A New Monetary System?

[JimC]

The problem is that people are encouraged to provide money for new business opportunities by expecting some sort of reward for doing so, commonly getting some sort of return on the money they provide. Hard to imagine a free enterprise system without something of that nature...

[pErvinalia]

But those people aren't creating new money. Only banks create new money. Earning interest on already existing money wouldn't be a problem. I think.

[pErvinalia]

Actually, it would be a problem so long as the new money that is required to repay that interest had interest outstanding on it.

[pErvinalia]

@ps, actually you might have a point about debt. Even without interest charges the system would collapse if everyone paid off their debt. So, such a system still relies on future debt to grow the economy. The only difference is that the debt growth wouldn't be exponential, like it has to be now.

[pErvinalia]

Essentially we need "free" money for the things that society values and that adds to GDP.

How we make that happen is anyone's guess..

[rainbow]

We could introduce the Sex Unit, or Bonkar - as it would be known.

Everything we do comes down to the desire for sex. We only work so we can get things that attract sexual partners - fancy houses, cars, fashionable clothes. Even deodorant and bodycare products are all about getting more.

Bonkars could be produced at will by getting one's leg over as it were, and since we'd all be worn out at some point, it is inflation proof.

For minor transactions the lower valued Wankar would be used.

[JimC]

All us old buggers would become poorer and poorer!

[Brian Peacock]

The Calorie as the new global currency eh? I bet you 200 Cals this never happens.

Mainly because it should be the Joule.

A very good idea, because we can trace back the value of goods and services down to the energy required to produce it.

Gold is only worth a lot because it takes a lot of effort to find it, mine it, and purify it.

You're a Jewel.

[Brian Peacock]

All us old buggers would become poorer and poorer!

I was never that rich to begin with.

[pErvinalia]

Brian, how do we get free money for the things that society values and adds to gdp? C'mon, someone must have some ideas?

[Brian Peacock]

Brian, how do we get free money for the things that society values and adds to gdp? C'mon, someone must have some ideas?

Cut me some slack mate. Most of my economic texts have been boxed up for years, but.... Only through some system of global governance which determines the proportion of global wealth a nation can spend on essential services, allocating that 'promise' through a balance of negotiation (demand) and need.

[laklak]

Rob a bank.

[Brian Peacock]

Grow your own.

[laklak]

Weed, though not recognized as one, is easily convertible to other fiat currencies. It also has many other uses, chief of which is making life sufficiently tolerable that one does not eat one's service revolver upon waking.

[Brian Peacock]

I was reading an article a few weeks ago about how, since the smoking ban in US prisons, tins of mackerel have become the de facto currency of inmates. Give a man a fish and he can buy 5 minutes with the ladyboy from G-wing, but give a man a net...