Money is not an accounting system created by the state for various purposes. It’s a solution to certain frictions in a barter economy. It is very real.
> If it can be done, it can be afforded. Only if it is physically impossible can it not be "afforded". That is where we ought to start as a society.
Isn’t this just Marxism? Non-commodity money and all that. I’m not really familiar with his work.
> Money is not an accounting system created by the state for various purposes. It’s a solution to certain frictions in a barter economy.
That's a story that's often told, but it doesn't seem to actually be true. An examination of the historical and anthropological record shows that barter systems only exist in societies that formerly had money, but no longer do (for example, because the empire that was backing the currency collapsed). In societies that never had money, you see a variety of things, mostly formal gift economies, but sometimes things like tracking and cancellation of debts not denominated in a single unit.
If you'd like to learn more about this, read "Debt, the first 5,000 years", by the late anthropologist David Graeber.
> If it can be done, it can be afforded. Only if it is physically impossible can it not be "afforded". That is where we ought to start as a society.
Isn’t this just Marxism? Non-commodity money and all that. I’m not really familiar with his work.