Working for a salary is also fundamentally a form of trade. In my case, I trade my time and expertise in writing software, and my company pays me.
Purchasing items is also trade—I trade the money I earned to buy goods and services from others.
To completely eliminate trade, I think people would need to be able to magically wish anything they desire into existence. (If you’ve watched The Good Place, I’m imagining something like what Janet is capable of.)
At that point, scarcity no longer exists. And since the main point of economics is to solve problems of scarcity, economics doesn’t have much purpose either.
Working for a salary is also fundamentally a form of trade. In my case, I trade my time and expertise in writing software, and my company pays me.
Purchasing items is also trade—I trade the money I earned to buy goods and services from others.
To completely eliminate trade, I think people would need to be able to magically wish anything they desire into existence. (If you’ve watched The Good Place, I’m imagining something like what Janet is capable of.)
At that point, scarcity no longer exists. And since the main point of economics is to solve problems of scarcity, economics doesn’t have much purpose either.