I've heard a few people in my life wish for a society without money. "Wouldn't it be great if we didn't have to have money?! We would all just serve one another! I'd do what I do for you and you'd do what you do for me." Is there something appealing about that to you? I guess, in a certain light, it sounds less greedy, you're serving and being served in turn but I think deep down the draw is that there is an implied love and concern for those around us. I'm not serving to get something in return, I'm serving out of love. In turn I receive service because those around me, love me. I can see the draw of that. There is a 'but' though.
Role of Money
What is money anyway? Just poke around the intertubes and you'll find lots of information on that topic.
Here's a fun primer:
Money represents the goods and services that are around us. It solves the two problems mentioned, two parties having to have what the other wants (double incidence of wants problem) and being able to save up enough goods to barter for something expensive (retention of value problem). But money doesn't necessarily have to be paper printed by a government. Sometimes it's rock salt, brass rings, shells, or even tobacco (skip to 3:30). What's important is that you have a medium of exchange. Another thing springs up when you have money, prices. Prices are amazing! They transmit scarce knowledge and provide motivation to act on it. No money means no prices and missing information. We'll come back to that.
Amorality of Money
I think some see money as filthy. I'm not sure where that comes from, but I think at least partially, it's a cultural thing. But money isn't filthy. Money is amoral, it is lacking in morals. Dave Ramsey compares it to a brick. A brick is neither good nor bad. It can be used for good or bad things, but the brick doesn't determine that, the person that picks it up does. When you see jerks with "bricks", it's not a brick problem, they're just jerks. Though, the argument that when people get lots of "bricks" they get confused and tend to be more jerk-ish, isn't lost on me. Prosperity can be one of the most difficult character challenges of all.
Confusing Intentions with Outcomes
I think part of the aversion to money also comes from a feeling that if I'm doing something for money, it's very mercenary. Maybe that's true some of the time, but I know lots of people, myself included, that do things for more than mere money. The work itself is gratifying and challenging. The greater cause we're working for is worthwhile and a blessing to the world. The money is only part of it.
Maybe people think that without money, the motivations to serve would be more pure. For a given example that may or may not be true, but does it really matter to the one getting served? If you push me off a building or accidentally knock me off, aren't the consequences the same to me? Which would you prefer, "good" intentions and poor service or mercenary intentions and excellent service? Intentions can certainly have bearings on our relationships, but it's more difficult than we usually want to believe to know with certainty others' intentions. We need to guard against confusing difficult to divine intentions from plain outcomes.
Another Way to Think About It
Because someone gets money for serving us doesn't mean that the money is the primary motivator, nor does it diminish the service we get. All of this can be turned around by considering a scenario that Walter Williams came up with. You enter the grocery store and pick up a carton of eggs, a gallon of milk, and a loaf of bread. You get up to the front and the grocer asks you, "Why should your fellow men work and serve you by providing you with those goods? You in turn pull out a series of certificates that prove that you served your fellowmen yourself, you mowed the lawn, trimmed the hedge, and walked the dog of your fellowmen, so you are in turn worthy to be served by them. You can think of the money you received as certificates verifying that you served; they're your certificates of appreciation. Money doesn't necessarily denigrate service.
Knowledge
Furthermore, if we didn't have money, we wouldn't have prices. Prices are signals (like radio waves) that carry data or knowledge to members of our society. They carry data or knowledge of what's needed and what's not needed and how best to achieve those ends. How would we find and transmit that knowledge without money and prices?
A World with Money
I think money is actually a very useful invention. Like nearly all inventions it can be use by evil people for evil purposes, and maybe because it has, so many people have bad feelings about money, but it doesn't have to be that way. When I think about money as an instrument to illustrate service I've performed and I give it out when others serve me, I'm supremely grateful for service the money itself performs. With that understanding, it also helps me think different about the work I perform. I think, I'm getting this money for service I perform, how can I better serve? And you know what, when you serve better, eventually more money finds its way to you.
