People Invented Money For A Reason: Bartering Is Inefficient
from the shocking-facts dept
The whole reason that money was invented was that bartering isn't a particularly efficient means of paying for goods and services. This should be clear to plenty of people, but in the last decade, over and over and over again, we've seen companies keep trying to bring back the concept of bartering, as if it were something new and wonderful. In the early days of the web there were a bunch of online bartering sites, and they all died out pretty quickly. A couple years back, the new set showed up, and they seemed just as pointless. One of the higher profile ones was Peerflix, where it didn't take long for people to realize that when you have to trade DVDs straight up, there are going to be a lot of crappy DVDs available, and not many good ones. It doesn't take an advanced economics degree to figure out why -- though, that hasn't stopped others from copying their strategy, and claiming they've got something brand new. It looks like it only took about two years for Peerflix to at least admit this flaw in their business model, as they're now changing their service so that all movies now have a monetary value, so that you can buy or sell movies for cash -- rather than as part of an elaborate "trade." In other words, the site is really no different than a specialized open marketplace for DVDs, where you can buy or sell DVDs only at the price the company sets. In that sense, it's hard to see how it's better than, say, eBay which also acts as a marketplace, but actually lets the market set the price.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Motherland
You and your capitalism are being flawed. We Russians know many much things more than you about this, that is why we survive hard times much easier.
Peace be with you all in this time of holy days.
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Re: Motherland
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Re: Motherland
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Re: sore
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bartering is beautiful...
Best part is that the government is cut out of the loop. I believe the IRS has rules to prevent use of this "loophole." I'd like to see that go before the Supreme Court.
Telling folks they are not even free to exchange favors with one another is pretty much equivalent to telling people that they are property of the State (i.e. slaves). That would go over REAL WELL with the America public!
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since when are we not slaves?
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Re: since when are we not slaves?
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Re: Re: since when are we not slaves?
We are in debt from birth and we leave debt to others when we die. We are born into a life of constant need, which has a price tag.
We can grow our own garden if we own the land we intend to grow on. We own land when we finish payment on mortgage.
We finish mortgage payment in 30 years, which turns a 300,000 dollar loan into a 800,000 dollar loan. Combined with water bill's, manipulative house insurance and ever increasing taxes.
When are we free from debt?
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Re: since when are we not slaves?
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Distance
But it was all done face to face. It's alot more difficult to cheat someone (which is one of the reasons bartering online fails) when you actually meet.
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Bartering?
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Craigslist works, sort of
I've done successful bartering with local business men, trading goods for services, vice versa, and multiple variations within those. It is a lot of bother, and one must toe the line to avoid hurt feelings or any sense of being taken advantage of. On the plus side I've gotten things and jobs done I couldn't afford, and gotten rid of things that, while valuable, I had no good way to market.
In summation; bartering works for me, assuming the proper trading partner.
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Re: Craigslist works, sort of
It is when you try to scale that bartering up into an infinitely more complex global system. The next logical step is to create some external indicator as to the universal value of goods -- and then we're just back to money. While bartering is a good one-off, it's pretty tough to create any complex bartering system that's actually going to work.
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the finer details of bartering
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The suck
Bartering = Greatness
I want a neckless with a blue stone.
John has a neckless with a blue stone and wants a bracelet with a green stone.
I don't have a bracelet with a green stone.
Eric has a bracelet with a green stone and he wants a new shirt.
I don't have a new shirt.
Fred has a new shirt and wants a bottle of rum.
I have rum.
I give rum to Fred, shirt to Eric, bracelet to John.
Bartering = The Suck.
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Re: The suck
Neckless = Someone without a neck
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Ebay
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Bartering
The monetary system was developed in hopes it would solve dishonesty,when in fact it made it worse.Not only is there dishonesty,there is greed.Therefore is a monetary system better?Look at it this way.A person has to work in order to get money.What has the person done? This person bartered himself for that money,now the persons day belongs to someone else.Our monetary system was set up to keep the average person in lower and mid classes,working to support the goverment.Bartering doe's the goverment nor big business any good,that is why it doe's not work!
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Re: Bartering
It can work for small, localized transactions when all parties are familiar with one anothers' inventory and skills, but on a society scale it's a huge pain in the aforementioned ass which would prevent the economy from developing.
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Re: Bartering
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better than eBay
eBay is a hotbed of rip-off artists useful only for the rare find or unusual good and the legitimate company selling over-stocks.
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That one is free. (and no, I don't know how they make money) and they are listing close to a million books, so there's a fair choice (especially in chick lit, the main drivers of the sites are women)
This case of bartering is efficient, because every item available for trade is listed in one place, and the kind of item is very limited (paper backs) but is available in huge quantities.
