Bartering: The New Normal?


In dystopian movies, in the immediate aftermath of a crisis we usually see people bartering things: food for medicine, medicine for clothes, etc. Recently, I have been seeing barter/swap groups mushroom in Facebook and gain thousands of members in just a few days! Is the barter system making a comeback due to the pandemic?

According to the recent unemployment report of the Philippine Statistics Authority, unemployment has gone up by 17.7% which translates to 7.3 million Filipinos unemployed. If you live in the city with no job, it probably makes sense for you to barter a doodad (like a flat screen TV) for a basic necessity such as food.

The barter system is the most basic form of trading. In our history, we were taught that our ancestors bartered goods with other civilizations like the Chinese and Indian civilizations. Of course, once a culture becomes more prosperous and sophisticated, they start to use money.

So let's look at what barter trades looked like in the past few days.

Due to the restrictions imposed on public transportation, bicycles have been very popular in the past few months. It looks like a bicycle can be traded for kitchen appliances as well as laptops. Powdered milk is also a hot commodity and can be bartered for clothes and small kitchen appliances. A Spongebob stuffed toy can be bartered for teddy bears as well as imported ornamental fish. Meanwhile, a used guitar case can be bartered for 2 roast chickens and a second-hand bag can be bartered for cactus plants.

Obviously, people still look at the money value of the things they barter for. For example, you can't (yet) barter a kilogram of rice for a nice pair of second-hand shoes. Hopefully, things don't get that bad.

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