly open up the gigantic gates of a "dam" of 6+ billion manpower, leading not to destruction, but to construction. What has held us back from progress throughout the ages has been the money, not anything else. We have millions of people out of job in every country, virtually doing nothing but consuming, so why not get rid of the money and start producing more and more goods and building a new society in which everybody lived happily ever after.

This is not a fantasy, but a dream, to only come true once we WAKE UP!
 
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