I Wish Currency Would Change...

[Sεraphim]

Does anyone else wish that currency would start to become more digitalized... so to speak? I personally find it annoying that I have to use cash and credit/debit cards separately depending on the situation I'm in. Let's say I prefer to pay by cash because of some personal reason (i.e: I don't have a card, I'm too lazy to go out and get a Visa gift card, my guardian wont allow me to use her/his card), at that point I'd be basically restricted to over-the-counter/face-to-face purchasing methods.

 

Well, what if currency started to become digital? What if instead of paper dollars and cards we had just one universal chip that could be bought at any age at any bank or government building to anyone who is allowed (by law) to officially work at a job and accessed only by the device owner? Sure, you may be thinking I'm straight up insane for thinking of something, but everyone laughed at the Wright Brothers for trying to make a plane fly as well -- look where that got us. I personally believe a universal chip or other device (which could only be accessed by you, the owner) that could hold digitalized currency and would be used by virtually everyone and can be used to send currency to the person right next to you, or the person across the Atlantic is much more beneficial and safe... rather than having physical currency and cards to transact wealth that could easily be stolen, lost, or what have you.

 

Now, don't get me wrong, you could easily lose the device with all your wealth in it - it's human nature. But that's why it can only be accessed by you (and probably the government, or whatever form of politics is ruling the people by the time someone who stops looking into the past for the future decides to build this).

 

I think this would stop piracy a little (key word, a little) as well. I know when I was living with my parents, I always had cash with me, but they never let me use a credit card or debit card. And when they did, they asked so many questions that I finally said fuck it and decided to stop by PirateBay every once in a while. Not cause I didn't have money, but because I lived in the middle of nowhere and had no stores around me. But that's besides the point. A lot of times teenagers are the ones to pirate stuff, whether it be games, music, images, videos, etc.

Now, if we used this kind of universal digital currency, I think teenagers with the problem I had wouldn't really have a problem anymore.

 

I know I'd love to have a feature like that in my life, but I'm sure if someone were to think much deeper into the idea there would probably hundreds, no thousands of chinks in the idea and hypothesis. But meh, it's just a thought that popped up in my head. What do you guys think? Do you still want to use dollars even with the technological advancements we've had over the course of 2,700 years (when the Turks first used physical currency)?

[Tossie]

Sounds pretty neat, though it'd still be worth keeping a physical currency to fall back on in the event of a widespread EMP blast thing that would knock out your digital currency.

 

I vote that the physical currency to fall back on be Starburst wrappers.

[Sεraphim]

Sounds pretty neat' date=' though it'd still be worth keeping a physical currency to fall back on in the event of a widespread EMP blast thing that would knock out your digital currency.

 

I vote that the physical currency to fall back on be Starburst wrappers.

[/quote']

 

Shyiiit, glad I saved those. I have a whole basket of those! xD

And yeah, about the EMP thing -- I didn't think about that... that would suck some D.

[nonusnomeni]

gold, only gold!!!

fuck the banksters and printed non existed money

 

Turks?

"Some archaeological and literary evidences suggest that the Indians invented coinage, somewhere between the 6th to 5th century BC.[4] However, some numismatists consider coins to have originated ca. 600-550 BC in Anatolia, which corresponds to modern-day Turkey, in particular in the Anatolian kingdom of Lydia"(Wp)

in that time stone-aged Turks are chased sheep's in western Mongolia...

that was 2000y before they become great nation...

[Sεraphim]

gold' date=' only gold!!!

fuck the banksters and printed non existed money

 

Turks?

"Some archaeological and literary evidences suggest that the Indians invented coinage, somewhere between the 6th to 5th century BC.[4'] However, some numismatists consider coins to have originated ca. 600-550 BC in Anatolia, which corresponds to modern-day Turkey, in particular in the Anatolian kingdom of Lydia"(Wp)

in that time stone-aged Turks are chased sheep's in western Mongolia...

that was 2000y before they become great nation...

 

*Shrug* Only saying what my teacher told me. Blame him.

 

[nonusnomeni]

@ velox

 

i don't wanna blame anyone, it is common mistake

most peoples don't consider history when speak about geographical terms...

but teacher?

holly flying banana...

alas happy me, i could not be anymore surprised by anything or anyone...

