Bartering & Food Value

While in college I co-found an online bartering site.

It was simple. List services and good you would like to trade/sell.

You could make a Wishlist of what you want as well.

If you had something you wanted to get rid of, you could search the master Wishlist to find someone that wants your item. Once you find a person that wants your item, you could search what they have to offer and then make an offer.

Offers would go back and forth until they both agree. At that point it's up to them to exchange shipping info and to make the trade. Of course there was a rating system like ebay.

The site proved to be the right idea at the wrong time I guess.

What I learned about value through that process was interesting. Something of pure junk, can be worht a wh*** lot to someone else.

My friend used the site to trade up and up, like the game bigger and better. He started with a paper clip or something crazy like that, and ended up with a professional radio communication system. It took only 8 trades.

Gold has always been the "item" of value that man can compare value to. A new money system will require an "item" of value. It's interesting that gold, something that no one REALLY needs has always been the standard.

My idea: Exchange gold with something we all need... food staples.

If people's greed was to gain food instead of gold, what would happen?

I like to think that more people would try growing food in thier own back yard and use all the space possible to grow food. I like to think that food supply would increase in poor nations due to a focus on food technology and transportation. Of course it would be more green.

Now, gold is a solid that can last forever, and food only lasts a while, but that doesn't stop banana's from getting to your local store. So, if something spoils, then what happens to the value? The spoiles can be valued by what they offered decomposed as a fertilizer.

So, would you rather be paid in bananas at your next paycheck? Maybe so if you knew that bananas were of needed value, and that you could exchange it at a local food market for pretty much anything you want.

Our markets already track pricing on these things and a real-time value can be determined at almost anytime.

I'd also like to add that most people compare good tasting food 2nd to sex. So at the end of the day, I don't know why food isn't already what our economics are based on. In most countires, if you study the market, you would determine that the food already is the key to the economy. In America though, I'd say that our HUGE amount of wasted food is a key part of the economic issues we are having. Billions of dollars are actually thrown in the trash rather than eaten. Americans also eat food made in a lab (not fresh foods) which cause heath problems and causes billions in heath care costs.

My vote? Let's make food a focus of our economy again.