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> the book “Debt: The First 5,000 Years” by David Graeber Also would recommend Money: The True Story of a Made-Up Thing: > Money only works because we all agr

> the book “Debt: The First 5,000 Years” by David Graeber Also would recommend Money: The True Story of a Made-Up Thing: > Money only works because we all agree to believe in it. In Money, Jacob Goldstein shows how money is a useful fiction that has shaped societies for thousands of years, from the rise of coins in ancient Greece to the first stock market in Amsterdam to the emergence of shadow banking in the 21st century. > At the heart of the story are the fringe thinkers and world leaders who reimagined money. Kublai Khan, the Mongol emperor, created paper money backed by nothing, centuries before it appeared in the west. John Law, a professional gambler and convicted murderer, brought modern money to France (and destroyed the country's economy). The cypherpunks, a group of radical libertarian computer programmers, paved the way for bitcoin. * https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/50358103 https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/50358103 And The power of gold : the history of an obsession (and Bernstein's other books): > Incorporating myth, history and contemporary investigation, Bernstein tells the story of how human beings have become intoxicated, obsessed, enriched, impoverished, humbled and proud for the sake of gold. From the past to the future, Bernstein's portrayal of gold is intimately linked to the character of humankind. * https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/249245 https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/249245

belval 3y ago
> Money only works because we all agree to believe in it. Respectfully, this is the type of true-that-sounds-deep statements that are absolutely shallow and pointless. Yes money the "paper" is not worth anything, but the same could be said of anything in an organized society. Ownership means nothing, it's just a title backed by the government which has a monopoly on violence. Ethics means nothing, it's just something we culturally decided was desirable because if you feel a-ok with murder any trip anywhere would turn into a blood bath. At this point it should be a named fallacy (maybe it is), if we are discussing the merits of debt as a tool, saying "money isn't worth anything" as if it means something is not some ground breaking statement.
- throw0101d 3y ago
  > Respectfully, this is the type of true-that-sounds-deep statements that are absolutely shallow and pointless. And yet people still insist on the idea that money (or, quite commonly, gold) does have some kind of intrinsic value. The statement may be trope-y, but it's a psychological hurdle that many folks can't seem to get their head around.

belval 3y ago

> Money only works because we all agree to believe in it. Respectfully, this is the type of true-that-sounds-deep statements that are absolutely shallow and pointless. Yes money the "paper" is not worth anything, but the same could be said of anything in an organized society. Ownership means nothing, it's just a title backed by the government which has a monopoly on violence. Ethics means nothing, it's just something we culturally decided was desirable because if you feel a-ok with murder any trip anywhere would turn into a blood bath. At this point it should be a named fallacy (maybe it is), if we are discussing the merits of debt as a tool, saying "money isn't worth anything" as if it means something is not some ground breaking statement.

throw0101d 3y ago
> Respectfully, this is the type of true-that-sounds-deep statements that are absolutely shallow and pointless. And yet people still insist on the idea that money (or, quite commonly, gold) does have some kind of intrinsic value. The statement may be trope-y, but it's a psychological hurdle that many folks can't seem to get their head around.