Why is currency so essential? - Lemmy.World
Consider what we used as currency before it was currency. You would have to barter before, which was inefficient. Common currency saves you and everyone involved time. Instead of having to barter for every item, which would also require you to do carry all of those items, you can just pay with currency now.
We can think of it as a universal language for trading. It doesn’t matter what item you eventually want, you can trade money to get it.
Extropolating, want, or greed, is what gives money its value?
Want, greed, hunger, sickness, lust… nearly every flaw and benefit has been translatable to currency at some point in history. I feel like you’re focused on the negative but, for instance, take my partner - they suffer from hypermobility and would be unable to build their own home (most of us would be unable arguably) currency allows us to make an exchange at the the absurd levels of value that equal a house without needing to shuffle around herds of thousands of cattle.