Hypothetically each trade provides for the other. You raise cattle, so you give the baker some butter, and milk, and the butcher some meat, and they give you back some bread and steaks. The carpenter builds your and their homes and you each give him some of your goods. It’s a great theory, and works well in small communes. Idk how it works in a global society, and considering all of the failures we’ve seen with it, I’m not sure if anyone else knows either. I’m aware this is like an elementary level explanation, and ignores a lot of concepts and examples, but I’m typing on a phone, and I’m sure someone else will expand upon it.
It doesn’t work in anything beyond a small agrarian community with simple needs. It’s as much a fantasy as the idealized small American town of the 1950s. There are no closed-loop economies.
Which farmer is going to provide me with eggs every week in exchange for my work as a web server admin? Will the farmer be obligated to provide the carpenter with food for the rest of his life after building a house? A one-time trade isn’t going to keep the carpenter from starving to death. What exactly would an astronaut, or a philosopher, or a quality assurance engineer or a geologist offer in trade for basic sustenance or medical services?
Complex work requires a complex economy. A complex economy requires an abstraction for value (e.g. not barter) to allow for compensation for abstract and long-term tasks.
Hypothetically each trade provides for the other. You raise cattle, so you give the baker some butter, and milk, and the butcher some meat, and they give you back some bread and steaks. The carpenter builds your and their homes and you each give him some of your goods. It’s a great theory, and works well in small communes. Idk how it works in a global society, and considering all of the failures we’ve seen with it, I’m not sure if anyone else knows either. I’m aware this is like an elementary level explanation, and ignores a lot of concepts and examples, but I’m typing on a phone, and I’m sure someone else will expand upon it.
It doesn’t work in anything beyond a small agrarian community with simple needs. It’s as much a fantasy as the idealized small American town of the 1950s. There are no closed-loop economies.
Which farmer is going to provide me with eggs every week in exchange for my work as a web server admin? Will the farmer be obligated to provide the carpenter with food for the rest of his life after building a house? A one-time trade isn’t going to keep the carpenter from starving to death. What exactly would an astronaut, or a philosopher, or a quality assurance engineer or a geologist offer in trade for basic sustenance or medical services?
Complex work requires a complex economy. A complex economy requires an abstraction for value (e.g. not barter) to allow for compensation for abstract and long-term tasks.