Sunday, December 16, 2012

Kervick: "People always want monetary systems"


Dan Kervick comments at Mike Norman's:
A lot of these "end of money" guys seem confuse money per se with physical currency.

If you have a system in which you can accumulate and hold any kinds of points or credits in exchange for goods and services, then you have a monetary system.

If you have any administrators or systems, public or private, for storing these points or credits electronically, and protecting your legal title to them, then you have a system of banks of one kind.

If you have a system for exchanging points that you already possess with someone who wants them, in exchange for a promise of a greater quantity of points to be delivered back to you later, then you have banks in the full blown sense.

This is exactly right. If there is something that you earn, spend, and hope to save, then that thing is money. No matter what you call it, it is money.

Here's mine.

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