A wish coincidence is when two parties exchange goods or services to satisfy each other’s wishes without using money. This approach is limited and requires specific circumstances, but it can be mutually beneficial. Examples include a tenant painting an apartment in exchange for rent and a courier service offering free deliveries in exchange for necessary goods. This type of exchange is different from typical business transactions as it requires specific circumstances to occur.
Sometimes referred to as a double coincidence, a wish coincidence is a situation where two parties agree to exchange services or goods other than money in order to satisfy a wish that each party currently has. This medium of exchange is usually limited in scope and will likely require certain factors, such as time and location, to coincide for each party to derive satisfaction from the exchange. Despite limitations, this approach is often used in various settings for the mutual benefit of both parties involved.
An easy way to understand how a coincidence of desires can occur is to consider a tenant who has lost his job and cannot pay rent. The landlord currently has a few empty apartments that need to be painted before listing the units to new tenants. Assuming the jobless tenant has the necessary skills to paint these apartments, the two parties can come to an agreement where the landlord provides the paint and other supplies, and the tenant provides the labor. In exchange for the tenant’s efforts, the landlord agrees to accept this work as payment for the month’s rent. As a result, the landlord saves money on the paint job and the unemployed tenant can stay another month, securing a job before the rent is due again.
This same general concept of coincidence of desires can be applied in several scenarios. A courier service may offer a certain amount of free deliveries to a supplier in exchange for providing goods or services necessary for the continued operation of that service. A baker might offer a vegetable stall owner cakes in exchange for a fair amount of tomatoes. A plumber who needs a car tune-up might agree to trade services with a mechanic who has a clogged drain. In all of these scenarios, each party has a wish that must be fulfilled, and each party has the means to fulfill the other party’s wish.
The circumstances that come together to create a coincidence of desires place this type of exchange outside of typical business transactions where money can be used to complete these transactions. In theory, money can be used as a medium of exchange at any time. On the other hand, specific circumstances of time, place, and event must come together for a coincidence of desires to occur. There is usually only a limited amount of time that the exchange or exchange can take place before one or both parties determine that the desire can be met by other means and that the interest in working together to satisfy those desires has passed.
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