How long would it take for humans to die out if money had no value?

[szw]

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did you seriously not think at all about this thread before you posted it?

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I am gonna go with no on that one.

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No he obviously thought about it a lot. Some people just aren't good at thinking.

[El Diablo]

Shoe Lace,

That's pretty much exactly why I've been stockpiling a lot of water for a lot of years.

[Shoe Lace]

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The money system that we currently use is less than 100 years old.

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Yeah and compare the early 1900s to today. It's a -much- different world (in most non-third world countries).

I'll admit I didn't know this happened in Argentina recently but this can't be compared to it happening on a global scale instantly.

If no one is being payed to play the role of law enforcement, what's going to happen? If the people who were billionaires yesterday are now equal to everyone (financially) today you don't think this would cause any amount of hostility?

[pergesu]

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The money system that we currently use is less than 100 years old.

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Yeah and compare the early 1900s to today. It's a -much- different world (in most non-third world countries).

I'll admit I didn't know this happened in Argentina recently but this can't be compared to it happening on a global scale instantly.

If no one is being payed to play the role of law enforcement, what's going to happen? If the people who were billionaires yesterday are now equal to everyone (financially) today you don't think this would cause any amount of hostility?

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Wealthy people have wealth, not money. They own/control the businesses that produce goods that are of value to people.

Money doesn't have any intrinsic value, it has buying power. In your hypothetical world, money wouldn't be used to buy stuff. People would barter, trade goods and services. The people in control of the high-demand goods and services will be wealthy regardless of what currency is used.

[pergesu]

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I can't imagine this working over an extended amount of time. It wouldn't take very long to figure out our basic needs are food/water and to a lesser extent shelter. If you control those needs, then you own everyone else.

Remember, I'm talking about this as if it were to happen over night. Tomorrow morning when you wake up you are an infinitaire guaranteed.

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If you own your home you're basically okay. People would pay off their (now essentially free) mortgages. People who rent would be [censored].

I don't think there's some big secret to being wealthy. Own your home and a bunch of [censored] that people want.

[MightyA6]

History tend to repeat itself, things like the will happen and then happen again! (Extreme inflation) The difference is that we will be more and more prepared since now we got TEAM AMERICA! Or at least some military forces that handles with situations like these.

[Shoe Lace]

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Money doesn't have any intrinsic value, it has buying power. In your hypothetical world, money wouldn't be used to buy stuff. People would barter, trade goods and services. The people in control of the high-demand goods and services will be wealthy regardless of what currency is used.

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I totally agree. However imagine this:

You are Joe billionaire. Yesterday you had 100,000 people working for you in some way or another. A decent % of them were not directly related to your product, but most were factory workers.

You're not quite wealthy enough to have any control over gigantic corporations (international media providers, etc) but you have your own fair share of connections and other sources of income.

The people who work in your factory decide they no longer have a reason to produce whatever product you were making because you can't provide them all a fair trade.

You do not have enough wealth/assets to convince them to continue slaving away in a factory. Maybe 1,000 of them do hang around but your company is pretty much done.

If this happens to every business, then who's going to supply "things" that people are going to use to trade?

Who's going to worry about paying a mortgage when the bank is no longer running? Even if it were running, they won't care about your money because they have as much as they want.

What's going to stop every US soldier (I'm using them as an example only because I think most people will agree as a whole they are the largest trained force in the US who have access to weapons) from banding together and eliminating/"slaving" anyone in their path?

All the wealth in the world isn't going to protect you because your wealth is free for the taking.

[kazana]

How difficult is it to understand that a new currency will simply replace the worthless older one? This is what happens all over the world when a currency takes a nose dive.

And for the extreme case if there was no currency, the factories would be able to pay with the products they produce for bartering. Factory workers will continue to work, because they'll rather have shoelaces to trade for food than nothing.

You're only screwed for a while until the dust settles. And some more if your "product" is a service, i.e. not tangible.

As for your ridiculous soldiers argument, what stops them from not taking over right now? Do you honestly think a bit of money will stop them if they could have everything by taking over as you suggest?

[El Diablo]

Shoe Lace,

This is why in addition to stockpiling lots of water I have invested in a large stockpile of arms, a private army, and lots of diamonds and gold. And canned goods. And can openers.

[imitation]

What is the intrinsic value of masks in this post-apocolyptic world?