> Are we trying to create just a digital medium that promotes the same old selfinterest, or are we trying to create a new kind of system that transcends the individual?
So, currency is more than anything the medium that enables trade. Trade enables specialisation and cooperation on a massive scale. If the scope and benefit of global trade doesn't "transcend the individual", I struggle to think of anything that does.
The classic "I, Pencil" essay[1], while written even polemically in support of capitalism, also serves as a great example of the scale of human cooperation enabled by currency.
Yeah, trade transcends the individual, but profit based capitalism does not. If your utility function is profit, you will get egotistical behavior. What we should really try to maximize is the number of smiles in this world, because that, I think, is a better measure of the success of a society. We should really strive to feel better not to have more. Money is an instrument that favors egotistical thinking, counting what we have, but funny enough, we seem to feel better when we give more, not when we get more.
That makes no sense. Self interest is why it works.
Adam smith said it succinctly: "It is not from the benevolence of the butcher the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity, but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities, but of their advantages."
As for "maximising the number of smiles" and "strive to feel better, not to have more", there is research that suggests that the way to do that is to become richer:
So, currency is more than anything the medium that enables trade. Trade enables specialisation and cooperation on a massive scale. If the scope and benefit of global trade doesn't "transcend the individual", I struggle to think of anything that does.
The classic "I, Pencil" essay[1], while written even polemically in support of capitalism, also serves as a great example of the scale of human cooperation enabled by currency.
1: http://www.econlib.org/library/Essays/rdPncl1.html