what would a society without money be like

[sushi]

what happens when there is no money in society

what kind of market and exchange, production would society be like

 

[Cognisant]

Trade would be extremely limited, people would need to barter for everything in person by exchanging one kind of goods/service for another.

With the world's population being what it is this simply isn't possible, it's too inefficient and any solution to this inefficiency is basically just another kind of money.

 

[sushi]

if it is possible to convert one type of material or object to another other type of material, or replicate and clone it scarcity could be eliminated.

maybe large amount of nanobots i dont know.

 

[Cognisant]

The pop-science idea of nanobots is teeny tiny robots made metal and circuitry and that's not really accurate, in reality a nanobot is more like a cell or bacteria or virus, it's just that we've designed and manufactured it so it's not going to behave like a natural organism, it's only going to do what we've designed it to do.

Various micro scale organisms can break down and build larger structures, like coral or how we're comprised of cells, but these organisms require time/energy and this is no less true for nanobots. In theory we could develop micro organism nanobots that can recycle more or less anything and use those materials to make more or less anything, but this kind of manufacturing is going to be very slow.

Imagine a 3D printer that operates a lot like fermenting beer, you prepare the solution, add your nanobots starter, then keep it in the appropriate environment for a month or so and when it's done you drain out the liquid and there's a brand new smartphone in the bottom of the container.

This would be amazingly useful technology but it won't completely replace traditional manufacturing and production techniques, nor will it erase the need for currency for the exchange of goods and services. It will potentially make people a lot more self sufficient though and the democratization of manufacturing/production technology will go a long way to combating inequality.

 

[Old Things]

Less global, more communal.

 

[onesteptwostep]

This question really doesn't make sense because no society would be devoid of currency or wealth, the value or worth that is behind money. If the paper currency were to disappear, there would be another form of currency that would replace it, because products, goods and services naturally have value. Various places would have their own currency, in whatever barterable form and once people realize the confusion and chaos the variety of currencies bring, they would most likely negotiate on a uniform currency. From a historical vantage point, this along with a unified sense of culture, purpose and language, would constitute a nation.

 

[Black Rose]

The knights templar created a system of banks which were strongholds where people traveling to the holy land could deposit goods.

deposit 20 goats in one place get a certificate and get 20 goats 900 miles away.

or you could exchange goats for bags or rice or beans.

there was a deposit fee for the certificate.

 

[Cognisant]

Having thought about this some more, in a world where everyone has access to all technology and post-scarcity access to time, energy and matter (i.e. practically limitless) then there would be no need for money. People might still barter their goods and services as a matter of convenience but fiat currency would be worthless because there's no guarantee you'll be able to spend it.

Then again people keep buying crypto...

 

[Old Things]

Then again people keep buying crypto...

LOL.

 

[birdsnestfern]

Without money - the costs of exchange are much higher. Money helps even out the exchange ratio and keeps prices more steady.

Notes from finance class:
Unit of account: Exchange ratio between a backpack and every other good.
Price without money would depend on what other good you want to trade with.
So, it would cause huge fluctuations in values every day if you did not have money units.

$ is created by banks when they make loans. Money makes exchange a whole lot easier. It facilitates exchange.

Coins: gold and silver. They held value and you could use them for other things, this kind of money is called full bodied or commodity. Value goes down with inflation. If a shortage occurs -just supply and demand cause inflation.

Price goes down because gold and silver are a limited supply.

In the 14-16th century total supply of gold wasn’t changing much from year to year. Today we still find gold but its so small in comparison to what is already there.
Gold is representative of full bodied paper money - but its cumbersome, and paper is lighter and easier to carry. Someone decided they could build a building to keep money safe. You get a receipt to show proof its there, or certificate for every gold piece, you exchange,. Our money is backed by faith, the paper itself has no value. At the end of the confederacy they over printed and in Russia at end of soviet union they did too, and nobody would exchange dollars for the leftover when it was phased out.

Fiat money is backed by faith, its called fiat, government fiat, legal tender.
By law, seller has to accept it.

Money doesn’t represent wealth. Wealth happens when you command goods over services.

Checks and checking accounts are substitutes for fiat money, we don’t want to carry around the money too much - so checks are a practical way to avoid this. Electronic money: direct deposit, eft transaction is exchanged over wire.

A pay check is directly deposited, electronically wired to credit union. Volume of money is very large now.
ATM cards, debit cards, receipts, are needed for exchange. The evolution of money.

Currency, checking accounts, demand deposits, travelers checks; when added up, all together this comes to M1.
(all money out there). The size of $ supply has an effect on inflation.

