At least future generations will know that not all of us were self-destructive, shortsighted fools. Knowing folks like this exist gives me hope.

trade-free.org/

💕

#TradeFree

@aral say this were adopted globally and it was only demand ↔ supply (but no prices).

- how can we use scarce goods efficiently without a price mechanism?
- why would people produce goods that aren't fun to make?
- what would stop drug users from consuming but not producing?

@aral @bjorn
- how can we use scarce goods efficiently without a price mechanism?
Based on need. Take organ transplant. Scarce resource. If we trade it and put a price on it, it becomes a mess. Corruption, bad incentives, only the rich can get some, and so forth. But in more developed tribes/countries they are reinforcing the non-trade of such scarce resources and are distributing them based on who is closer to the donor, who is more compatible and so forth. Much saner. There are organizations that already have to deal with scarce resources without putting a price tag for them. We address such issues in The Money Game and Beyond book.
why would people produce goods that aren't fun to make?
Need. Or the fact that the end result might be meaningful. I managed some 30-40 websites and at times there is no fun doing server backups and maintenance. Thousands of people use our services as trade-free and that makes me happy in the end. There are so many volunteers in the world doing all kinds of things that are not fum. They do it to save lives, to improve the society, to learn something new, etc..
what would stop drug users from consuming but not producing?
I do not understand this one. Can you elaborate? :)

@tio @aral

Charity ("organizations that already have to deal with scarce resources without putting a price tag for them") still involves a market process. Staff, office. communications, infrastructure and supply chains.

There's a reason charities pay salaries for key staff — specialised staff are scarce, and they enable these charities to be more productive.

To the end user, it's free, but the complex processes behind this aren't.

@aral @bjorn Of course they can't 100% decouple from this trade based society. But the more you do, the better the chances to move this society into a different direction. The fact that we already rely heavily on such charity/volunteer organizations is a strong argument in favor of "people doing things for free".
There's a reason charities pay salaries for key staff
There are a lot who do not. Rely on volunteers 100%.

@tio @aral charity discourages self-reliance, and creates indebtedness to the giver.

Entrepreneurship and a marketplace to voluntarily exchange goods and services allows us to be self-reliant and develop an advanced society.

If everything was based on charity, innovation would be discouraged, and progress would slow dramatically.

Charity is of great benefit, and the welfare state should be returned to private charity.

Sadly, the state destroyed it.

It's fascinating:
mises.org/library/welfare-welf

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@aral @bjorn
Entrepreneurship and a marketplace to voluntarily exchange goods and services allows us to be self-reliant and develop an advanced society.

There is no such thing as "voluntarily exchange" in a society in which you can die if you do not exchange. And all players are unequal. Plus, look at today's society, it is anything but "advanced". It is a destroying society.
If everything was based on charity, innovation would be discouraged, and progress would slow dramatically.
I do not understand what charity is but I am not talking about charity. I am talking about de-slaving humans from society. And let them get involved in whatever they want to without threatening them that if they do not, they may die. This can bread a lot of innovation. Look at the open source world, look at citizen scientists, and so forth.
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