The E wrote:DDHv wrote:Paper money isn't worth much, and digital is worth less. The only usefulness is that they can easily be traded for something with real value. When there is no intrinsic value, the trade value can drop to almost nothing at any time that people lose confidence in it
What, pray tell, is this "intrinsic value" you speak of?
Gold can be used for jewelry and some small industrial uses. Silver has many other industrial uses. Paper can be used to start a fire or to wipe things. Many goods that can be bartered have been used as money in the past. To some extent, any money is only worth what it can be traded for, but digital money has no other worth. We have a hobby of intensive gardening - if there is a major breakdown, people will still need to eat. It should be possible to barter food and/or training. At present, we can cut our grocery bills by a large percentage using this.
Intrinsic value is what XXX is worth when its use as currency is subtracted. Agreed, the intrinsic value is much smaller than the currency value, but for some things, the value cannot literally go to zero. Paper money can come pretty close, though
All from:
http://cfif.org/v/index.php/commentary/ ... y-obsolete
Most Americans living below the official poverty line today have central air-conditioning, cable television for multiple TV sets, own at least one motor vehicle, and have many other amenities that most of the human race never had for most of its existence.
Welfare state guarantees of not having to work, however the particular policies are applied, are not a solution. Relieving people of personal responsibility for their own lives, however it is done, is a major part of the problem.
In an entitlement context, all sorts of "gaps" and "disparities" automatically become "inequities," and a reason for lashing out at others, instead of improving yourself. Only in a society in which rewards are based on contributions is there any reasonable reply to the question as to why Bill Gates has so much and others so little.
For the first time in many decades, American average productivity has decreased. There is a limit to what can be done by "financial engineering" instead of real engineering. When people start thinking they are entitled to a good living, that they don't have a good living, and that they will do better by throwing public tantrums AKA riots, instead of becoming more valuable as producers . . .. Historically, this pattern doesn't turn out well. We are living in the present system, but assume there can be some really nasty black swan changes
So, we have a profitable hobby that can provide real intrinsic value in most situations. Provided we live through them, of course