Anyway, honest money is something that needs an expenditure of work/energy to come into existence. Just printing it isn't fair to the majority who must use it. Plus, they are disenfranchised from being able to produce any of their own. Gold and silver had to be dug out of the ground and refined, while Bitcoins take computations to 'mine'. I say the effects in America of bad money are so great that many people don't even have an inkling of what work is, anymore, as they are paid NOT to work.
So, I was thinking if there could be some kind of honest money system introduced at our kids' school which could, at least, compete with the teacher's problematic central banking system. In the real world, central bankers always declare everything honest to be illegal. If they can't print it, it's not money. Tonight, I got the teacher to agree to let me come out next week and do a presentation on what money is, has been, and should be. I'll introduce a system that the kids could adopt to have honest money, which can't be inflated by those in charge (or weaponized, as in our sad case).
We live in an area where a river runs by and there are lots of smooth rocks in the dirt, even a mile from the river. It occurred to me that rocks of a very certain size are rare and take effort to discover. They are also durable and handy to count. So, I got a 1.25" and a 1.125" drill bit and made some templates to hand out to the kids, as part of the presentation on money. They can go find rocks that fit through the bigger hole at all angles, but not through the smaller hole at any angle, and introduce that "money" right into the system. Everyone has a template and they can verify, for themselves, the authenticity of each stone. Nobody can magically make lots of them. Power to the Kids!
Chip, what is to stop some kid from figuring out a rock tumbler that reduces rocks to the correct size? Or to stop an adult from helping and paying for it, which is essentially inherited wealth? Then you have a money printer anyhow. I think this is a fundamental issue with any kind of currency. It is always too easy to corrupt currency, so I don't think there is any kind of "honest" currency.
Glad you are taking a break from geeking. Now get back to work! *cracks whip*.
I have been gone for a long time, and I come back to see this thread switch over to the more important things that I have been watching.
Chip is right, and we are headed for a currency crash. I don't know when, but the other countries are gitting sick of actually having to produce and getting back US Treasuries or Cash or credit that the Federal Reserve creates out of nothing (QE, TARP, QE2, QE3) or the government creates out of nothing and neither can possibly do anything to redeem them with anything tangible.
If you don't understand money, I woud highly recommend this animated video series.
Paper assets(stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETF's(though Sprott's may be exception)) will be worth the paper they are written on. Actually, most of these are digital anyways...consider the fluding and fire of the DTCC vaults at 55 Water St with Hurican Sandy.
I would recommend Silver, Gold, and Crypto to keep your funds, but get prepared first.
Chip is right, and we are headed for a currency crash. I don't know when, but the other countries are gitting sick of actually having to produce and getting back US Treasuries or Cash or credit that the Federal Reserve creates out of nothing (QE, TARP, QE2, QE3) or the government creates out of nothing and neither can possibly do anything to redeem them with anything tangible.
I would recommend Silver, Gold, and Crypto to keep your funds, but get prepared first.
Knowing a bit about money, what it is supposed to represent and what it has become instead, a bit about history, even the Bretton Woods system established at the end of WWII and being replaced by oil currency due to the so called "oil crisis" where the world ran out of oil many decades ago...after which Saddam rebelled against the embargo and sold oil for non US Euros instead which led to the "discovery of weapons of mass destruction" which were never found but enabled the US to topple that bad boy then and there (but not years earlier when he was only invading and killing and destroying)....which all costs money which IIRC was about to lead to an announcement of the devaluing of the USD but instead we had 9/11 and another bad boy to chase instead....etc...etc...etc. While oil consumption was always on the rise and always paid for in USD it was a sweet deal as more and more of that paper needed to be printed without ever having to worry about honoring the face value of it. All the oil you could want and the wealth of nations, all for bits of paper.
Paper is easy to print, I have a 50 billion dollar note in my wallet which I sometimes try to use to pay for a cup of coffee to no avail. Mugabe eventually ran out of room to print zeros on bits of paper and had to give that up.
Now though silver and gold are only of value when somebody with something you need wants something they need that you have. Food, shelter,and security though are our basic needs.
Comments
Chip, what is to stop some kid from figuring out a rock tumbler that reduces rocks to the correct size? Or to stop an adult from helping and paying for it, which is essentially inherited wealth? Then you have a money printer anyhow. I think this is a fundamental issue with any kind of currency. It is always too easy to corrupt currency, so I don't think there is any kind of "honest" currency.
Glad you are taking a break from geeking. Now get back to work! *cracks whip*.
Jonathan
I have been gone for a long time, and I come back to see this thread switch over to the more important things that I have been watching.
Chip is right, and we are headed for a currency crash. I don't know when, but the other countries are gitting sick of actually having to produce and getting back US Treasuries or Cash or credit that the Federal Reserve creates out of nothing (QE, TARP, QE2, QE3) or the government creates out of nothing and neither can possibly do anything to redeem them with anything tangible.
If you don't understand money, I woud highly recommend this animated video series.
Paper assets(stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETF's(though Sprott's may be exception)) will be worth the paper they are written on. Actually, most of these are digital anyways...consider the fluding and fire of the DTCC vaults at 55 Water St with Hurican Sandy.
I would recommend Silver, Gold, and Crypto to keep your funds, but get prepared first.
Knowing a bit about money, what it is supposed to represent and what it has become instead, a bit about history, even the Bretton Woods system established at the end of WWII and being replaced by oil currency due to the so called "oil crisis" where the world ran out of oil many decades ago...after which Saddam rebelled against the embargo and sold oil for non US Euros instead which led to the "discovery of weapons of mass destruction" which were never found but enabled the US to topple that bad boy then and there (but not years earlier when he was only invading and killing and destroying)....which all costs money which IIRC was about to lead to an announcement of the devaluing of the USD but instead we had 9/11 and another bad boy to chase instead....etc...etc...etc. While oil consumption was always on the rise and always paid for in USD it was a sweet deal as more and more of that paper needed to be printed without ever having to worry about honoring the face value of it. All the oil you could want and the wealth of nations, all for bits of paper.
Paper is easy to print, I have a 50 billion dollar note in my wallet which I sometimes try to use to pay for a cup of coffee to no avail. Mugabe eventually ran out of room to print zeros on bits of paper and had to give that up.
Now though silver and gold are only of value when somebody with something you need wants something they need that you have. Food, shelter,and security though are our basic needs.