Why The Barter Economy is a Lie | Debunking The Myth of the Barter Economy

This was largely inspired by the legend David Graeber. If you love his work, you'll like this video too https://youtu.be/6_s27cRnf4I?si=9GvJoPg9Sh5lLMSN

I will swap my evidence for a barter economy for 17 self portraits.

Argument: "Imagine how hard life would be without money? It couldn't have been!" Pre- and Bronze Ages Societies: "We literally (literally) wrote down what we were bartering."

Smith: before money, we had a barter economy! everyone: source? Smith: janky, theoretical thought experiment everyone: sounds legit. Let's teach it to literally everyone for centuries lol

Who would win: the academic disciplines of anthropology, history, and ethnography OR an anonymous YouTube comment?

I had a stroke, so I don't remember exactly which ancient writer wrote it. But perhaps Diodorus Siculus, wrote that the Ancient Phoenicians would trade by leaving a bunch of goods on a beach and row/sail a little offshore. And the locals would leave what they produced and thought it was worth. And if the Phoenicians thought the offer was good. They would take the local's left goods and sail off leaving their goods for the locals. That's a textbook barter economy. Though Ancient literature is not fashionable these days with Modernists. Perhaps read the Ancients, before you claim that there is no evidence for barter economy.

I don't know what we can learn from indigenous societies about running an economy. Their models worked for their hunter-gatherer societies of some tens or hundreds of people. Our economy is a post-industrial, globe-spanning network with billions of participants.

I think Freud also said that "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar". Or something like that.

before you post that comment "debunking" this video, plz watch this part: 6:43 - it is just for you.

You fucked up with the Freud analogy. Many many of his ideas have been implemented in the norm. Some, especially the sexual motivational/oedipal are still heavily scrutinized today, as they were at the time.

I'm at 7:13 and clocking out, but I must say, I'm baffled because I never was taught or believed that bartering ever existed as a foundation for any economy. I don't believe Adam Smith ever really believed this. The theoretical Barter Economy is a device much like the State of Nature in Hobbes, Locke, or Rousseau. They postulate the State of Nature as a hypothetical to explain why we have what we have today, or why we need to do x . If Hobbes' State of Nature ever actually existed, its very qualities would demand that we immediately, right NOW create some form of government. The Barter Economy is the same way. It's a thought experiment , needed to explain the importance of money/currency. Yes, I know that there will always be people who believe, because Rousseau described it so, that without government man was like a "happy chimpanzee", but no one serious actually believes there was such a time. I'm sorry Max, I've never seen your channel before, and you seem like a bright guy, but I just think a) you've taken this idea too literally, and b) even if you're right and people believe this, it's utterly unimportant, because only people who have build 5000 square foot bomb shelters underground actually think this sort of thing could ever be. I just see this as a non-issue. I certainly never taught my economics students that barter was the foundation for an economy, it was just a hypothetical that we used to explain one reason why money is so useful.

I think what a lot of people confuse barter with credit, which is more plausible to have occured. If you give me 120 pizza rolls and soda pop today, I will write it down and give you 17 self portaits when you need them. We have been using language long before and a person's word and reputation has meant a lot for a long time. Great video! Hope you make many more

Cities and larger organisations started probably ca. between 10.000 and 5.00 years ago. So, the question is what happened at that age. In tribes it easy to imagine a gift economy. Tribes still exist today.

I spent 8 years in service of the Empire and I can tell you that $$ is fairly worthless to a soldier living out in the field. We certainly did not have a gift economy but a barter economy. Cigarettes, food, alcohol, playing cards, candles, soap, socks, and books were all bartered back and forth. Bartering happened organically and it was always present no matter where I was serving.

Hope you channel blows up my dude. This is fantastic.

I had a double take when I saw that - at the time of this comment - you have 141 subscribers! Like, what the hell. This exposition and editing is the level of channels far far more subbed than your own. I'm sure you're going to blow up very soon.

You have a point and that point can help illustrate how money came to be. Just because gifts and services were a major factor that doesn't mean barter wasn't also a factor, a big one at that. The Indian Trade is a good example of a mainly barter economy that also included gifts, favors and that huge driver of "commerce" - violence and theft. As with all things relating to economics, it's complicated, so I think that both saying it's a lie or that it's purely barter-based is false. Also, a gift economy can still end up being transactional. This is how you get "nice guys" who thought the gift of their niceness warranted an exchange of niceness. It can often lead to bitterness, as these gifts aren't always perceived as being of equal value. The worst experience with t|t for tat people is when they have little respect for others and think their, say, one good deed warrants five good deeds from others. Or the good deed in return is not up to par. Or a bad deed needs to be repaid - this is the "an eye for an eye" approach. Keeping score like that is a good way to conflict and bitterness. My solution in close relationships is to make that gift-giving a mode of being rather than transactional score card. It's the difference between Christianity and what proceeded it - do good things because they are good, not because you'll get a reward in this life. I agree with you on that people need to think less monetarily in their personal relationships.

Also ppl used some tipe of comodity as money,famos example is rice in Japan, or sea shells in the Pacific. Im disappointed that ppl in the comments seem to lump in exchange for good or services as barter but i see it more of a semantic issue, of how you define barter or how long does it take to be paid back.

The best analogy for how a gift economy works, is favours among friends.

I really like your angry attitude towards the end of the video lol, could you make one just with that kind of sentiment throughout?