We don’t pay to live. We work to live and so does every other animal. A lion hunts for food. A Beaver builds it’s dam for shelter.
Humans have figured out that if you specialize in a single activity, and do it better than anyone else, people will trade you for that skill.
For instance one person is a really good house builder and another can grow more food on a plot of land than anyone else. They trade building a house for food or vice versa.
At some point we invented money to represent the value of our work. So now we don’t have to build a house for someone that doesn’t need it but just pay them with dollars. This makes everyone’s value more easily transferable. You don’t need to find someone with excess of what you need and just happens to need the thing your providing.
Even without money, you would be hunting, gathering and building in a state of nature. Money and or paying just makes things easier.
TheEdExperience t1_j687way wrote
Reply to ELI5: Why are we the only species that has to pay to live. I mean we also have to pay to keep other animals alive. by Pretty-Membership430
We don’t pay to live. We work to live and so does every other animal. A lion hunts for food. A Beaver builds it’s dam for shelter.
Humans have figured out that if you specialize in a single activity, and do it better than anyone else, people will trade you for that skill.
For instance one person is a really good house builder and another can grow more food on a plot of land than anyone else. They trade building a house for food or vice versa.
At some point we invented money to represent the value of our work. So now we don’t have to build a house for someone that doesn’t need it but just pay them with dollars. This makes everyone’s value more easily transferable. You don’t need to find someone with excess of what you need and just happens to need the thing your providing.
Even without money, you would be hunting, gathering and building in a state of nature. Money and or paying just makes things easier.