• 0 Posts
  • 235 Comments
Joined 2 年前
Cake day: 2023年6月9日
  • Robust Mirror@aussie.zonetoAustralia@aussie.zone•Wealthy Australians are worried we might realise how rigged the system is in their favourEnglish
    9·
    2 天前

    People stopping believing in religion doesn’t affect much. People stopping believing in money would collapse countries/the world. That alone will keep people believing in it. At the end of the day I can really take money and get real food with it, no matter how fake you claim it is.

    Fundamentally money is just fancy IOUs. You trade bread for eggs. One day the neighbour broke all their eggs so they give you an IOU. You don’t really need more eggs at that time so you give another person the egg token for some milk. He can then go get eggs.

    That’s all money is. Transferable, universal IOUs. And if you think about it, there doesn’t need to be a limit to the amount of IOUs in existence. Yes, it’s all built on trust and promises, that the egg farmer will honour the token and give you the eggs, but the IOU is just a concept, nothing needs to physically exist for the IOU to be valuable beyond the idea it will be followed through on.

    So to me, it doesn’t matter if money is “imaginary”, because that’s kind of the point. The only reason we ever had something backing it was to ensure the person could actually follow through with the IOU they gave out. Because if the chicken farmer gives IOUs out en masse so that they can get a bunch of stuff from their neighbours immediately, they’re gonna have a problem if everyone comes to claim them at once.

    But if you’re happy to accept the idea he can eventually make good on it in some way, and the people of the village all agree to it, there’s no reason he can’t do this and give out the eggs over time. The fact it’s built on trust doesn’t automatically make it not real.

    That said, there’s definitely valid concern about how speculative bubbles and extreme wealth concentration can distort the system. But that’s a problem with how the IOUs are distributed and manipulated, not with the idea of money itself.

    And honestly when we look at the scale of the world today, what’s the alternative? You want to go back to trading? How is that going to work for obtaining a TV, smartphone, internet? A variety of foods? Etc etc etc. I’m interested what alternatives could exist for a global or even national market.

  • Robust Mirror@aussie.zonetoYou Should Know@lemmy.world•YSK about the GI Rights Hotline
    2·
    5 天前

    Your final sentence is the point. We didn’t have 1000s of nukes worldwide back then. If no one will dare to stop Russia attacking Ukraine with any meaningful amount of force under threat of nuclear war, why would anyone attack USA?

    What about North Korea? Everyone knows what’s going on there isn’t right, but I don’t see the world banding together to overthrow their government and change things.

    I think the 100 men vs bear meme is pretty relevant here as well. It’s one thing to say IF every country bands together they can take on USA, it’s another thing entirely to say you could get the world to all agree to that at once. And whoever makes the first move would likely be decimated.

    And you’re right, if USA is backed entirely into a corner, Trump is crazy enough to press the nuke button. All it takes is him getting a few high up fanatics to go along with it. So the bear is also wearing a dead man’s switch.

  • Robust Mirror@aussie.zonetoYou Should Know@lemmy.world•YSK about the GI Rights Hotline
    7·
    6 天前

    I’m well aware but the people that have the ability to influence that couldn’t care less. It’s kind of like worrying about a nuclear war at this point, if it happens we’re all pretty much dead, and 99% of us aren’t part of the decision to launch them.

    I’ve done/do as much activism on climate change that I can in the last 20 years. It’s basically as pointless as petitioning those in power to dismantle their nuclear bombs. No one in power is interested.