Occupy Wallstreet

[Aquaplant]

Originally Posted by Crickett

Much like tangible goods, you can't give people money if you don't have it yourself. And while the amount of money that can be created is essentially infinite, the amount of money that actually exists at any time is not. The point remains though, since the amount of money that exists is not infinite, there is scarcity and that scarcity is a large part of what gives pretty much anything it's value. If the amount of money that DID exist was near infinite, then it wouldn't have any value unless it was VERY tightly controlled.

Kind of like what is done with diamonds.

How do you measure the amount of existing money when it doesn't even exist? For ages now, the amount of money that exists has not been in any relation to the amount of goods and services it is worth so to speak. Money has value only because we all religiously believe it has value, but in reality it's just a piece of paper that's about as valuable as toilet paper.

I'm sure this wasn't the idea when it was made, but IMO, one imaginary device that would absolutely destroy society world wide is the star trek replicator. Something that could eliminate the scarcity of all tangible goods permanently? We (meaning humanity) wouldn't know what to do with ourselves.

We wouldn't know what do do if things were actually good?

Originally Posted by Crickett

I may have signed an agreement, but I haven't actually given him the money, have I? If you're going to stretch the metaphor that way, then it still applies to tangible goods too. I can give him a legally binding contract saying that I'll give him something.

Money only has value because we all currently agree that it has, and if tomorrow we stop using money as a vehicle of exchange, then all that money would be simply worthless. If today I give you a million dollars, and tomorrow it's all worthless, then I'm under no obligation to provide you anything. I simply gave you nothing, because that's all that money essentially is, just words and promises.

As it stands, money is a rather bad method of exchange as its value isn't constant, but it's something entirely arbitrary that isn't tied to any tangible factor.