Quote from: epii on April 04, 2011, 04:51:10 PM

Quote from: caveden on April 04, 2011, 12:09:02 PM

Even in the bronze age they had the concept of money, I think. The romans I'm sure they did.
Only a very primitive, aborigine-like society can live without it. And in such societies, you won't have true private ownership nor trade.

My only point was that money, as we think of it, is an abstract representation of wealth. It is possible to have an economy with only concrete representations of wealth (i.e. bartering), but such a system is necessarily extremely inefficient compared to what we're used to. If somebody says "money is the problem", they propose reverting to an extremely primitive sort of culture. If somebody say "ownership is the problem", they propose reverting even further.

Good, concise points.

Accumulation of wealth is what drive us as a people and our economy.

Ownership is a method of retaining wealth.

We have almost no controls over ownership in the US. Given enough time and motivation this allows for uncontrolled accumulation of wealth.

Uncontrolled accumulation of wealth will inherently produce concentration of wealth.

It's quite simple to see that uncontrolled wealth eliminates any realistic chance of wealth for the majority.

It is how it has always been. The self-sustaining divide between the poor and the rich. But there is one looming difference that is trending upward.

Our intelligence, our advancing modern capability has placed an equally strict mandate of efficiency over wealth accumulation.

The concentration of wealth and application of that wealth will monopolize intelligence to satisfy the efficiency mandate.

The ultra concentration of both wealth and the vast majority of our collective intelligence will magnify long standing disparity and misery.

This blessing of complete freedom of ownership, our advancement and the "free market" may very likely result in an unintended equilibrium. Ironically, an equilibrium resembling the wealth redistribution of a socialist state where individual wealth of the vast majority is roughly equal. Very little wealth. Dramatic rises in global population only reinforce these ideas.

We follow ideas such as the "American Dream," as if a carrot while our masters give us the stick.

Potential desire for future revolution will be quashed as the opponent will be our collective intelligence.