Ya I was thinking that too. We've been watching The Last Kingdom and Vikings (set around 800 AD), and the main thing that's changed today vs then is that they had little mechanization or automation, so everything was made by hand. A suit of armor required so much time to make that it took a lifetime to acquire one.
Contrast that with today, where we can buy computers for $1000 that took millions of worker-hours to design and build. So in away, our $15 is worth something like $15,000 to them. Or more precisely, their day's work on the farm would produce 1/1000 of today's wages, maybe 30 cents or something comparable. Enough to buy some eggs or beer if they were lucky.
What gets me though is that most of us have a quality of life higher than royalty enjoyed then. Yet most of us spend our entire lives underemployed, doing work of little importance, still making someone else rich. The sacrifice of our daily life should cost us 1/1000 what it did then, but it still costs us the same. What good is more buying power if you hate your job, today is the worst day of your life, and tomorrow will be even worse? But hey, at least you have a flat screen.
I think that's why the concept of barter can feel attractive, because if everyone has a relatively comparable work output, then an hour spent doing something we enjoy (say baking or whatnot) can be exchanged for something we might find miserable but someone else might enjoy (like giving a massage). Whereas with cash, an hour baking might be worth $7, but an hour massage is worth $60.
The divergence between the free market value of something, and its toll in human suffering, is the primary cause of most conflict in the world today IMHO. That gap is why some of us are punished so much more for the work we do, and why so many of us don't get to do the work we'd like to do. We all just run the rat race and compete with the joneses until we're put out to pasture. I've found no solution to this yet in my own life, so I'm curious to hear others' experiences.
Check out https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ for one possible alternative that is working for a lot of people that live in the US. The FIRE movement is about working for a short amount of time and living frugally but well for the whole of your life. You have to give up keeping up with the Joneses and most people will think you are a bit weird, but many people feel that is a great trade.
Contrast that with today, where we can buy computers for $1000 that took millions of worker-hours to design and build. So in away, our $15 is worth something like $15,000 to them. Or more precisely, their day's work on the farm would produce 1/1000 of today's wages, maybe 30 cents or something comparable. Enough to buy some eggs or beer if they were lucky.
What gets me though is that most of us have a quality of life higher than royalty enjoyed then. Yet most of us spend our entire lives underemployed, doing work of little importance, still making someone else rich. The sacrifice of our daily life should cost us 1/1000 what it did then, but it still costs us the same. What good is more buying power if you hate your job, today is the worst day of your life, and tomorrow will be even worse? But hey, at least you have a flat screen.
I think that's why the concept of barter can feel attractive, because if everyone has a relatively comparable work output, then an hour spent doing something we enjoy (say baking or whatnot) can be exchanged for something we might find miserable but someone else might enjoy (like giving a massage). Whereas with cash, an hour baking might be worth $7, but an hour massage is worth $60.
The divergence between the free market value of something, and its toll in human suffering, is the primary cause of most conflict in the world today IMHO. That gap is why some of us are punished so much more for the work we do, and why so many of us don't get to do the work we'd like to do. We all just run the rat race and compete with the joneses until we're put out to pasture. I've found no solution to this yet in my own life, so I'm curious to hear others' experiences.