It is Thanksgiving. Mum has slaved over a hot stove all day to produce the turkey for everyone and, at the end of the day, it is expected that each ‘recipient’ of her ‘gift’ will help with the washing up. One family member declares that he will not be participating in the clean up and asks: “How much should I pay you to get out of my washing up duties?” The answer, most probably, is: “Get lost!” I use this example to illustrate that it is perfectly possible to be utterly familiar with money, to use it all the time, but to refrain basing decisions on what to produce and for whom exclusively on monetary transactions. Indeed, my argument above has been that civilisation was built on a division of labour that had little to do with pure exchanges. It is only in the past two or three centuries that impersonal pure exchanges have taken over.
— TO TRUCK, BARTER AND EXCHANGE? On the nature of our digital economies | Valve
