anarchist intimidates the police

[reverendjeremiah]

Sorry rev, I often find your opinions insightful,

Oh crap...you're getting behind me

but going back to the barter system? Are you insane?

..and there is the knife in my back. So now my mental health is in question because I suggest that barter is ONE of MANY systems that Syndicalism can use? I think that I am fully justified in asking you not to act like an asshole over this conversation.

The reason we invented "money" in the first place was to save on the long chains of bartering that often emerge as a result.

"we" didnt invent money. I had nothing to do with it. Which money do you talk of? I talk of fiat money which I dispise. Commodity money is a bit better. Syndicalism is open to all forms of trade and currency, unlike our current fiat system in which the vast majority of transactions MUST be handled through the dollar. Some syndicates may ban all types of money, some may use it. When they do use money usury is outlawed and everyone makes the same amount per week.

For instance, if I have "3 bushels of corn" as you put it, and want to get a haircut, I have to either (a) find a hairdresser willing to exchange a haircut for my 3 bushels of corn, or (b) have to exchange my corn for something that a hairdresser wants.

..and if the situation you speak of was actual then I would say you need to get your ass out and work some more if all you have is 3 bushels of corn. Dont try to squeeze this economic discussion into a bottleneck, as the scenereo you describe is completely unrealistic. When syndicalism was in full swing in Spain, the hair dressers were running day and night. The entire town chipped in to help keep them fed and happy. This is documented from people who actually lived during the anarcho-syndicate of Spain, and I would be more than happy to show you the evidence. Either way you are dead wrong.

This "exchanging" might not be that simple; I might find a hairdresser who wants a loaf of bread, but the baker doesn't want my corn, and instead wants a bunch of flowers...etc, etc, etc.

A baker who doesnt want corn? Why would a baker want a bunch of flowers? Either way, you are arguing from ignorance as this system DID work well for 3 straight years in Spain and it took the combined forces of Franco AND Hitler to tear it down even with the anarcho-syndicates millitary forces being completely voluntary.

The whole purpose of money was to save time; to assign each item a specific value in monetary terms,

Save time? Maybe. Assign specific value? WRONG. Many prices for goods are set for what the company would like to make, especially with the greatest profit margin as possible to supply the top one percent of the companies work force with riches beyond what the people who actually create the profit and product get. Sometimes a company has to take a loss for a while just to stay afloat and lower their prices. No, it isnt used to assign specific value. Just value of the moment, which sometimes can be hagled down. You make it sound as if value is something etched in stone. In reality it is merely an ideal, prone to change at the whims and needs of the fickle public.

and use money as a method of bartering instead. Seriously, you don't need to get rid of money to have socialism, and getting rid of money won't stop capitalism either.

I never once said that all syndicates would abolish money. I PERSONALLY would like money abolished, but some syndicates would allow it. It's not my fault that you do not understand syndicalism, nor am I required to give you a lesson on it. You have Google just like I do, and nothing is stopping you from educating yourself on the subject before you come in calling people insane, then ranting on and on about something you obviously have no idea what it is about.

Capitalism is the private ownership of the means of production; creation of goods / services for profit. Charging someone more than a product is worth works with or without money.

..and fiat money locks people into no other choice than accepting the system it is attached to...usury. Fiat systems lock the vast majority of people into a debt treadmill, all the while forcing them to use a medium of currency that is ultimately worthless. So, when everything is fucked up in the end, the people at the top of the pyramid are still better off and those at the bottom become actually worse.

Most, if not all syndicates look down upon profit making as fucking over your neighbor. Profit (monetary) is nothing more than taking more than your share, wether it be legal or illegal. You can disagree with me all you want, but if you look at the world through the eyes of someone seeking profit you obviously only care about making yourself better on the backs or the misery of others. they even define profit as "opportunity costs"

Opportunity cost is the cost of any activity measured in terms of the value of the best alternative that is not chosen (that is foregone). It is the sacrifice related to the second best choice available to someone, or group, who has picked among several mutually exclusive choices.

In other words, profit is clearly fucking someone over... causing the other to sacrifice.

THIS is the problem. THIS is why America and the rest of the world economy is all fucked up right now...profit.