guys I just love talking about economics let me tell you why

[jorb]

I kinda like it. If our currency wasn't pegged, we'd make Weimar Republic's Marks look stable.

It might very well be that your bureaucrats are more fiscally prudent under a regiment where German, French and Belgian bureaucrats hold them by the hand, but that's hardly an argument for bureaucracy, is it? Isn't, indeed, the essential problem here that you currency is at all subject to the whims of bureaucrats? The currency of the Weimar Republic was a fiat currency...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papiermark

...which unsurprisingly was monstrously inflated. This unlike the German Imperial currency...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_gold_mark

...which was on a Gold standard, and equally unsurprisingly maintained its integrity throughout the entirety of the German Imperial era, barring the Great war when Germany printed money to finance the war effort (I.e. effectively taxed any and all holders of German currency). Fiscal sanity made a brief reappearance in Weimar Germany when the currency was...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_reichsmark

... put back on the gold standard. The beauty of a gold standard currency being that it by definition is free from the tamperings of government bureaucrats. Either one has a currency whose value is principally determined by natural factors, or one has a currency whose value is determined entirely by whim. If you believe that the central planners of the Eurozone are any more adept at predicting the ebbs and flows of the living, organic, self-organizing system that is the free market than the central planners of the Soviet Union were, then by all means go for the fiat. I, who do not for one second believe in any sort of central planning, would prefer to have my currency denominated in a natural medium. I am not arguing that you should be forced to use such a currency, because I do not believe in central banks, centralized currencies or force to begin with. Were I to design the system, you would be free to use whatever commodity you see fit as a means of exchange with others, incidentally the same philosophy that applies with regards to trade in H&H.

Currency is a commodity like any other. It is not a special case of anything, and it should not be forced upon anyone any more than bananas should be, which is to say not at all.

[jorb]

Pick one.

[Potjeh]

The problem is that our government officials are constantly channeling the money to Swiss accounts. Every government project here is basically a money laundering operation, for example it took them 8 years and probably enough money to pave the whole damn country to build 21km of highway on relatively flat terrain. Gold or fiat, the currency would go crazy in a country that's being leeched of wealth at such level.

[Zirikana]

leeched of wealth

Sigh. Alas it is a story as old as time itself. We've come out the other side of two or three centuries of wars and revolutions against governmental abuses and injustices, on every side of the world, and where did we end up after all of it? Arguing non-stop with each other about nonsense, while the "elected officials" play games behind our backs with the worthless "funny-money" into which they've converted all of our real wealth.

Camus is right that rebellion in all its forms is an inherent part of humanity. I just wish it were peaceful and productive, rather than violent and futile.

[krawco]

World should have switched to resource based economy and remove money entirely. Money was helpful for growth and technological advancement untill industrial era. Now coz of available technology one can produce more than can consume and there is no reason for money to exist. And now money actualy slows developement of technology coz big companies don't put new stuff on the market if old stuff is still selling good.

[Demiwar]

Money is simply a means of making transactions easier. What would you rather take to the grocery store to buy your food, a few dollar bills or a stove? It is worth what the person holding it thinks it's worth.

[krawco]

In resource based economy term "buy" will be gone from dictionaries =) Next generations will laugh at it and at us and they will call our present times "the dark age of greed" =)

[spectacle]

Could you describe the "resource based economy" in a bit more detail?

[krawco]

click

[jorb]

In resource based economy term "buy" will be gone from dictionaries =) Next generations will laugh at it and at us and they will call our present times "the dark age of greed" =)