Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: busy

It Runs in the Family...

My uncle, John Barrette, is a writer too. He handles politics and current events and stuff like that. Today he tipped me to one of his recent articles about economics. Some points I agree with, others I disagree with ... my favorite is that having a hard currency, such as gold, is a good idea. The farther money gets from reality, the easier it is to create huge amounts of trouble.

It’s the gold standard, stupid
The federal government now serves as pusher/dealer for the nation’s drug of choice: money. We’re all addicted to it. Alcohol, pills and illegal substances pale by comparison.</p>

We kept mainlining money after World War II, the war that pulled us out of the long Great Depression (not, as the liberal litany claims, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s alphabet soup agencies and deficit spending). Now we’re going through withdrawal pains.

It makes no sense for the pusher/dealer also to serve as doctor in fighting this addiction, but to steal a tagline from the late Walter Cronkite: “That’s the way it is.”

Tags: economics, family skills, news
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  • 6 comments
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ysabetwordsmith

Thoughts

ysabetwordsmith

November 17 2009, 00:20:45 UTC 11 years ago

>>It's obvious to me that creating money, in effect, by the wave of a credit-producing wand is a very bad thing; I think it ought to be based on, well, SOMETHING quantifiable rather than pure magic.<<

Agreed.

>>I'm just not sure gold is the right or only choice- plus, I think it'd have really nasty consequences for those of us for whom gold is a medium, not a commodity- AND for everyone who, say, wants wedding rings by extension. I do grant that's a very personal and fairly irrelevant perspective in the greater scheme of things.<<

Gold is not the only choice, just a popular one. A key drawback to material-backed economies is that people tend to tear up the Earth in search of whatever the commodity is.

I'd want a system, ideally, that would instead encourage people to take care of the Earth. *ponder* Maybe not a straight commodity exchange, but rather basing the amount of funds on some combination of environmental resources such as clean air, fresh water, old-growth forest, etc. -- in a way such that destroying those resources deletes the money-credit they supported. There has been talk about giving some kind of resources to third-world nations if they would just leave their rainforests standing as oxygen farms.
cissa

Re: Thoughts

cissa

November 17 2009, 01:12:03 UTC 11 years ago

Yeah, you're right- another problem with the gold standard is that mining for precious metals and gemstones is HORRIBLE for the environment, and that'd encourage such.

I agree that a standard that's based on STUFF- or, maybe, hours of labor- would be better than the current; I just don't know enough to have much of an opinion about how to manage it.

I will certainly be keen on any future posts about this- and thanks again!
ysabetwordsmith

Re: Thoughts

ysabetwordsmith

November 17 2009, 02:01:51 UTC 11 years ago

Oh yeah, I forgot about time-based economies. Those do work, and are popular in some intentional communities and as alternative town currencies. Here is a page describing several different alternatives, including a couple of time-based ones:
http://www.arlingtoninstitute.org/alternative-currency-overview