this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2024
1153 points (100.0% liked)
196
16239 readers
2415 users here now
Be sure to follow the rule before you head out.
Rule: You must post before you leave.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Nope. That's bartering. When small children want to exchange goods, they don't draw up paper to represent abstract value, they barter because it's natural, then they need to be taught how capitalism works. People bartered and exchanged goods and services for thousands of years before capitalism came along.
It's not a take, it's history. Like recorded history. My argument was for what is natural, not what is logical or better. Humans started bartering thousands of years before the invention of currency because it's the quickest and most natural way of exchanging goods. No need for insults either, we're just talking here, no need to get so hot and bothered over it.
Wrong again. Human society was around approximately 300,000 years before we invented currency, money as we know it was only really invented 5,000 years ago, so unless your argument is it took humans 300,000 years to do what came naturally to them then money isn't really natural.
You're moving the goalpost again, my argument was for what is natural, not what is practical.
Your definition of humanity is more the definition of civilization, which came after the domestication of wheat, which is a thing I've actually studied a lot. The problem is that that definition has nothing to do with a physical change in humans, it's just a societal shift. Humans have existed for like 315,000 years and those people, other than different advancements in technology were the same, doing what came naturally to them. We're social animals and living in societies is as old as humanity itself.
Capitalism was a system so alien to humans before the hording of wealth that it took a solid millennium for them to get used to it. People just exchanged goods and services for thousands of years, or sharing tasks and pitching in to help each other. The majority of human existence resembled anarchy or communism more than capitalism.
Humans just don't naturally use money or enact capitalism unless the need exists, which usually doesn't arise without the complication of advancements of society.