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I doubt anyone will read this but my take is that in the current system they actually do need to print money to solve the liquidity problems but that creates ot

by ilaksh 6y ago

I doubt anyone will read this but my take is that in the current system they actually do need to print money to solve the liquidity problems but that creates other problems. It's like everyone is thirsty, but people (and large companies) keep hoarding water. They have some giant taps that they can turn on. So they do. But the issues start with the fact that money is debt, and only a few well-connected countries are able to print money and get away with not having to pay it back. That is a great injustice, and it leads to a type of domination and poverty. I feel like the solution is for money to be more sophisticated. It needs to be tied to distributed resource tracking and regulated in a more sophisticated way. This was totally impossible before but with new decentralization technologies it is. One crazy idea might be to have very good public food production data based on ubiquitous data collection protocols that can be analyzed by many people. Then have a type of money that is specifically for ensuring food security. And another for housing security. All of these types of things are only really feasible if you have a functioning government that you can trust. That is probably the hardest part.

jedharris 6y ago
In effect we somewhat have this kind of system with Food Stamps and housing vouchers -- "currencies" that are restricted to certain types of expenditures. Also of course there are advocates for education vouchers. Etc. Unfortunately these targeted systems have been studied and results seem to be better if we just give people unrestricted grants. Slicing and dicing the money ahead of time seems less effective than letting the recipients decide.
- ilaksh 6y ago
  Vouchers and food stamps are similar to what I was proposing, but not the same thing. One aspect is that they are not digital currency. Another aspect is that there are particular constraints on reception and difficulty applying for them. Another one is that there is no comprehensive resource tracking such as housing availability. Additionally the amounts are very minimal. They are a very low-tech nod in that direction, but have not in any way disproven the concept. I'm all for things like universal basic income also. But again, the old-fashioned monetary system we have now and poor resource tracking do not permit universal basic income. Because for one thing it doesn't work properly unless its truly universal and there is not sufficient government revenue to support it.

by ilaksh 6y ago

jedharris 6y ago

In effect we somewhat have this kind of system with Food Stamps and housing vouchers -- "currencies" that are restricted to certain types of expenditures. Also of course there are advocates for education vouchers. Etc. Unfortunately these targeted systems have been studied and results seem to be better if we just give people unrestricted grants. Slicing and dicing the money ahead of time seems less effective than letting the recipients decide.

ilaksh 6y ago
Vouchers and food stamps are similar to what I was proposing, but not the same thing. One aspect is that they are not digital currency. Another aspect is that there are particular constraints on reception and difficulty applying for them. Another one is that there is no comprehensive resource tracking such as housing availability. Additionally the amounts are very minimal. They are a very low-tech nod in that direction, but have not in any way disproven the concept. I'm all for things like universal basic income also. But again, the old-fashioned monetary system we have now and poor resource tracking do not permit universal basic income. Because for one thing it doesn't work properly unless its truly universal and there is not sufficient government revenue to support it.