Money is worthless...... since when is this a new concept?




Also, at the idea of credit or money being scare. It's only scare because we believe it is. It's unlimited, because someone creates money so they can make money. The credit system exists as an extortion racket; thus the credit is there, for those foolish enough to take it. The same is true for any currency. It exists, only because there's a way to make more money from printing said money.





Lots of big words at the end.... these guys most know a lot about existential thought.

 

It isn't.

(Of course, Gold is also relatively worthless, however that's a different matter.)

I just think it's illuminating to see how, in a very real and practical sense, unusual hats in Team Fortress 2 are really quite equivalent to bitcoins, or any of the other useless, failed "independent" currencies which have come and gone.

 

Money is only valuable, because you can trade it for things you really want, like hats.


Of course, if everyone woke up one day, and decided they weren't interested in taking US currency as payment for goods and services, it would be truly worthless.




Anecdote:

On a recent trip to the DMV to renew my drivers license, I was required to pay a $12 fee, to cover costs of making the damn thing, building/staffing a DMV, etc. I reached into my wallet, and removed a $20 note, and presented it to the teller.

"No, we don't take cash."


"umm, what? It says "for all debts public and private. How do you not take money?"


"sorry; you can only pay via check or money order".



So I walked across the street to the post office, and paid a $3 fee for a $12 money order. You know the economy is bad when the government doesn't accept its' own money.

 

It is probably an internal control in order to discourage theft and better match payments to customers. My DMV accepts cash and charges extra if you use a credit/debit card. They also have an ATM machine inside that has some insane fee on it.

 

Precisely.

In the past, the argument has been put forth (in various forms) that either:

1: Independent currencies should be allowed to exist, or
2: Independent currencies are somehow superior to state-sanctioned currencies, or
3: (similar.)


I've always found this argument to be absurdly hilarious, but I could never quite articulate why. Seeing this video suddenly made it click for me. Getting any significant portion of the real-world community to standardize upon a single independent currency, or a collection of multiple independent currencies, stands about as much chance of working as trying to pay your rent with TF2 hats (particularly after you factor in the inevitable arbitrage exploitations.)



I wonder if something like this has ever been tested in the courts...

 

For thousands of years, in many areas of the world, gold and silver arose in the market (sans top-down edicts) as currency, before governments got involved.

What Has Government Done to Our Money? - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia