[ExI] undercover at Walmart

Rafal Smigrodzki rafal.smigrodzki at gmail.com
Mon Feb 23 18:54:57 UTC 2009


On Mon, Feb 23, 2009 at 6:36 AM, Stathis Papaioannou <stathisp at gmail.com> wrote:
> 2009/2/23 Rafal Smigrodzki <rafal.smigrodzki at gmail.com>:
>
>>> In theory a nation of
>>> complete slackers could have a high per capita PPP GDP and hence a
>>> high implied productivity, as long as the exporters are happy to take
>>> the money they print.
>>
>> ### In whose theory? Most people, including the Chinese, are not
>> sufficiently stupid to take worthless paper from slackers, therefore
>> in theory and in practice if somebody takes somebody else's money it's
>> because both have something useful for each other to trade.
>
> That's right, but all the trading partners have to do is believe that
> they will ultimately get something useful for their IOU's. If they
> believe that then the slackers can claim to be very productive. They
> would say that they do idleness (or substitute something else, like
> belly-button fluff removal) better than everyone else, and therefore
> there would be an opportunity cost if they engaged in more pedestrian
> work like their neighbours. This would be fine until the trading
> partners got nervous about their accumulating reserves of the
> slackers' currency and decided to demand real assets, such as property
> or gold, for the IOU's. In that case it becomes clear that although
> the slackers thought they were buying stuff with income, they were in
> fact spending their capital.

### Stat, do you really believe what you wrote? That the 4 billion
people who are involved in global trade would willingly subsidize the
equivalent of belly-button fluff removal over the period of many
decades in the hope of getting back some gold?

Rafal



>
>
>
> --
> Stathis Papaioannou
>



-- 
Rafal Smigrodzki, MD-PhD
Chief Clinical Officer,
Gencia Corporation
706 B Forest St.

Charlottesville, VA 22903

tel: (434) 295-4800

fax: (434) 295-4951



This electronic message transmission contains information from the
biotechnology firm of Gencia Corporation which may be confidential or
privileged. The information is intended to be for the use of the
individual or entity named above. If you are not the intended
recipient, be aware that any disclosure, copying, distribution or use
of the contents of this information is prohibited. If you have
received this electronic transmission in error, please notify us by
telephone (434-295-4800) or by electronic mail
(fportell at genciabiotech.com) immediately.



More information about the extropy-chat mailing list