im currently reading this book called The Ascent of Money which traces the history of money from the current day to its origins. Although i haven't completed it, I got through half the book ; so ive got a rough idea of how money started to be. While i was thinking about it, i came to a weird realization;
In essence Money isn't a necessity, its a control mechanism.
Just like Law, money became a necessity out of lack of self control within society. Governments control money and therefore, controls society...
Im not a economic student or anything like that, but hear me out.
Lets start with the basic money system,
Someone needs to buy food. Therefore he needs a job. Lets say he gets a job within the construction industry, as an architect. He works in a firm who gets a government project. The government funds the project, the firm gets their fee, he gets his salary and buys food.
We know that the government controls supply of money - because inflation can happen. The government needs to do this because they're trying to buy things from other countries as well.
Lets look at early civilization now,
The reason anyone would have to buy anything in the first place is because the original owner of the 'food' for instance wouldn't want to give their food away for free due to him not wanting to part with the fruits of his labour. Who can blame him, if the beggar asking food from him is a slacker who didnt contribute anything to the produce of food and only wants to eat it. So, the food seller is greedy for not wanting to give things away for free and the beggar is lazy for not doing any work.
In a perfect society, everyone would strive to contribute to society by various means of working, and the fruits of their labour would be shared equally. Rendering money useless.
But as soon as a greedy person hogs his produce and expect something in return (even if greed is a responsive act against laziness), trade will begin. Once trade begins.. money would have to follow.
Therefore, money was inevitably created as a control mechanism to regulate the greedy and the lazy. Without greed and laziness, money wouldn't have been necessary.
Implications of money as a control mechanism goes far beyond my capabilities to talk about with what limited knowledge i have, but it is something to ponder on.
p.s. not sure if i made my arguments strong enough. I could make more points.. but that would require more thinking on the subject which i have not done and haven't got the time to..
