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Stockpiling money is much easier.
by enitihas 7y ago
Stockpiling money is much easier.
- crooked-v 7y agoAlso, money usually doesn't have an expiration date. Drugs and most medical supplies do.
- dreamcompiler 7y agoInflation causes stored money to expire. It's kind of a moot point in an era of 0% interest though.
- enitihas 7y agoYes, but money can be stockpiled in somewhat inflation proof ways, like investing in assets that grow, e.g stocks. You can't stockpile masks that way.
- Klinky 7y agoMoney doesn't convert into medicine in an instant, and in times of crisis, that money will buy much less medicine.
- barry-cotter 7y agoThey’re not stockpiling money. That money is working. It’s invested in productive assets, stocks, bonds, real estate, venture capital. They don’t keep dollar bills in a vault.
- meowface 7y agoHow are you defining "productive"? That still sounds zero-sum to me, though I don't know the details of how they invest the money. If it is zero-sum, then it's equivalent to stockpiling.
- barry-cotter 7y agoEconomic growth is non zero sum. Everyone can get richer at the same time as available capital increases or workers become more productive due to greater human capital. Stocks are giving a company money to invest in return for a share of future profits. VC and bonds are lending money to companies to invest for a future payment. Those companies are investing in productive capital assets or in making their workers more productive. Not zero sum.
- new2628 7y agoIt's not zero sum, it is negative sum: it comes at the cost of using up non-renewable resources and destroying the environment.
- Dylan16807 7y agoYou can invest in companies that are building/using renewable energy and/or helping the environment.
- new2628 7y agoI used to think this, but in the past few decades I became convinced that only reduction in economic activity will help the environment.
- Dylan16807 7y agoSurely either replacing a coal plant with a nuclear one, or capturing the concentrated carbon dioxide right out of the smokestack, would help the environment with no reduction in economic activity.
- Jorge1o1 7y agoMoney isn’t zero sum because it has velocity. Companies financed with stock buy equipment using that cash, which the equipment manufacturers use to pay their employees, who then spend it at supermarkets...
- meowface 7y agoI know, but important things are often difficult.