Savings accounts: Money market funds, mutual funds, places you can park money and are a cross between checking and savings. They take money and buy mm instruments M short term low risk bonds. Treasury notes, etc. Higher interest rates. Always pay higher rates, these accts very liquid with little loss of value.

M1 Money Supply: How It Works and How to Calculate It

M1 is the money supply that encompasses physical currency and coin, demand deposits, traveler's checks, and other checkable deposits.

www.investopedia.com

 

[dr froyd]

"money" is just any liquid means of value transaction. It's any type of thing which is easy to exchange, highly divisible, difficult to counterfeit, limited in terms of supply, and stable in value relative to everything else

there is a more general concept of "moneyness" – the extent to which something is a liquid form of payment. For example when a stock traded at an exchange is highly liquid and stable in price, it gets it closer to being "money" because you can easily exchange this for other things, like a house, or a haircut at a barbershop.

another example is that in prisons you typically use cigarettes as money. Some stone-age societies used seashells as money.

To answer the question in OP, the only alternative to a society without "money" is a society without liquid form of payment – i.e. a barter economy. This is a highly inefficient economy which would send us 3000 years back in economic development and turn everything to shit.

 

[sushi]

what are alternatives to money

what if you pay people in stock instead of money?

there will always be a scarcity of money because how the banking system works.

some people will always be poor.

 

[Black Rose]

there will always be a scarcity of money because how the banking system works.

some people will always be poor.

money is not scarce, govs can print money.

why do people need money?

you cannot eat it.

homeless people are poor because they are mentally ill and the government is stupid.

inflation makes people have less money.

the less money in circulation the richer people become.

buy gold/silver and see.

 

[saucer]

For me at this time, the most important contribution money offers is "savings" -- i.e., the ability to stake claims on an economy's future composition & direction.

To reduce: to stake claims on a society's future.

Of course to enforce those claims there are other mechanisms that need to be implemented, but I think money is a massively historic moment for human history & its evolution.

There have been recent developments post Nixon Shock that have emerged: bitcoin, Modern Monetary Theory, etc. Myself, I take a somewhat dim view of them but only because for me successful money "collapses" distinction between the future & present economy & even collapses distinction between money & economy throughout time altogether. Bitcoin & MMT unfortunately DO distinguish money from economy, the former as market-driven speculation for money's intrinsic value & the latter as an uncorruptable manager of economic activity & output.

Things like bitcoin & MMT have it completely wrong IMHO & were inspired by (now discredited) hard money, e.g., gold standard misconceptions. Fiat currencies however & to my current understanding get the purpose & use of money 100% right.

 

[saucer]

Oh yes the OP question!

I can't & I'm convinced nobody here can conceive a human civilization now sans money. "That genie has left the bottle!"

Or, "Eve has tasted the apple!"

Or, "Descartes has found his demon!"

Or, "The Buddha is enlightened!"

Or, "The flag is raised!"

Or, "That shuttle has disintegrated!"

Or whatever other innocence-lost obelisk you or Kubrick want to put in the scifi script...

 

[sushi]

there will always be a scarcity of money because how the banking system works.

some people will always be poor.

money is not scarce, govs can print money.

why do people need money?

you cannot eat it.

homeless people are poor because they are mentally ill and the government is stupid.

inflation makes people have less money.

the less money in circulation the richer people become.

buy gold/silver and see.

people need money to trade for goods and resources they need.

but the thing is only banks can create money and distribute it to fat people, you cannot plant a tree and grow money,

 

[Black Rose]

It's all a matter of resource management.

Money is a tool and tools must be used properly or they do not work.

That is why I say that the gov is stupid, they are using the tool improperly and everyone suffers for it.

 

[sushi]

Electricity could probably replace money in future

 

[Hourglass]

Money is just a value that we believe is made to be exchanged in such a way that the value is preserved to at least some extent.

If we lived in a world where we were all without the need to exchange money, we would need to rely much less on the value of money, and it would mean each of us would need to have or create a self-sustaining way to live.

There are people today who live without dependence or reliance on money formally and some appear to be self-sufficient on things like, for example, their own off-the-grid housing or their own garden or farm, etc. This not to say it is easy or hard to do but that it is already a possibility. @sushi you mention electricity as well which I believe seems like it could be helpful as well.

Though some countries trust their forms of currency more or less than others and so with this volatility, a society without money would likely assume every individual, society, and nation would need to have a universal belief in one way to live, which probably goes without saying is highly unlikely.