Markets are not a human invention per se but an impenetrable fact of individualistic human psychology. Markets existed in ancient Rome, in Greece before then, in Indian civilizations farther back, all the way to the primitive civilizations in Africa. Markets existed in the Soviet Union, too, in spite of attempts to eradicate them. The point is that markets existed. They were simply not recognized. The market is a natural phenomena that will continue to arise as long as humans consider themselves seperately from each other and seek to bring about conditions that are favorable to them and those they care about.
Everything exists on a market. Everything has a price. It is not just the sword that bears a price, but the loyalty of the sword-carrier. Prices are not just monetary. A price can also be temporal or psychological, a price against one’s time or happiness. They can be against one’s reputation or power. They can be against one’s health. They can be against one’s charisma. Everything has a price, and everything with a price is dealt with in a market. When you look at the market as being the costs of everything it becomes a lot more obvious that the market isn’t zero-sum, particularly because some of these costs are not paid directly to the person being purchased from. I can sell my time for money by working, my health for money by being a medical test subject, my reputation for money (assuming I have enough reputation to sell, which I personally don’t) by joining advertisements, my charisma for money by public speaking, my power for money by being a politician. All of these transactions generally diminish the resource being utilized (although in some cases, such as medical test subject, politician, or public speaker, you’re not being paid for the loss but rather the risk that loss might occur). These things exist in the market and it is not the market that is new but the money and our study of economics.
Understanding that the market is ever-present and revolves around costs of every kind, around suppliers and demanders, we follow then that like all natural laws we cannot live in perpetual opposition to the market. We are not ants and cannot behave like them. Our diversion from the behaviour of ants – our individual differences and the resultantly different actions taken all throughout our lives – represent market forces. Those who do not value money have some other value which they seek to maximize in every transaction, and they live their lives accordingly.
The fact is that everyone seeks to maximize such values as they care about.