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Here lately, most of the posts that I have written have been pretty research, fact, and detail-heavy.
Today, I wanted to take a break from the research-type posts and possibly have some fun thinking out loud to answer the following question: “What would it possibly take to get rid of and/or make money obsolete in the world?
Now, I admit that this might seem like quite a strange thing to be talking about on a blog that discusses well, money, of all things! Personally, I don’t think the world is near to the point where getting rid of money would be smart, possible, and/or prudent. However, it is an intriguing thought experiment to work through nonetheless. So, let’s get started!
Side note: In this post, I’ll be trying to talk about getting rid of money in the sense that society or technology advances to a point where it is not needed. I’m not talking about forms of government like socialism, etc.
Unlimited Resources
The first thing I can think of that would probably be a requisite for getting rid of money is that technology evolves to such a point that everyone worldwide has access to everything they need/want at the touch of a button. This would include traveling to wherever they want, eating whatever food they fancy, and having any type of objects needed to perform tasks / play with. If you are a Star Trek fan, one possible invention that I could see making this possible is a “replicator.”
Of course, to make having unlimited resources a reality, the energy source that would power the technology would also need to recharge itself and/or be completely 100% renewable.
A Incentive for people to succeed, do their best, and/or contribute to society
No matter how advanced technology is, I don’t believe that money will be made completely obsolete unless there is some motivation/incentive for un-motivated people to contribute to society. Now sure, there would be a substantial amount of folks that would still work their hardest for recognition, the joy of doing their best, helping others, etc. However, that alone I do not believe would be enough to get rid of money altogether.
An Incentive for People to do Unwanted Jobs or the Technology to do them for us
One thing I find fascinating in our society is that depending on how we are raised / what we are genetically dis-positioned to enjoy, a certain job that one person finds terrible will be perfect for someone else.
However, if you’ve seen the show Dirty Jobs for example, I believe that there will always be some jobs out there that people probably just would not do without some incentive that makes the job more palatable. Take cleaning out porta-potties for example. It’s probably not the best job in the world, but hey, I read somewhere that it pays $80,000 a year and doesn’t require a college degree. At that kind of pay, it becomes do-able.
If money were to become obsolete, we’d need some sort of incentive to give to folks to do these unwanted jobs. Either that OR technology becomes so good that we can just get machines to do all of these jobs for us, which might be very possible in the future – who knows!
How about you all? Have you ever thought about what it would take to get rid of money / make it obsolete? If so, what would need to happen?
Share your experiences by commenting below!
***Photo courtesy of http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2257/3534516458_6be8f6ef9d_o.jpg
