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   Ghost of Hope (grayface_ghost@tech.lgbt)'s status on Monday, 19-Jun-2023 09:03:36 JST Ghost of Hope

   Look, I'm a physicist by training, a programmer by trade, and an esoteric priest in my spare time.

   I'm not an economist.

   As far as I can tell though, our economic system is based on the belief that money is a finite resource.

   The value of money though is confidence. It has no physical existence, it's a virtual or magickal substance that's only peripherally related to human well-being (which should be the only measure of wealth although I'll accept forms of wider universal well-being) and even less related to economic activity. Economic collapses don't occur because countries run out of money! They occur because the rich lose confidence that the money they have is real, and that makes the money worth less or even worthless. The lack of confidence blocks the working of the magick.

   If more people understood this, there'd be less resistance to the idea of governments creating money in order to fund infrastructure projects.

   • Embed this notice
     ?? Humpleupagus ?? (humpleupagus@eveningzoo.club)'s status on Monday, 19-Jun-2023 09:03:35 JST ?? Humpleupagus ??

     in reply to
     Money is just a commodity like cans of beans. Money is only used as a primary means of trade because the other means were taxed out of existence by western governments to allow for the rule of the central bankers.
     
     For example, before private bank notes and barter transactions were taxed, most people traded in private bank notes, mixed metals, furs, beads, etc. Central bank / government currencies were rarely used. That you focus on central bank money as a trading medium better reflects your knowledge of history than economics.
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     Ghost of Hope (grayface_ghost@tech.lgbt)'s status on Monday, 19-Jun-2023 09:03:36 JST Ghost of Hope

     in reply to

     Infrastructure projects provide jobs and income for the workers (well-being growth). They enable economic activity providing jobs and income more widely (well-being growth). The cost of creating the money to pay for it is... nothing.

     Nothing, as long as people understand that nobody lost out. People will talk about inflation and devaluation at this point, but this happens because confidence is lost. And that's all.

     I've yet to find someone who can explain to me why this isn't so. The devaluation thing only happens because those who hoard wealth in a particular currency fear that they'll not be able to exchange it as beneficially in another currency.

     But there should be no need to. If money was understood.

   • Embed this notice
     dew_the_dew (dew_the_dew@nicecrew.digital)'s status on Monday, 19-Jun-2023 09:11:50 JST dew_the_dew

     in reply to

     • ?? Humpleupagus ??
     this is pretty much it. it exists to be taxable. it has value because you have to use it to pay your taxes.
   • Embed this notice
     ?? Humpleupagus ?? (humpleupagus@eveningzoo.club)'s status on Monday, 19-Jun-2023 09:11:50 JST ?? Humpleupagus ??

     in reply to

     • dew_the_dew
     Yup. You can't pay tax in kind, and the income tax basically forced the common person to pretty much exclusively trade in it. Without the income tax, barter would be far more common.
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     ?? Humpleupagus ?? (humpleupagus@eveningzoo.club)'s status on Monday, 19-Jun-2023 09:40:41 JST ?? Humpleupagus ??

     in reply to

     • dew_the_dew
     And they only look for solutions within the current system. You have to lower interest rate, or increase consumer confidence, etc.
   • Embed this notice
     dew_the_dew (dew_the_dew@nicecrew.digital)'s status on Monday, 19-Jun-2023 09:40:42 JST dew_the_dew

     in reply to

     • ?? Humpleupagus ??
     • dew_the_dew
     also it's the property tax that is probably the biggest hammer from the state. you need to earn dollars or say goodbye to all your house and land.
   • Embed this notice
     dew_the_dew (dew_the_dew@nicecrew.digital)'s status on Monday, 19-Jun-2023 09:40:42 JST dew_the_dew

     in reply to

     • ?? Humpleupagus ??
     • dew_the_dew
     then i guess at a certain point it just became convenient and then people forgot that it was ever done any other way.
   • Embed this notice
     dew_the_dew (dew_the_dew@nicecrew.digital)'s status on Monday, 19-Jun-2023 09:40:43 JST dew_the_dew

     in reply to

     • ?? Humpleupagus ??
     this is actually pretty much the basis for modern monetary theory.
   • Embed this notice
     ?? Humpleupagus ?? (humpleupagus@eveningzoo.club)'s status on Monday, 19-Jun-2023 10:01:44 JST ?? Humpleupagus ??

     in reply to

     • dew_the_dew
     • Christmas Man
     I think it's more like "if we have a fiat currency, we can choose who eats and who doesn't through a combination of taxes and government largess. We will always eat."
   • Embed this notice
     dew_the_dew (dew_the_dew@nicecrew.digital)'s status on Monday, 19-Jun-2023 10:01:45 JST dew_the_dew

     in reply to

     • ?? Humpleupagus ??
     • Christmas Man
     the issue is that demand is hypothetically infinite while supply always has a hard limit.
   • Embed this notice
     Christmas Man (christmas_man@thebag.social)'s status on Monday, 19-Jun-2023 10:01:45 JST Christmas Man

     in reply to

     • ?? Humpleupagus ??
     • dew_the_dew
     "If we use this fiat currency and people continue to think it has value, then theoretically we have infinite supply to meet the demand! It's simple, just print more money!"
     -Weimar Republic economists, probably
   • Embed this notice
     Christmas Man (christmas_man@thebag.social)'s status on Monday, 19-Jun-2023 10:01:46 JST Christmas Man

     in reply to

     • ?? Humpleupagus ??
     • dew_the_dew
     Keynesians don't care about real world results (mostly because they live in a fantasy world where supply and demand are whatever they say it is)