Money
its all a lie
( SkUG >_O i got a couple of stitches in my eyeball... ow, Wed 7 Dec 2011, 12:51, 15 replies)

I'll give you a tenner not to tell anyone.

( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Wed 7 Dec 2011, 13:04, closed)

my economics teacher used to call money a confidence trick
money has no value unless we believe it has value. Other things have real non-abstract value mind you. Land, people, resources etc.
( rob, Wed 7 Dec 2011, 13:07, closed)

Well this is it, isn't it?
I mean - that's all well and good rhetoric, but practically it's of absolutely no use at all.

You can apply that to the whole of semantics - "murder" "good" "sexuality" "choice" etc etc.

It's all meaningless when it comes down to it. We construct mechanisms to produce meaning, as we don't want to face the utter futility of our existence.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Wed 7 Dec 2011, 13:08, closed)

I think the point is that money isn't linked to anything
£1= £1 - whereas in the past £1 = X grams of gold.

Gold has an absolute value whether we believe in it or not because gold is a useful mineral. It's a resource.

Google the phrase "fiat money" if you're bored.
( rob, Wed 7 Dec 2011, 13:25, closed)

The absolute value of gold (as a metal) is irrelevant when talking about money
since it's the market value of gold as a precious metal that's theoretically backing up the money. And that value is entirely ficticious, just as the non-backed money value is.

Otherwise it would make more sense to use steel, which is generally useful and could be said to have value for that reason -- though even then, the value is at least partly fictitious, controlled by whatever the market will pay for it. Gold isn't much use for anything practical, apart from electronics.

It's valuable because it's shiny and it doesn't tarnish, but the same applies to (lacquered) brass. It's also rare, but then so is white dog poo, these days.
(moon monkey is busy making memories worth repressing, Wed 7 Dec 2011, 13:32, closed)

yeah it's a market - the value is all over the place
but it's unlikely to be zero as it has real world uses. Or if the value does hit zero it has a chance of rising again. Unlike a bit of paper which when hyperinflation hits normally stays a valueless bit of paper.

I'm not arguing for the wonderfulness of a gold backed currency btw - I was just trying to explain to the original poster that I wasn't making a semantic point, but that there's a real meaning to the idea that money is a confidence trick, or a lie as someone had it.
( rob, Wed 7 Dec 2011, 13:50, closed)

Psst.
We're not using the gold standard, anymore.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Wed 7 Dec 2011, 14:56, closed)

Oh, dear.
This is rapidly devolving into an undergraduate-level philosophy discussion.

Actually, that's an improvement on the usual standard of discourse, on here.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Wed 7 Dec 2011, 13:32, closed)

YOUR MUM's rapidly devolving.
If it's possible to go beyond protozoa, that is.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Wed 7 Dec 2011, 14:37, closed)

I showed this to my mum,
and she evolved to the point where she could ask me to tell you that you're a cunt.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Wed 7 Dec 2011, 14:55, closed)

Awww - she's playing hard to get again, the tease.
She loves it up the bum, does your mum.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Wed 7 Dec 2011, 15:29, closed)

Protozoa can't give consent,
you filthy rapist. Worse than a nonce, you are.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Wed 7 Dec 2011, 15:38, closed)

Oh, you!
Always flattering me!
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Wed 7 Dec 2011, 15:45, closed)

no, that's cake you're thinking of

( Smash Monkey lowering the tone of the whole internet, Wed 7 Dec 2011, 15:20, closed)

Gold is the foundation upon which the money lie is laid.

( Shlvng, Thu 8 Dec 2011, 3:29, closed)