Once upon a time, we didn’t have money, or auctions, or markets. We didn’t have the concept of voting (let alone distinctions between first-past-the-post, or approval voting). We didn’t have banks or stock trading. We didn’t have Kickstarter.
We had to haggle over everything, which cost time. And it fundamentally limited the scale at which we could accomplish things. If a transaction cost exceeds the value of a trade, that trade can’t happen.
The rest of the article seems quite interesting, no doubt! That being said, the starting part (that I’m quoting) perpetuates the myth of barter that economics-type textbooks and similar push, which has little-to-no basis in historical/anthropological findings. A highly recommended text that goes further into what I’m talking about, among other topics in the text, is David Graeber’s Debt: The First 5,000 Years. Take care ⌃‿⌃ !!
Ideally the post would have whatever the true “thing we had before money” was, and whatever true coordination issues resulted from that. Meanwhile it might actually just work to remove the second paragraph.
The rest of the article seems quite interesting, no doubt! That being said, the starting part (that I’m quoting) perpetuates the myth of barter that economics-type textbooks and similar push, which has little-to-no basis in historical/anthropological findings. A highly recommended text that goes further into what I’m talking about, among other topics in the text, is David Graeber’s Debt: The First 5,000 Years. Take care ⌃‿⌃ !!
Ray said haggle, not barter. The concept of fixed prices for literally everyone including strangers is quite recent.
Fair enough, no worries at all! Very interesting article, thank you for sharing! I’ll be honest I still need to read more haha! Take care!
Yeah I’ve now heard this from a few people.
Ideally the post would have whatever the true “thing we had before money” was, and whatever true coordination issues resulted from that. Meanwhile it might actually just work to remove the second paragraph.