Ask Lemmy
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com.
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
view the rest of the comments
Wait, so like a barter? I'd work for an hour and get a slice instead of the hour's wage?
That sounds amazing. I'm sure there are still places like that but with so much red tape nowadays I'm sure someone would.. I don't know.. "get in trouble"? For what, I don't know, but I'm sure it involves a straw man.
I want pizza.
The answer is yes. Before the 1990s, there were was a lot of casual business. My San Francisco residence was rented to my flatmate entirely on a verbal contract (which created problems in the aughts, when utility companies were modernizing their service). This kind of casual business works well when everyone is friendly or acting in good faith, but it leaves fewer protections from fraud.
In rural parts of the US, there were regions in which there was little enough cash flow that barter was routine. And then farms often would have enough extra produce they would look for neighbors to give food to, rather than dumping it.
I'd say we'd have organized crime to thank for the necessity of making transactions a lot more secure and a lot less anonymous, but that's really only the justification. It's law enforcement that has turned to the same rackets that were the purview of mobsters. Not only are grocers no longer able to give away one-day expired food to homeless and impoverished folk, but kids risk legal trouble just by running a lemonade stand on a hot day.
Thank you for sharing your experience and insights!