When you say money, you are invoking more than one thing. Money on one hand is a status. On another, it’s a placeholder for value.

I try and barter (skill for skill) or trade (item for item), or a mix. People have things and/or skills that I need/want. I have/can things they need/want.

I make a lot of different things. I like turning raw materials into useful things. Even a simple piece of art is useful in make smiles.

I do have to pay bills though. So, I need money.

Did you catch Amazon Go?

Ok, let's take a look at one scenario without money: groceries.
Now, let's take a step down from actually money (bills, coins, etc) and just look at bartering.
How often do you go grocery shopping? Once a week? Every two weeks? Think about how much you usually purchase. Let's say you spend $100 a week on groceries. Now... there's no money anymore and we just barter. How much stuff are you going to have to take with you to trade? Would we see people bring livestock into the store? What possible services could you provide? And what happens if the grocer doesn't want/need any of the things you have to trade?

And that's what EVERYBODY would be doing. It would take forever to go shopping.

And what about the store employees? How are they being paid? Is there a set trade they earn? I guess they could earn store credit, but that's not really reasonable because, aside from it basically being more like money, the values of individual items would fluctuate daily based on supply and demand and so credit would be useless. And you can't guarantee any specific foods because of that supply and demand. I guess you could say that 8 hours of work earns you 2 lbs of meat, 1 lb of vegetables, a 1lb of fruit, etc, so you'll have food, but you also have to remember that YOUR trading items are also that food, unless you go from your grocery job to some other job where you have some other way of earning materials or skills for barter.
You are still going to have things like rent and utilities and car costs, etc. You really want your valuables tied up in perishables?
And forget the service industry. Can you imagine trying to go to a bar or the movies and try and trade food or something. That would be a nightmare.

And let's not even discuss a world where there is no currency or bartering. That's just absurd. How many jobs would no longer get done if people weren't getting paid? Unless the government assigns everyone jobs in which case good luck getting to do what you want. Somebody has to be a garbage collector.

Capitalism and greed will not allow for the proliferation of renewable energy, unfortunately.

I would rather we barter. But something would need to be traded for time and service. I know I'm a #Bitcoin Investor!! I'm all about making money decentralized.

According to the bible, one of the kings of Israel were told by god to develop the currency system. Go figure! The invention of societal slavery came from god. I disagree with some of TG's reply. The resources are there. They are just manipulated to a measure to control. And it's thanks to the technology they are there. Also a means of manipulation. I also believe most people want to be a part of making society a better place to live. Most people I know don't like spending to much time from work and get bored. I'm one of them. I also believe it's in our nature to be socialistic and there for believe a system as such would be better for society. We are the most socialistic beings on this planet some would claim. It's the power structure of politics and their owners that holds back humanity. Again, structured manipulation to control.

That's ridiculous.

Who would clean the toilets? Who would build the big houses and fast cars? Who would process the raw materials, grow and pick crops, or maintain the supporting infrastructure and technology?

Resources are not unlimited. We trade our goods and labor (mental and physical) for food, houses, cars, and so on all represented by money. If you took out money, you'd need to replace it with something just like money...

It isn't necessary, we make it needed.

I think you are advocating communism. But anway, money is merely a commodity against which all other commodities are measured.

Then I wouldn't give a fuck about working hard and building my business empire. I would be focused more on my music. Not a bad trade I think.

If you're into game theory at all you'll approve of having a monetary system to incentivize certain things. Most of the technological advancements we make are a result of the reward / punishment mechanisms inherent to the money system. Could we still have awesome lives and advance as a society without it? Sure. But I think you'd have to micromanage your entire system to get the same benefits.

Actually will be doing a lengthy post on this very subject. I just do not know how it will be received.

We would barter.

The useful thing about money is that it is a placeholder for seasonal or perishable goods. Farmers, for instance, do far better if they can store something of symbolic value rather than having to store goods for trade at times when their crops are out of season.

Hard currency is being phased out in favour of electronic transactions, but it's still basically money and works through the same systems and means.

Getting rid of money and trade as a concept means getting rid of the concept of property and ownership... You can give me all of your stuff whenever you're ready

Money mainly there to help us exchange goods services easily. It is a choice except when it comes to paying your taxes. Then the government tells you to pay up in this way otherwise they grab your worldly goods or they make you a very visible example to discourage others from not paying their taxes. You would probably go to gaol for a longer time than if you murdered your drug dealer (if you had one).

I'm sure the monetary system grew out of the barter system when it was deemed more convenient to use small valuable units of precious metals than to carry your wealth in pigs or chickens to trade for iron tools or woven cloth.

A society that is free to pursue more creative and worthwhile endeavors is a wonderful idea, but our existing exploitative and competitive version of capitalism makes that very difficult.

As the wealth gap widens ever more in the US, I believe more people are concerned about just keeping food on the table and a roof over their heads more so than a big house or a fast car.

When I see things on Facebook where Germany is making a 28 hour a workweek and French citizens enjoy ten weeks of vacation each year, not to mention that most non-third-world countries have universal health care, I think they are on the right track.

The difference is that the people are in control of the government in those countries, whereas in our country, the government is controlled by a few ultra-rich corporations and individuals like the Koch brothers, who use tremendous wealth to get politicians elected that are beholden to their devious interests.

We now see the hypocrisy and corruption of the political system and institutions, the media and the environment under the Trump/ Republican administration due to the greed and self-serving interests of the power-mongering oligarchy.

That will be good.

When I was at primary school we were told that by the time we were adults, people would only work 3 days a week, due to robots and free safe nuclear energy. We became automated, and people lost jobs while business made more money. Money is how the wealthy become so. Without it they can't.

I thought money was invented as a unit of trade