yeah yeah, major slide, but…….
NEED is actual a bad attribute. one of the criteria of money is that in must be a store of value. an in demand commodity will fluctuate in value based on people's NEED verses the current supply
economic systems exist at various levels. barter is about as low on the scale as it gets-mad max time. a higher level system if trade requires a higher level system of trade, ie, the use of stand ins.
how many chickens and goats would be required to pay to have a modern house built? a highway? a jet aircraft? and how does an employer stockpile thousands of creatures, or tons of wheat to make weekly payroll? what of the creatures that get sick and die? or food rots? gasoline goes bad? who takes that loss? what if one worker gets paid a fat chicken, but another gets a skinny one? the item of barter must be uniform, as well as divisible.
thats where "money" comes in.
uniform, divisible, store of value.
goods for barter are important for SHTF, but thats assuming an all out collapse. what about 1930's depression instead? how about Argentina ? who could flee Zimbabwe with their "wealth" of ten thousand cows?
the "fall" of rome was a disaster and is the "gold" standard for prepping, but it only applied to the Western part of the empire. The Eastern part continued on. And actual physical gold was very valuable to all of the people who had the means to escape rome and get there. while europe was bartering away in the dark ages, the Byzantine empire partied on with running water, feather beds, fine linen clothing, art, medicine, and science for another thousand years.
I am not a gold bug, but recognize it has a very special and powerful role it can play. certainly better than untethered central banker fiat, or trying to buy a car with a hundred goats, or does 4 goats equal a cow? how about 6 sick goats to the cow? hard to keep those things straight