Memes of Production

you can make shoes so you make people shoes

Here's a hypothetical:

I'm in a feud with the person who runs the pasture land. He won't kill his cattle/sheep if it's to provide leather for my shoes. Everyone else likes him and his milk and they tell me to bury the hatchet.

But he insists on ever thicker and higher quality boots because the pasture he "works" is so overgrown and muddy from poor maintenence. This cuts into my ability to supply quality shoes for everyone else so I can't do it.

Of course, I stutter and don't do well with public speaking but he has a silver tongue. I can't even lay out half the facts before he's convinced the town that I'm a lazy parasite and a bad shoemaker; I'm exiled. I will now die starving and alone. The town will waste time and energy wearing through low quality woven shoes, content with the thought that they're not wasting milk cows on that shitty cobbler.

If there was a market/bartering economy:

• I probably never have to interact directly with the herdsman
• The value of shoes would counterbalance the lazy herdsman, forcing him to properly maintain his field or go shoeless
• I'm not punished for my poor social skills and the herdsman is not rewarded for his. The value of our labor is insulated from our social ability, allowing for a less biased assessment of our goods and services.