Ob's and the Great Explosion

[Caleb]

Ok, I looked over the book. To be honest, I skipped past most of the first three planets, as it was pretty obvious that these planets weren't the ones under consideration...

So here's my take on it:  you've got these guys trading "obs" back and forth instead of dollars. But, while everybody needs food, (so the farmer would be ok), not everybody needs more specialized skills. So they get around this by trading "obs", they keep track. Sally owes Bob an "ob", but Jim owes Sally an "ob", so Sally gives Jim's ob to Bob... do you see where I'm going with this? To keep track of it all, the main consideration is that everybody needs to know everybody in the community.

But if everybody knows everybody else, then why do you need the complex "ob" system in the first place? It seems to me that in a small community, "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need" does work, with those who won't give according to their ability getting the cold shoulder and finding it increasingly difficult to find people who are willing to give to their need. In this case, I don't think that total ostracism would ever occur. You start getting 30 or 40% of people who won't provide anything for you, plus a kindly older figure who still sets a plate before you but also gives you a little grandfatherly advice that you better shape up a little and pull your weight or things are going to get even worse ... it seems to me that there doesn't need to be any quantifying it. The whole "ob" system is just a fancy way of making sure that everyone is pulling their weight, but in a small community where everyone knows each other, everyone knows if someone isn't pulling their weight anyway.