The Monetary Systems Replacement

Every single example I have read in this thread as to why people won't do certain jobs, or would sit around and do nothing, or would want all this stuff they don't need, or how people are innately lazy or 'bad' - is a misguided understanding of human 'nature'. Human behavior is a product of environment.



What saddens me is people's inability to use their imagination. They can't mentally break out of the social and economic constructs which they have been indoctrinated into all of their lives.

Here, let me help guide your imagination. Imagine it is the 23rd century, humanity has done the unimaginable and transformed into a science and reason based global society that does not use money. We use a resource based economic system that produces, manages and delivers goods all over the planet as they are needed - with minimal human intervention required. We've advanced so far technologically that we are free from the burdens of meaningless work. Food production is automated, people spend their time educating themselves about anything they like, so that they can help themselves and their fellow humans advance our understanding of the universe. We explore space in fantastic spaceships, performing our 'jobs' not because we have to, but because we want to. We want to use our knowledge and skills, because it feels good to do so.

If your imagination cannot contemplate the above scenario, you are in luck, because someone has already made movies and television shows depicting what it may be like. It's a little show called 'Star Trek'.

We, as humans, are really all on the same 'team', we just have yet to realize that fact and all that it implies. We do not need to compete with each other, we need to work together as a team so that we may all live our lives to the best of our abilities, for the betterment of each of us as individuals, and consequently, the betterment of mankind as a whole.

Originally posted by Teebs
Every single example I have read in this thread as to why people won't do certain jobs, or would sit around and do nothing, or would want all this stuff they don't need, or how people are innately lazy or 'bad' - is a misguided understanding of human 'nature'. Human behavior is a product of environment.

Heh. A "misguided understanding of human nature." Classic.

I've been doing volunteer work in halfway houses and soup kitchens for a decade, sitting on the board of two food pantries right now. I know a LOT about what volunteers won't do on their own.

Have you ever done any volunteer work? Ever been a boy or girl scout, or an Indian Guide or something. Ever gone to Summer Camp, or been active in a church (meaning more than a pew-sitter).

If so, remember what it was like trying to get people to clean up their mess before you left? Remember cleaning up the campsite or the cabins before you left? Who scrubbed the toilets and mopped the kitchen?

Everybody wants to serve thanksgiving dinner to a homeless person, and feel validated by the heartfelt word of thanks. Nobody wants to carve 20 birds in the back room, standing on hot turkey grease for 4 hours straight. And absolutely nobody thinks about the homeless on Valentine's Day, or the 4th of July---but they're just as hungry.

"When there's no emotional pay off, there are no volunteers" pretty much sums up human nature.

Maybe you have a better and more thorough knowledge of human nature than I do. So you can tell me that your dream is more valid than my decade of experience.

go ahead.

I have never watched an episode of star trek in my life. However, What you say about people not being about to break out of their current social and economic views is spot on.

The real question here is, what has to happen, in order for people to break those views?

There is more than one way of life. Why do we insist on living like that?

reply to post by dr_strangecraft


Your decade of experience is based off of the current economy. People are already conditioned to be this way. You're not seeing the perspective from a different point of view. Step back, take an aliens viewpoint.... What do you see? I see this:

$

What does the S stand for when we call it the dollar? Slavery maybe? Perhaps the mark of the beast, satan?

$ is not the only thing thats important in life. There is so much more, beyond it. But we are all forced to stop at $ before we can progress further... which then deters us from our true potential.

reply to post by xxshadowfaxx


No, you're purposefully ignoring what you don't want to hear.

I'm talking about volunteers, people on their best behavior, trying to be giving in their relations to other humans.

No money involved. Not dollar one.

Day dreams are lovely, and can provide a great critique of the way things are. But don't expect anyone else to get very excited about your ideas, until they begin to address the world the rest of us live in, with human nature as it now exists.

See, the one thing about capitalism is that it doesn't expect people to be on their best behavior. It factors greed into its calculations, rather than pretending that laziness and fear will magically disappear next week.

Believe me, I used to be an anarchist, so I'm acquainted with the concepts of rebelling against work and money. But since money is a store of value, you are basically refusing to put any extra value on anyone's extra effort.

It might help your ideas if you studied some of America's historical communes. Some of them have actually been quite successful. A great place to begin would be the original Plymouth Bay Colony, which was initially founded as a commune, modelled after the infant church in the Biblical book of Acts. And like that prior experiment in volunteerism, the community spirit fell apart when there ceased to be a penalty or reward system for quality of individual's work. John Smith was consciously paraphrasing the Apostle Paul when he declared to his fellow colonists, "If any one will not work, neither shall he eat."

Anarchy is an excellent critique of the society we live in now, but as a workable program for a functioning human society, it fails even worse than this current regime we live under.