The effect of income equality on societies...

[HappySqurriel]

mrstickball said:

Kasz216 said:

Also, I can think of a society that operates without money.

However FOR it to operate without money it would require either

A) People to stop wanting pretty much anything not related to needs.

B) Scarcity for non need objects to be eliminated by things like Star Trek Replicators.

In otherwords... your still working under the same system as outlined, without money. You are simply either decreasing demand or increasing supply to do it.

 

As for this being "Hypnotised by money". 

That's largely not the case as this system predates money.

You can find communes that attempt to work without money. They've existed in notariety for the past ~40 years in the US. They never work because, as you said, scarcity and differentiation among workers exist. The societies always break down because one person invariably works less often than the others and drags down the entire system, causing systemic failures inherant in such a system.

There are actually lots of very successful communities based on communal principles that (internally) do not operate based on money but they tend to be highly religious groups with close family ties, a deeply ingrained work ethic and they don't include more than (about) 100 people. For the most part, many of their values represent a rejection of the modern western world, and are especially in direct opposition to modern liberal/socialist values; and these values are essential to the society functioning.