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? P.S. Some related information on the subject: History of money: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0IJCGuNtqk 'Jacques Fresco' Youtube videos and The Venus Project http://www.thevenusproject.com/index.php http://hubpages.com/hub/A-Glimpse-of...-Without-Money
Seems like there was a short story like this many years ago. When people did something for others, they received an "ob" (ligation), which was their version of a barter or currency. When that person needed something, they would expect you to pay your ob at some time in the future by doing something for them. Obs could be traded or saved up for time of future serious need. In this society, there were those who refused to pay their obs back, and they became hated members of society, to the point of taking their own life due to the collective anger against them - there was no place to hide.
Seems dangerously similar at definition of money. Equal, IMHO. (The only difference I see it is that "obs" seems to be more closely related to time efforts, and thus have a collateral (work)sticked to them. But IMHO most problems of money remain). And egalitarian uthopist always forget that work of some people cannot be valued the same of all other (example: if I need to study for 10 year full time to become a valuable physician, my obs cannot have the same value of someone else who started emitting obs 10 year before me, assuming no overabundance of physicians is present). Don't look like a fancy name for money as usual?
OP, these resources that you talk of require experts/controllers to plan who does what and who gets what etc. This is still socialism. i.e How do you expect the 'controllers' to be fair and unbiased and uncorruptable ( in other words how do get these human beings to defy their own nature and natural insticts and act in a most non human way)? The short answer is that you can't. Everytime some well meaning do gooder has can up with a brilliant idea (which is always a flavour of socialism), the path always inevitably leads to totalitarianism followed by economic collapse. Read Hayek's "Road to Serfdom" and you will see why the venus project is just as flawed as any other brand of collectivism.
America was founded upon nearly perfect principles. But greedy Socialists and greedy, self-serving politicians F'ed it up.
A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have. -- Thomas Jefferson