justalanm

Thanks for the tip, I can suggest (after getting some introductory anthropology reading) this as well https://www.amazon.it/Debt-First-5-000-Years/dp/1612194192

> Our society has given up on that

That's the point when I say: "you've given up on that", meaning that some societies have moved to something else, but there are many in the world. It's important to understand that it's a choice, there's no "right way forward", it isn't evolution, just organization.

> we cannot go back to that stage

Not saying we have to, but it might happen in the future for many reasons (nuclear wars, climate collapse, worse pandemics, etc). The point above is about that, what if we find a DIFFERENT way? It's up to us.

> humanity has given up completely on being hunter-gatherers

This statement doesn't help anyone and it isn't true, there are millions of hunter gatherers, and many more that are in between that and very limited agriculture. Do not mistake the west for humanity.

P.S.: this is just food for thought, in the sense that we must be open to new ideas, even those that completely destroy our "normal" perception of the world if we really want to advance as a species.

Not really, can I print money to get food? So, not free, it's just an illusion, at least for 99% of the people.

> In earlier times, in hunter gatherer societies, food was scarce and work was important. But today, you cannot tell people that working in fast food or in customer support is mandatory to eat and have a roof on your head.

Just a note: hunter gatherers exist today, it's not something that humanity has given up completely, you've given it up, but it might be temporary (it seems that many current hunter gatherers went back to it in order to flee from disease and slavery brought by the westerners). Moreover, we now know that many hunter gatherers "work" less on average than those working in agriculture or - following your example - in customer support.

Abolish "mandatory" work.

Now you can keep working if you want to. It was easy.

That's the point, you're not talking about money, but about debt and risk (people always forget about risk and insurance). What there is to know about credit cards, really? I pay something today with it, then I pay it back at a later date, it's debt.

This will to complicate things more than they need to comes from banks pretending that they are "cool again" and have all sorts of different products, when in reality banking is the most boring thing ever invented: here's some money now, you'll give it back to me at a later date with an interest.

Moreover, by your remark "communist utopia" you're perfectly showing that I'm right in calling for more literacy about history, philosophy and politics. This isn't communism in any possible form, au contraire we're still moving well within the boundaries of capitalism.

communism isn't about abolishing money, or debt

Finance doesn't create value, most of the times actually destroys it. Moreover, you're looking at this with a clearly US-centric perspective, in many other countries we don't need to know about retirement schemes, school loans and health insurance policies (you seem to have forgotten that insurance IS finance, but this might be just another example of the reason why this is hairy).

So, if tomorrow all of this changes, you'll have millions of people with really useless knowledge. And who changes these things? Politics. This is politics. Won't it be better that people learn about politics, philosophy and history so that they have the tools they need to actually understand and change the world around them?