"You see, money doesn't exist in the 24th century"

In Star Trek it was definitely post-scarcity. When you have replicators, holodecks, and unlimited energy there really doesn't seem to be much of a need for money. I'll just go into my little holodeck and bang Jade Bryce and get fed grapes as the royal penis is cleaned.

Every now and then for kicks I'd bring a woman back to my holodeck pad and play switch-a-roo and have a holodeck version of me with a 12 inch repli-dong nail her for an hour and spray her with a liter or repli-sploodge as I watch from behind the holo-glass. :D

You've clearly put a lot of thought into this.
 
England used a stick system for over 700 years. They would take a hickory stick and carve notches on it to represent the denomination of money. If you borrowed money the lender would break the stick in half and they would keep half and give you half because they realized that no two wood grains are the same. Great for stopping counterfit rings. when the loan is called in you put the two sticks together and see if they match.

Kinda weird, but yea they used tree limbs as money.....for 700 years.

I think I read somewhere that in the ancient middle east they used clay tablets, with script etched onto them, that were shattered after the transaction was completed. I also read that some ancient culture issued brass medallions that you could show to buy things on credit.

As for tally sticks? Thank goodness we've moved beyond that. Hopefully we could move on to a more advanced system.

"In most anarchist collectives money was abolished. 'Here in Fraga,' the local paper proclaimed in blazing pride, 'you can throw banknotes into the street and no one will take any notice. Rockefeller, if you were to come to Fraga with your entire bank account you would not be able to buy a cup of coffee. Money, your God and your servant, has been abolished and the people are happy." The Spanish Civil War by A. Beevor

Wasn't it Alvin Toffler who mentioned that around 50% of our transactions are already moneyless, anyway?
 
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post scarcity is not going to happen, at least until man evolves into something ethereal or post-human.

i'm a huge trekkie but the economics of trek is ridiculous, as if positions of power, or property, or whatever are all free for the taking? fuck no.

there will be either money or barter until the end of humanity, maybe barring a few small temporary experiments.
 
post scarcity is not going to happen, at least until man evolves into something ethereal or post-human.

i'm a huge trekkie but the economics of trek is ridiculous, as if positions of power, or property, or whatever are all free for the taking? fuck no.

there will be either money or barter until the end of humanity, maybe barring a few small temporary experiments.

Gift economies, mutual aid, pro-sumerism, autogestion and usufruct will probably always exist in one capacity or another, too.

But don't just look at the post-scarcity implications of the scene. It also suggest a social development in human behavior. Futuristic fantasy? Well...

"Many of the normal motives of civilized life-snobbishness, money-grubbing, fear of the boss, etc.-had simply ceased to exist. The ordinary class-division of society had disappeared to an extent that is almost unthinkable in the money-tainted air of England..." George Orwell - Homage to Catalonia

"Above all, there was a belief in the revolution and the future, a feeling of having suddenly emerged into an era of equality and freedom. Human beings were trying to behave as human beings and not as cogs in the capitalist machine." George Orwell - Homage to Catalonia

HUMAN BEHAVIOUR DOES CHANGE!
 
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Okay... well, I imagine ships like the Enterprise at least need someone to clean it up once in a while. Someone's just going to do that out of the kindness of their heart? Be a janitor? That's not even supposing that McDonald's or Wal-Mart exist in the future.
 
Okay... well, I imagine ships like the Enterprise at least need someone to clean it up once in a while. Someone's just going to do that out of the kindness of their heart? Be a janitor? That's not even supposing that McDonald's or Wal-Mart exist in the future.
I guess somebody has to walk the cat. :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
 
post scarcity is not going to happen, at least until man evolves into something ethereal or post-human.

i'm a huge trekkie but the economics of trek is ridiculous, as if positions of power, or property, or whatever are all free for the taking? fuck no.

there will be either money or barter until the end of humanity, maybe barring a few small temporary experiments.

When you have faster than light travel and sub-space communications every human could have the power output of a star dedicated to their desires. That is post scarcity. That said, real life physics isn't so forgiving, even though full harnessed the sun could provide a lot of power.
 
I could see large societies getting rid of money once the matrix is created. Everything is free in the matrix. Land, women, power.
 
Actor Peter Coyote reminisces about his involvement with the Digger Free Store in San Francisco during the 60's and perhaps makes some interesting insights into perceived scarcity in a society of immense wealth, which is interesting if you consider that we work long, hard hours for only a few bucks when abundance is all around us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

Post-scarcity or just social evolution?

There were at least 2 attempts during the first half of the 20th century to create moneyless societies:

"Some collectives did in fact abolish money. They had no system of exchange, not even coupons." The Anarchist Collectives by Sam Dolgoff

"In the absence of private property, and of money, it is obvious that the profit motive does not operate in this society." Kibbutz: Venture in Utopia by Melford Spiro

In the past decade there have been experimental attempts, both large and small, to provide alternatives to monetary exchange.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

Would future tech or social development make this a viable possibility? Would human behavior make it fundamentally impractical?


aaaaaah I knew EXACTLY where the thread title came from even before I clicked on the link.
 
In Star Trek it was definitely post-scarcity. When you have replicators, holodecks, and unlimited energy there really doesn't seem to be much of a need for money. I'll just go into my little holodeck and bang Jade Bryce and get fed grapes as the royal penis is cleaned.

Every now and then for kicks I'd bring a woman back to my holodeck pad and play switch-a-roo and have a holodeck version of me with a 12 inch repli-dong nail her for an hour and spray her with a liter or repli-sploodge as I watch from behind the holo-glass. :D

I agree. I don't know how people even mustered up the will to leave the holodeck.
 
I agree. I don't know how people even mustered up the will to leave the holodeck.

Discover the things unknown to supercomputers and explore feelings that can't be stimulated by a simulation. Star Trek's main theme was that the human race was special, ethnocentric or not, because of our willingness to step into the unknown just to know something new.
 
The problem is that sustenance may be the prime driving force, but it isn't the only one. Even "post-scarcity" people desire status, more desirable sexual partners, hell, a nicer view. There will never be a true scarcity of all available resources within any given society, in any given geography, at any given time.

The idea that such a possibility even exists is the myth that has driven men mad in pursuit of these utopias.
 
1) As long as their are prostitutes there will be at least one need for exchange of value.
2) Prostitution will exist as long as humans exist
 
Post-scarcity or just social evolution?

facepalm-gif-31.gif
 
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