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Not just that but most money isn't even in the form of cash. It's literally just numbers on computers generated by the fed out of thin air. I'm not arguing if

• kbenson 9y ago
  > I'm not arguing if its right or wrong, but the author sure doesnt seem like they understand what theyre talking about. I think they understand - to a point. It's just a few steps removed from what they normally think of, so is easily confused as "from thin air". If they solicited people to draw doodles and simple cartoons in their free time and send them in, and they would auction those off, it wouldn't be "from thin air". If you have your computer randomly generate fractals or images and send them in and people purchase the aesthetically pleasing ones, that's also not "from thin air". You've just traded your direct effort for use of your computer, which includes increased energy costs, and possibly slowed computer usage. Replace images that are aesthetically pleasing for a bit of cryptographic hashing that helps the whole market, and you're where we're at today. Costs are there, they are just so small as to be easily lost in the rest of your costs, and the work is there, just abstract and automatic enough that it's easy to not realize it's work. Fundamentally it's no difference than everybody contributing a doodle though.