I was lying on my Mum's bed two days ago and I tried to envision a world without money. This was prompted by a post on tumblr that lamented the strange power money has over us: 'People literally die because medicine costs too much. Money isn’t real. It stands for some arbitrary number and people literally DIE because of that number. Because they don’t have that number so they die.'
I've been working and finally earning my own income, and so I know how difficult it is to earn money (and keep it after you've earned it), and also how precious money becomes. I literally calculate in my head my daily expenses and try to limit my next day's expenses or next week's expenses (partly because I am saving up for England)
So I tried to imagine a world without that. First it seemed ideal - people would simply work at what they enjoyed: pilots would fly planes of people because they love the air, chefs would cook because flavour combinations and food creation excite them. But what about the jobs people don't want to do? It would be rash to think that we would have enough people passionate about things like cleaning and plumbing or something (No offence to all aspiring cleaners or plumbers!)
In some cases, the world might even be more selfish than it is now. Money can serve to incentivise us to do things we don't necessarily want to but that benefit the community, and taking it away would mean we assume human kindness and willingness to look past their own selfish interests to serve others would plug that gap. Which, since humans are mostly selfish and definitely imperfect at heart, would be a dangerous assumption to make. There might not be enough teachers, farmers, healthcare professionals, university courses for aspiring healthcare professionals, policy makers and politicians for the world. Most people would stay at home with their favourite things, or go out with their favourite people to eat food they did not make and frolic in parks they won't clean up after.
But the world would also be a lot fairer - people who needed medical treatment the most would get it, because doctor's would operate out of passion and love for people and their profession,education would be free, food and water would be free too.
However, the thing is, this is all possible without taking money away. There are doctor's who go to places where people need them but can't pay, and doctor's who stay to take care of those who need them and can pay, and both help people, regardless of payment. There are countries with free education systems and governments that subsidise education and programmes for the more fortunate to help the less fortunate get education. There are food donation drives and water sanitation donation drives.
And so although initially I thought money was a bad thing and should be eradicated, after a while I realised I'm glad it's here. It helps us do what we need to rather than letting us do what we want to (which is often a dangerous thing), and it also gives the power to those with good hearts and kind hands to reach into their pockets and help those who need it. It does make us selfish, but it also makes selflessness more tangible - so we are able to reflect and see our own selfishness and change that.
I don't know what do you think, silent reader?
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