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Re:
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Tax man cometh to take 6% of your pig!
I assume this isn't really enforced until you do it large scale, if such a thing exists anymore.
The reason bartering was (is being??) phased out is because it doesn't work in our society today-- for example: I build robots-- that is the service I provide, but my company doesn't pay me in robots (and can't) because the going rate of my labor would still take years to add up to a robot-- so I'm working free for years until I get my own robots, which, I might add, I don't really need. (I play with them all day as it is)
So, instead, they give me money, allegedly backed by real gold by our country. Huzzah!
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Re: Tax man cometh to take 6% of your pig!
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video game swappers
They had a list with about 1,000 nes snes and sega games and their value for both cash and store credit (store credit was higher than cash of couse)
A youngster would go in, trade one or a few of his video games and walk out with some used (but new to him) video games from other young lads.
It was a great idea at the time because kids everywhere had games they didn't want to play anymore. I'm sure it helped a lot of kids grasp the idea of rarity and value as certain games were worth way more despite being an old nes game, simply because it was more rare than a crappy snes game.
ahh a great many a games were swapped there.
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What is money?
This topic may be the most relevant one on the board today without us all knowing why. Not to be alarmist but the dollar is looking like going tits up (the Chinese are about to unload) and the only thing stopping it right now is a very bullish "la la I can't hear you!" and "don't worry it will be alright" attitude going around.
Sure, we are kind of enslaved by currency, but it makes a modern way of life possible. It is a good thing if we can diversify and spread the risk away from the monopolies of the international banking cartels. If you think about it Paypal is not a dollar currency - and the reason they have struggled so hard is because of the financial regulation that treats them as a bank, when in fact they are not a bank. Currency is nothing more than confidence, and confidence starts at a local level (where you deal face to face with people who are neighbors) and diminishes with distance and time.
I think we are about to enter a new era, not so much where "barter" in the old fashioned sense of "swap you three camels for a bag of magic lamps", but one in which there are multiple currencies and a very dynamic field of exchangable commodities again.
This is already happening in so many ways - people get paid in airmiles, in cashback credits, in all kinds of alternative currencies dressed up as "benefits" to their job.
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Bartering can make us free again!
The banks!!!
Not you or I. They own us!!!!
You are not free. Every day you become more and more of a slave to the Illuminati (Don't know who they are? - the bank owners and royalty - the top of the money chain)
You think you are not a slave? Have you got debts, a credit card, a mortgage? - then you are a SLAVE!!!!!
Want to be free? Then get rid of the money system.
We were all given talents by God for a reason - mine is Art - what would you give me for a painting?
This is how it was meant to be - not a nation of money lenders - but a nation of givers!!!
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Freeconomy
Your chance to show a finger to capitalism.
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baterin
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HEANS
ME AN GAN SKATE BROS
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Dick's Comment
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Dick's Comment
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bush
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Another reason money was invented
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There's a better way without money
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Re: 'young sister'.
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Really!
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:D
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Money
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Meaning? The heavy goods were NOT easy to be moved to far places, to exchange with barter system. So the coins came into existence substituting goods.
For e.g.., 1 cow for 10 coins.
To avoid thefts, riches used vaults to store coins, and a receipt was given as a token for the storage of coins. That receipt is now paper money, and the vaults are now Banks.
Just my two cents :) https://www.mcdvoice.onl/
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Cash is just a methods for control. It is extremely simple to control a general public in the event that you can control the cash. With no lack of regard to anybody when the whiteman attempted to control the local americans it was by outlandish on the grounds that the local americans didnt use cash at https://www.mcdvoice-survey.us/ . Thus the main way they could gain power was to control the nourishment supply and that was the downfall of the wild ox. You need to keep individuals from something they are use to having so as to control them. The dissidents have that made sense of. Thus goes the cash. A downturn is so they can gain power it is all synthetic.
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mybpcreditcard
it's hard to see how it's better than, say, eBay which also acts as a marketplace, but actually lets the market set the price. https://mybpcreditcard.org
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System
Cash is just a way of control. It's really simple to manage a society in case you are able to control the money. With no disrespect to anybody whenever the whiteman attempted to manage the native americans it had been next to impossible as the native americans didnt make use of money. And hence the sole manner they might obtain command was to manage the food source which was the demise of the buffalo. You've to starve individuals of something they're use to having to be able to control them. The liberals have that determined. And so goes the cash. A depression is so they are able to obtain control it's all manmade.
[Link][https://themcdvoice.com/]
[Link][https://ihipstore.com/]
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System
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Take a look at this... https://feveralbury.com.au/carrera-sunglasses
Your chance to show a Carrera Sunglasses
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