Allegory of perfect value

[Funder]

Imagine destroying all money, and erasing everyone's memory of wealth.
What would happen next?

[Rich_in_CT]

Anarchy.

[Bluemoon06]

Food and water would become currency.  I would look in my pantry and eat all my food and then I would go over to your house and take your food and probably take your kids and make them work for me.

[John_in_NC]

Something like this movie.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5464625623984168940

[Funder]

How much of your life does not make sense?

A condition like this would force the issue of prioritization and clarity.

It seems to me that all most people want is food, shelter, clothing, transportation, and free time.

If I trade you a pair of shoes for 15 pounds of beef, then we both know the value that we lost, and the value that we gained.

Every time you turn on a light, you pay taxes, and Nancy Pelosi flies around in a private jet, funded by taxpayers.  What value did she provide for the taxpayers?

Why do people protest the AIG executives, or Peter Kraus, who allegedly received 25 million dollars for three months worth of work (TARP money) at Merrill Lynch?

Because if this guy came to you and said “If you give me:

A house in The Hamptons
A French Vinyard
A Gulfstream IV leer jet
A Yacht
A Ferrari
All the utilities gas and food I could ever use in a lifetime
Add more here…

I’ll work for you for three months.

You couldn’t say “get out of my office” fast enough.

I’ll bet if you lived in a world like the one I describe, you wouldn’t want to come back to this one

EVER…

[Rich_in_CT]

Funder-  I don't care what you say, just watch the language.  You can certainly make your point without the obscenities.

[Funder]

Sorry, Rich.

Perfect value is only a concept.  It’s like anarchy and laissez-faire capitalism.  It could never be achieved.

Here’s another example:
A gang banger and a drug addict winds up in the court system, the prison system and hospitals.  Taxpayers spend millions to give this person a so-called “fair trial” or an incarceration free of “cruel and unusual punishment” or the attention of medical doctors and treatment by teams of specialists, surgical teams and nursing service.

What did he give the rest of the world?  Why does he deserve value equivalent to a dozen other people who work 40 hours a week for 35 years?

Certainly there will always be a segment of the population that must be cared for by the remainder of the population.  Examples include children, elderly, and handicapped.

Everyone else should have to come to the negotiation table with something of value, or leave with nothing.