4 ms·
Don't want to get all diggity here, but...perhaps instead of trusting suits with your money, you might want to put them in a special kind of atoms that don't ru
by helveticaman 18y ago
Don't want to get all diggity here, but...perhaps instead of trusting suits with your money, you might want to put them in a special kind of atoms that don't rust...or decay radioctively...It's kind of retro, but throughout history, it's been a sound thing to do.
- maxklein 18y agoAre you talking gold? That's just silly. you know how little Gold there is compared to the needs of the world? And you know that a gold based economy basically puts all the power in the hands of those who physically own the gold - what happens to countries like Chad and so on?
- dualogy 18y ago#1 -- Well he didn't suggest that everyone do it. #2 The actual amount available at any given time is not so important as over time whatever amount there is reflects whatever "amounts" of goods, services, value and labour "exist". You have the same the other way around with the paper money supply. Increase it, and "over time" there's just as much "inflation" (not a price increase BUT a money devaluation) to cover that. So how much gold Chad has compared to other countries matters exactly zero.
- jmtame 18y agoIf you are actually arguing in favor of a fractional reserve system, I fail to see any logical support for that. A fractional reserve system has two truths, two facts: 1) The debt will always become greater in a country, because the money is debt in the first place. 2) The income disparity will always increase, meaning you will never be able to overcome poverty, sickness, or even war. The very way the fractional reserve system works is by nature transferring wealth from the lower and middle-class to the upper, and from there it goes to a few very wealthy, very elite.
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]
- maxklein 18y agoLook at the debt list of the world. Very few countries in the world are seriously in debt, only about 15 or so. The rest have positive cash balances. What I know is that the age of Gold was the age of aristocracy. The age of paper money was the age of democracy. I prefer to learn from history than believe what some guy on a message board tells me.
- jmtame 18y agoHave you seen the US debt lately?
- maxklein 18y agoThe debt became that way when the U.S switched to a father-son, husband-wife presidential system.
- wheels 18y agoYeah, it's pretty much on par with what you'd expect: http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_cen_gov_deb_tot_of_gdp-central-government-debt-total-gdp http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_cen_gov_deb_tot_of_gdp... http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_deb_ext-economy-debt-external_pergdp http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_deb_ext-economy-debt-e...
- maxklein 18y agoThat's a useful link. U.S debt is perfectly within normal bounds for its income.
- jmtame 18y agoThings have changed a bit since 2005. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DJIVQIRIHs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DJIVQIRIHs
- wheels 18y agoNot really. It's now closer to 60%. It's not off the charts, and is a lower percentage of the GDP than the next two largest economies (Japan and Germany, based on current CIA World Factbook numbers).
- davidw 18y agoCan we leave the batty economics discussions to other forums? This one is about hacking and startups. jmtame, perhaps besides taking "Money, Media and Power" classes (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=317659 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=317659) you should consider taking some actual economics courses.
- jmtame 18y agoSure, it'd be better than witch hunting (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=305192 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=305192)
- astine 18y agoI don't know what "Money, Media and Power," is, but there are actual economists who are critical of the fractional reserve system. Mostly, they are of the Austrian School, but there are some Neo-Classicists (mainstream) economists who see problems with a system that allows banks to loan out money that they don't have.
- davidw 18y agoYou are right. His comment was off in left field though: "fractional reserve banking invariably increases inequality" - something he even goes so far as to label a "fact" (citation needed!). I think if you run the data, you would not find such a correlation, and that things like taxation and redistribution policy are more correlated to the gini coefficient. In any case, there are appropriate forums for the discussion of these things (like peer-reviewed journals) where knowledgeable people can comment.
- jmtame 18y agoIf you ever looked at the projections of the gini index you would already know that the middle class will soon be a thing of the past. That's an obsolete argument, my friend, and I would encourage you to not participate if you don't want to encourage a debate on the economics (considering this thread was voted up by the HN community and has to do with economics and not startups). Thanks for playing though!