If you believe in the concept of the "Universal Morality", you must be able
to determine if agreements between individuals and groups are being
forced, or if they are voluntarily agreed upon.
Agreements that are physically forced would obviously be immoral. Less
obviously, agreements secured by lies, cheating, obfuscation, duress, etc.,
would be equally immoral, even though physical force was not used.
But, even if you do not accept immoral agreements, you still need a method
to measure and evaluate agreements that were made mutually, voluntarily,
and morally, between individuals and groups.
Humanity has come a long way since the days of "bartering" services.
Modern society relies on currency and law to regulate relations between
competing, and often conflicting, interests.
If you accept that each individual has the freedom to put a value on their own time
and labor, then, money is one way (not the only way), by which we value our
time and labor. A system of currency aids both individuals and groups in evaluating
decisions they make.
Without the freedom to value our time and labor, we are all slaves. With this
freedom, each of us becomes an agent in control of our own life. One may wonder
IF some individuals are worth what they are paid, but, if no one was FORCED to
pay them, then, obviously, enough others DID think they were worth it.
If an individual has the freedom to own property, then money is the medium
by which we value it, sell it, and buy it. Without this freedom, we are all
serfs, existing at the behest of those politicians that would assign us our living
quarters and possessions.
And, if individuals and groups have the freedom to make agreements and
decisions amongst each other, then contract law is how we enforce those
agreements. Without this freedom, we are all peons, endowing politicians
the political power to decide our conflicts for us...and opening the door to
cronyism and, eventually, to tyranny.
Systems of currency, property rights, and contract law are all intrinsic to human
freedom. To think otherwise is to endanger human liberty.
