Oh I see, thanks that's actually very interesting. I was not aware of that work and I sincerely appreciate you bringing that to my attention. I assume you watched my other First Principles of Money video, because in that video I discuss barter which I do not in this video. You are right that there is a good argument that what I say in that video is not maximally accurate, though it does appear that Graeber's point is also theory and not fact, but I agree it is a compelling argument. At the same time, I also think it might still be a heavily semantic argument. It is assuming a very narrow definition of barter that, now that I think about it, of course never happens in the real world. Of course people don't go, "You want a banana? GIVE ME SHOES NOW!" That being said, that may very well have been what I thought before your comment! Crazy how that works! I would agree, it is unlikely that people traded like that. However, it is fact that people naturally do favors for one another and there are societal mechanisms for punishing people who do not properly return favors. If I give you food, materials, clothing, and you never give back to me, tribes punish that kind of behavior. But that's just temporally asymmetric barter. I'm keeping track of the "stuff" you've given me, and I try to make sure I give you back stuff that is approximately equal in value to the stuff you gave me. If I fail I will be punished by my tribe. The reason for this is because it would be punishing the most productive members of the tribe (those who create and distribute the most valuable stuff).

All of that being said, this does not actually conflict with my core pre-existing beliefs especially with respect to the theory of money as a productivity point system. This is because in your own example you point out that "livestock and people" were used to keep track of value. In other words, people used "livestock and people" as money ... as a productivity point system. As you go on to point out, "The first money developed out of this." In other words, first we monetized livestock and people (we used them as a productivity point system) and that evolved into a more abstract but efficient mechanism for solving the same problem. This supports the arguments I made in this video, but agreed could be seen as conflicting with points I made in my previous video. I think this is actually a great example of how powerful first principles can be because in that video I got bogged down in specifics and technical details which increase the likelihood that I will be discussing something I do not have a strong grasp of (like the theories behind barter) and so are more likely to be inaccurate. I was never really happy with that video, which is why I did this one. I think you put this one to the test for sure, and I think it still holds up (you seem not to disagree with the conclusion after all). Thanks a lot for the info and the test!