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Interesting Disqus comment by Jessie King: [1] This story illustrates one of the most important aspects of economics, and one that often seems to get lost in t
by scott_karana 12y ago
Interesting Disqus comment by Jessie King: [1]
This story illustrates one of the most important aspects of economics, and one that often seems to get lost in the rush - an economy needs to do something other than move money around. The concepts of money, value, and all that, are all just a means to an end. In this case, the end is an enduring, entertaining game, and they achieved it.
All too many real world economists seem to forget the fact that there is no value to an economy unless it is serving some end beyond its own cyclic process of simply shuffling value around.
1 http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=392381112#comment-1903437075 http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?story...
- dsr_ 12y agoMore to the point: when money is locked up in vaults, it doesn't contribute to the economy. The value of money is in making it circulate around. Doing that consistently is an unsolved problem. If money leaves your pocket as fast as it flows in, you aren't building any wealth for your future, and there are entire classes of things you can't do with your money: save up for a large purchase, invest, buy anything that isn't in your current means. But when money accumulates in the hands of a person so fast that they cannot spend it, cannot do anything but stick it into long-term investments or play status games, then the money isn't moving as fast as the rest of the economy needs.
- digi_owl 12y agoI find that one can liken money to blood, in that both need to circulate.
- digi_owl 12y agoAs the bearded German put it, capitalists are in it for the MCM+ rotation, while the rest of us are in it for the CMC.