"Society without money"? I'm trying to think if I've seen a fictional representation, though don't doubt they're out there. Of those out there, which one's the most convincing in what such a society would look like?
Good question. A lot of far-future sf has some kind of post-scarcity society (Banks' Culture, Delaney's Dhalgren, LeGuin's The Dispossessed, etc.). There are probably some fantasy examples too. People being people, though, I'd think we always find a way to arrange ourselves in a hierarchy. Money's just one way of doing it. Says the cynic ;).
Of course, there's also society BEFORE money. I think it was in Jared Diamond's GG&S that civilization levels 1 and 2 were explained, both without money, just a little more hierarchy showing itself in the latter, but still different enough to earn itself its own level.
"Society without money"? I'm trying to think if I've seen a fictional representation, though don't doubt they're out there. Of those out there, which one's the most convincing in what such a society would look like?
Good question. A lot of far-future sf has some kind of post-scarcity society (Banks' Culture, Delaney's Dhalgren, LeGuin's The Dispossessed, etc.). There are probably some fantasy examples too. People being people, though, I'd think we always find a way to arrange ourselves in a hierarchy. Money's just one way of doing it. Says the cynic ;).
Of course, there's also society BEFORE money. I think it was in Jared Diamond's GG&S that civilization levels 1 and 2 were explained, both without money, just a little more hierarchy showing itself in the latter, but still different enough to earn itself its own level.