[milk and honey]

Originally Posted by historycircus

I would just like to add one more thing - if it was not made clear in my earlier posts.

The trade in gold and silver, as we do it, is really no different - in principle - than the exchange of paper. Gold or paper - its all the same. It is an exchange item; it is an avenue to accumulating wealth. [...]

Currency - whether it is paper, gold, or energy itself - must be exchanged fairly, and not without profit. When exchanges are anything but equal, someone suffers; anyone who trades anything with the express goal of profit, they are siphoning the energy of their fellow men and women.

Trying to understand a seeming contradiction here...

You wrote: "Currency - ... - must be exchanged fairly, and not without profit"

Agreed. If you're selling an item or service without profit (ie, profit = excess income above outgoing cost) then there is no money for you to spend on yourself and thus, in a currency exchange system, your own needs are not being met without profit. So you need it.

Later in the paragraph you seem to be saying (to paraphrase) that "trading with the express goal of profit is merely siphoning the energy of one's fellows"

Are you trying only to treat the question of motive here? If so it's a bit confusing. If you were i'd just say that when turning over goods for sale an "express goal of profit" is not mutually exclusive to a sevice ethic. In a currency exchange system profit is included in one's goals. Otherwise you're working for nothing and have nothing to spend.

You must be talking about pure barter. But even then different goods and services have different values in consideration of how much work is involved in producing it..... mental and or physical.... Each has value.