Trading for things, giving gifts, doing favors for other people is better than buying things with cash. This is a very complicated argument, which I don't intend to tackle fully with this one blog, but the idea can be boiled down to something fairly simple. Cash removes any obligation between the two people who are exchanging things.
Instead of explaining why that is, think about the things that you own. Now think about the things you paid cash for (which may be everything that you own). But now try to think of something that you traded for, or something that you received as a gift. Think about how that impacted your relationships. Now think about how it would feel if everything you owned, including your house, was a part of a trade of some kind.
What if you had to borrow all of the tools to finish your basement? What if people traded their time to help you in the basement for a meal, or something else you gave them?
What if your lawn care was a trade?
What if your child care was a trade?
Cash makes our exchanges less personal, and therefore decreases our quality of life.
For me personally, there are very few things that I own that I traded for. I intend to change that in the future. I am actually going to look to trade things first, and resort to cash as a secondary option. It's a lot more of a hassle to be sure, but I think it might just be worth the hassle.
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