[ExI] John's idea

[spike]

From: extropy-chat [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of John Clark
Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2017 7:50 PM
To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Subject: Re: [ExI] John's idea

 

On Tue, Jan 31, 2017 at 9:24 PM, spike <spike66 at att.net <mailto:spike66 at att.net> > wrote:

 

​> >…  I think it is very close to how one defines “the wealth.”  I cannot define it.

 

​>…Are you' saying there is no such thing as wealth?​

 

 

Not at all.  I have some.  Bill Gates has some, the citizen of Niger has some.  But none of that is “the wealth” and the reason I asked is that found in your answer to the following:

 

 

>>… John, I ask sir, what happens when the Federal government is out of money?

 

​

>…Nothing because government can do what you and I can not, they can do what they've done every years since 1835 (except for the last 2 Clinton years), they can print more money…

 

Ah.  There is a common belief that nations may print money without borrowing someone else’s wealth to back it.  Just print more, which is to say, go ahead and debase the currency as needed.  Plenty of nations around the world do that.  Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Argentina come to mind.

 

When countries debase their currency, one immediate effect is that people find alternative means of storing their wealth, as the currency is debased.  In many African nations, they drop all pretenses that the notes printed by their own flimsy excuse for a government has any actual value.  They can’t order an iPhone using that currency.  So they conclude that it isn’t really currency.  They trade in American dollars or euros.

 

The reason dollars are still recognized as actual money all around the globe is that we don’t print them out with nothing behind them.

 

spike

 

 

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