There's a certain allure there. Excess wealth could be redistributed, not funneled to a few or taken by one.

I'm sure those who hold most of the wealth in the U.S. will do just that. However, I'm not suggesting a shift, merely could our society benefit versus what we have.

Someday, when the machines have won, we will have no use for money.

Perhaps you are looking at it the wrong way. The only physical money I use currently is a few bucks to buy coffee. I do not carry any more than that, pay my bills from my bank's bill pay system...electronic money. So in a sense, I do live in moneyless (currency less) system with all my funds just existing as theoretic exchanges between my retirement income sources, the bank, and my payees.

True, but it's a shame.

Maybe

How about if we're all paid the same? Calculate the cost of living and pay people that, plus some more for recreation. Imagine if the surgeon and the nurse were paid the same, we would have people doing the job they loved and were suitable for. There would be no stigma attached to manual labour. What's wrong with making a career out of flipping burgers if you're happy doing that? I can tell you from personal experience that working in a warehouse or factory is so much fun and stress free, on the other hand working in programming can be very creative. We would all be free to pursue our happiness. And best of all we wouldn't be slaves to the financial system. I'd love it. After we die, our assets would be transferred to the common pot, no inherited wealth.

@smoyle I like your positivity but if everyone was paid the same, who would take on the really stressful and difficult jobs? The idea of having no inherited wealth is interesting. We would all be a lot better off if fortunes went to the public coffers rather than trust funds for spoiled brats who never worked a day in their lives.

no, they haven't got trust yet and that's what money is about. money in paper form was basically an I.O.U when they couldn't strike many coins made of silver. id much rather interact with trusting humans by swapping skills or my own goods. I think it used to be called socialising. a dollar used to actually be worth a dollar back in the day but people were nipping bits off of the sides and it took a long time to make. it used to be a capital offence to nip silver off of the edges. the patterned edge was invented so it was not easy to take a little.

@RoboGraham I hear what you're saying but I believe there are people who enjoy that life, being in charge, making the decisions, designing the solutions etc and actually thrive on the stress and thrill that goes with it.

@smoyle To add to what @RoboGraham said. Jobs like doctors and lawyers also take intelligence and lots of expensive training. Who would clean the sewers? A universal basic income I could get behind. No extra pay for skilled and dangerous jobs, it's never going to fly. Limiting CEO pay and the amount that can be inherited is fine too.

The real problem is power and corruption, not money itself.

@shockwaverider Valid points for sure, there would be things to overcome. Perhaps reduced working hours for undesirable jobs. Free training would be prioritised for those with aptitude maybe. Obviously we would be talking about a completely different world here, would all houses need to be the same value based on number of bedrooms instead of location and square footage? It would need a society reboot to take effect.

@smoyle interesting concept. With some tweaking, it might work

@RoboGraham Some take on stressful and difficult jobs because of personal values, others for the power. If we removed the power, it could clear up a myriad of problems that result from abuse of power.

@smoyle I agree, it's the challenge some people enjoy

@smoyle perhaps we need a societal reboot

@EllenDale yes x1,000,000. And while we're at it, can we make sure society stops equating a person's worth with the job they do? One of the most intelligent people I've ever met works as a cleaner, one of the most stupid I've ever met is a fully qualified lawyer.

@EllenDale Revolution!

@Jnei I too know some stupid lawyers! Lol. I dated a pre-law/pre-med drop-out who worked in a saw mill for 7 years. Conversations were excellent but he wasn't stressed out by his job ( and He smelled great!).

@EllenDale I could imagine he wood (see what I did there? ) - I love the smell of freshly-cut wood, wood shavings and suchlike.

@Jnei I love word play and puns! Thanks for the chuckle. I love that smell too. Plus hed been sweating all day, and I loved that smell.

A lot of the stressful jobs could be split up too, I know someone who does about 3 jobs really. It would be much better for his health and family if he worked less and still had enough to provide for himself and his family.

@girlwithsmiles I think we'll see more of that in a variety of jobs in the very near future as more and more menial jobs start to be carried out by robots and artificial intelligence. There's already too few jobs to go round (I can't recall what the UK Government's definition of "full employment" is, but it's considerably less than "all adults of working age who can work" ), so I think probably within twenty years it's going to become necessary to split more jobs into part-time employment with a guaranteed basic or citizen's income provided to all regardless of whether the recipient is working or not.

@Jnei If only...

Don't sell yourself short. It may fund enough to brag about ?

If it works...socialized democracy is not a horrible concept

with coffee

@Hellbent Just another way to say enema. My gram used to say that all the time.

@silverotter11 You know, I almost said a "coffee enema", but then I thought of my gram and decided to go with "high colonic".