"Indigenous peoples lived in a communal system that was based on reciprocity — everyone sharing what they had and everyone taking care of everyone else. There was no hoarding, thus no one in the tribe ever went without and and all prospered equally. Food brought back by the hunters was for the whole tribe. If one hunter was particularly skilled or successful, there was no concept of keeping more for himself as a result. Instead, he was given a place of honor in the tribe.
Since there was no perception of scarcity, except what the whole tribe experienced, there was no need for excessive accumulation of personal holdings. The tribes knew what they needed to do to sustain themselves sufficiently. Most had learned that sharing and transferring increased the value of what was given, and accumulation beyond the point of enough actually stopped the flow of resources."
Ever since the crash several years ago, Americans have felt precarious about the nation's economy and the value of its currency. Money seems to take inconceivable, abstract, and even magical forms, traveling around the world at lightning speed with little oversight and obvious mismanagement. more...
