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Nah being the only product for which you can pay in taxes, at pain of men with guns putting you in a tiny box, is the best of ensuring dominance. Over the dome

Nah being the only product for which you can pay in taxes, at pain of men with guns putting you in a tiny box, is the best of ensuring dominance. Over the domestic population, at least.

ls612 5y ago
This is a silly argument considering the widespread adoption of the USD for international trade, well beyond the oil industry.
- notch656a 5y ago
  You're right, if I held all Euros which are used in something like 33% of worldwide forex trades, then everything would be dandy and the government wouldn't mind at all that I wasn't paying in dollars. That's why every American has lots of Euros. The dollar isn't better managed than all the other currencies. It's a network effect of debt denominated in USD, one of the most relevant of which is that taxes for about 25% of global GDP is paid in dollars.
  - perl4ever 5y ago
    If you need dollars, you can exchange your euros for dollars seconds before paying whatever. If the government had a problem with that, something drastic would've changed. You can speculate that the US will deteriorate into a state where there will be currency controls and stuff, but in our lifetimes, it hasn't been like that. People say, or used to say, a lot, that oil being denominated in dollars meant something. I mean, that the choice of units has great economic value, somehow. But nobody's denying that you can exchange one currency for another at any time, right?
another_story 5y ago
More like a product that isn't highly volatile, has FDIC backing to cover losses and whose direction isn't controlled by a handful of private individuals who control the mining and set the direction of the underlying software.
- notch656a 5y ago
  How do I file a claim with FDIC to cover the inflationary losses of my USD currency?
zarzavat 5y ago
This is a folk rationale but it doesn't hold much water. If you look at countries with weak currencies, being the currency that taxes are paid in or that the people with the guns are telling you to use, doesn't ensure a stable currency at all. Quite the reverse in fact, the need to threaten people into using a country's currency indicates severe weakness.
- notch656a 5y ago
  Stability and (domestic) dominance are two different things.

Nah being the only product for which you can pay in taxes, at pain of men with guns putting you in a tiny box, is the best of ensuring dominance. Over the domestic population, at least.

ls612 5y ago

This is a silly argument considering the widespread adoption of the USD for international trade, well beyond the oil industry.

notch656a 5y ago
You're right, if I held all Euros which are used in something like 33% of worldwide forex trades, then everything would be dandy and the government wouldn't mind at all that I wasn't paying in dollars. That's why every American has lots of Euros. The dollar isn't better managed than all the other currencies. It's a network effect of debt denominated in USD, one of the most relevant of which is that taxes for about 25% of global GDP is paid in dollars.
- perl4ever 5y ago
  If you need dollars, you can exchange your euros for dollars seconds before paying whatever. If the government had a problem with that, something drastic would've changed. You can speculate that the US will deteriorate into a state where there will be currency controls and stuff, but in our lifetimes, it hasn't been like that. People say, or used to say, a lot, that oil being denominated in dollars meant something. I mean, that the choice of units has great economic value, somehow. But nobody's denying that you can exchange one currency for another at any time, right?

another_story 5y ago

More like a product that isn't highly volatile, has FDIC backing to cover losses and whose direction isn't controlled by a handful of private individuals who control the mining and set the direction of the underlying software.

notch656a 5y ago
How do I file a claim with FDIC to cover the inflationary losses of my USD currency?

zarzavat 5y ago

This is a folk rationale but it doesn't hold much water. If you look at countries with weak currencies, being the currency that taxes are paid in or that the people with the guns are telling you to use, doesn't ensure a stable currency at all. Quite the reverse in fact, the need to threaten people into using a country's currency indicates severe weakness.

notch656a 5y ago
Stability and (domestic) dominance are two different things.