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by jowdones 706 days ago
I'm surprised you're surprised. I guess people from countries with fully functional monetary systems don't have an intuitive view how things work where money are essentially worthless. Most communist countries were like this during the centralized and hence highly disfunctional economy. You were paid a wage but essentially could shove it up your ass coze there was little to nothing to buy with it. Which made barter the only viable alternative. And you know what works best for barter? Non-fungible goods: alcohol, cigarettes and coffee. You can store them for years and still be good.

Those bottles of whiskey/whisky were NEVER drank, I bet you. They effectively circulate as currency, the only one that actually buys you things in a disfunctional economy: a visit to the doctor, exams, favors or just goods that theoretically can be bought with money but are not in stock. Suddenly found in stock for a bottle of whiskey.

1 comments

> Non-fungible goods: alcohol, cigarettes and coffee.

Aren’t all of these fungible?

Less fungible