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That's a good point. By the same logic, actually, counterfeiting currency wouldn't be a crime either, as the scarcity is artificially sustained by the governmen
by trealira 3y ago
That's a good point. By the same logic, actually, counterfeiting currency wouldn't be a crime either, as the scarcity is artificially sustained by the government, but the consequence of everyone being able to print their own currency is that cash would become worthless.
- matheusmoreira 3y agoThat's not a good point at all. Counterfeiting physical items is not the same as copying information. Physical items are naturally scarce, information is naturally abundant and artificially made scarce by force of law. Physical items actually exist in the real world, unlike information.
- trealira 3y agoI don't think that applies to cash. Cash is artificially scarce. It's only kept scarce by the fact that it's illegal for anyone but the government to print it, and because printers refuse to print something if they detect a certain pattern that's present on bills. Otherwise, cash would only be worth the paper it's printed on.
- matheusmoreira 3y agoIt's naturally scarce. Even if it was easy to print dollar bills, they would not be infinite. You actually need physical material to make them. That puts hard limits to the scale of any counterfeiting operation. They could make it legal and it wouldn't have a fraction of the impact of fractional reserve banking which literally creates mountains of money out nowhere via the power of debt.