do we really need a money system?

[Spike89]

137. What everyone needs, maybe never all they want

The problem is that there will always be scarcity of something and that will prompt economic activity (i.e., some form of money). I will concede that eventually even the most intractable drudgery jobs will be automated and basics such as food, and even clothing will be essentially free. However, we will never be able to provide everyone (or even most people) everything they want.

There are and always will be limits (scarcity) on some things. Space is the obvious one. Living space, farm land, recreational, commercial/utilitarian, etc. are all pretty much finite. Does everyone get a certain allotment of land for living? Who gets the best places? Someone needs to live by the sewage treatment plant, a highway, etc. and someone else gets to live by the river/on the hill, near the orchards etc.

There will never be infinite levels of everything and people will always attach value and compete for limited things. Already we can produce near flawless reproductions of art, but the originals maintain or even increase in value the more they are reproduced. Gold isn't inherently better or more useful than iron--it is simply rare. If those two metals were distributed in inverse amounts over the earth, Ft. Knox would have been full of iron bars and our landfills would be full of glittering gold scrap.

People compete. We can try and regulate that competition to make it more fair to adjust what "wins" (we call that civilization), but you can't stop the competition. When you make "everything free" you're still left with people competing against and for each other. There is nothing more scarce than the partner you want.