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Neither inflation nor demurrage can stop people from saving. They can simply exchange their constantly shrinking money to some good of lasting value. If the pro

Neither inflation nor demurrage can stop people from saving. They can simply exchange their constantly shrinking money to some good of lasting value. If the problem is lack of liquidity, helicopter money will do, everything else is a needless complication.

imtringued 3y ago
"Good of lasting value" doesn't exist in reality. If you use gold then it doesn't change the fact that you are using it as a token representation for human labor. It's just a fancy way of representing a balance sheet. If gold was a store of value, then it would allow you to travel backwards in time, since the gold used to buy and sell a car today, could be used to buy and sell a car during the time of the Roman empire. In fact the entire concept of time simply wouldn't exist. All "store of value"s therefore are either the result of fair negotiations in which case their supply would be bounded or they are the result of artificial interventions which will collapse over the long term. After all, feudalism didn't last forever, so using land as a store of value doesn't work either.
- incrudible 3y ago
  I must admit, I have trouble making any sense of your argument. Are you saying it is not possible to store value? If so, I would disagree. If you wish to go back to Roman times, perhaps look at the history of Roman coinage. One way people used to combat the Roman currency devaluation was to hoard the older coins. Were you to sumble upon a chest of gold from Roman times, you would be rich today, just as the person that buried it. Gold has evidently maintained value over thousands of years, whereas currency from 100 years ago has lost 99% of its purchasing power. In the long term, we are all dead.
  - c22 3y ago
    You're likely able to sell that chest in the form of Roman currency for much more than if you melted it into a solid gold bar.

imtringued 3y ago

"Good of lasting value" doesn't exist in reality. If you use gold then it doesn't change the fact that you are using it as a token representation for human labor. It's just a fancy way of representing a balance sheet. If gold was a store of value, then it would allow you to travel backwards in time, since the gold used to buy and sell a car today, could be used to buy and sell a car during the time of the Roman empire. In fact the entire concept of time simply wouldn't exist. All "store of value"s therefore are either the result of fair negotiations in which case their supply would be bounded or they are the result of artificial interventions which will collapse over the long term. After all, feudalism didn't last forever, so using land as a store of value doesn't work either.

incrudible 3y ago
I must admit, I have trouble making any sense of your argument. Are you saying it is not possible to store value? If so, I would disagree. If you wish to go back to Roman times, perhaps look at the history of Roman coinage. One way people used to combat the Roman currency devaluation was to hoard the older coins. Were you to sumble upon a chest of gold from Roman times, you would be rich today, just as the person that buried it. Gold has evidently maintained value over thousands of years, whereas currency from 100 years ago has lost 99% of its purchasing power. In the long term, we are all dead.
- c22 3y ago
  You're likely able to sell that chest in the form of Roman currency for much more than if you melted it into a solid gold bar.