[thesapien]

1) All eggs in one basket... You really want everything you own all on one chip? Someone could hack you without even walking by.

 

2) Major currencies are already mostly digital. A printing press is only used to convert from the digital and to replace worn paper. Dollars are not created by printing, only the paper notes to later be attached to what is already in digital form. The primary digital form is only created by borrowing, which is done digitally. All dollars are borrowed into existence, not printed.

 

3) I think a better question is what should you have backing those digital numbers. As stated in 2) above, dollars are borrowed into existence and aren't backed by gold or anything; just backed by a promise to pay a debt (with what you might ask?). I would prefer my digits to actually reference something real, like ounces of gold and/or silver, perhaps even weed.

[Symon]

Ah money. The worlds first virtual commodity, dating back a long time.

 

Money only has value because we all agree it does. When people stop trusting money, problems ensue. The more virtual the money, the easier it is for distrust to spread. What do people do in hard times? Head to cash machines to turn electronic money into slightly more trusted paper! It's called a run on the banks.

 

The more interesting question is that as governments print the money (and some of them are doing so like crazy at the moment, except they do it in more subtle (and less effective) ways than printing it), what does a government mean when it says it doesn't have the money to do something?

 

Stripping out all the political fluff, they mean 'we haven't got the desire or will to do this, and you can't make us).

 

Money doesn't grow on trees, it materializes out of thin air!

[Surenas]

[snip]

The more interesting question is that as governments print the money (and some of them are doing so like crazy at the moment' date=' except they do it in more subtle (and less effective) ways than printing it), what does a government mean when it says it doesn't have the money to do something?

[/quote']

 

It means that these governments aren't credit worthy any longer for the international banks and the International Monetary Fund. The best example of today is Greece - the country is apparently bankrupt. The consequence is to file under chapter 11, the insolvency, and the leaving of the Euro Zone. That's bad luck!

[Symon]

(Grin)

Those who do not learn from History are doomed to repeat it.

Two historical events I find very instructive are:

The Economic policies that lead to the Great Depression and the Rise of the Dictators.

The Defence of their many Privileges by the Filthy Rich under Louis XVI that led to the French Revolution.

 

I don't think the story we are being fed by our Lords and Masters truly describes the reality of the global situation. It's much more complicated than that.

[Surenas]

As long as the global situation has no negative impact on the local situation in my bed... ^^

I mean, what do we expect? Our leaders begging for more credits in Bejing? I have no idea.

[thesapien]

Ah money. The worlds first virtual commodity' date=' dating back a long time.

 

Money only has value because we all agree it does. When people stop trusting money, problems ensue. The more virtual the money, the easier it is for distrust to spread. What do people do in hard times? Head to cash machines to turn electronic money into slightly more trusted paper! It's called a run on the banks.

 

The more interesting question is that as governments print the money, what does a government mean when it says it doesn't have the money to do something?

 

Money doesn't grow on trees, it materializes out of thin air!

[/quote']

 

That's the Money Trap, to view "money" as something abstract and virtual. That's how the money masters get you to play, in my egooo opinion.

 

Anything that only has subjective value should not be used as currency, unless you're the one controlling it since you can then use it to transfer real wealth, trading subjective value for things with objective/real value. Makes for a nice wealth transfer machine, if you think of "wealth" as what is real and the "currency" as, well, a current. If you don't see the current, you might be rowing your boat upstream.

 

Gold has intrinsic value. It's an element on the periodic table with very special properties unique to it alone, making it one of the most useful resources for a crafty species with a knack for making arts and crafts. High technology is especially dependent on gold (NASA uses it tons, but also found in trace amounts on common computer boards and chips). We'd use gold a lot more in everything if it weren't so rare. This is why gold has always had value among humans, as far back as recorded history up until present day.

 

What we think of as money ought really to be just whatever is most commonly traded in barter. Seeds can fill this role, tho they don't last as long as gold, nor is it convenient to trade butt loads of seeds for a house. Both seeds and gold will be seen as valuable by a "primitive" people, but seeds might not so much by a people dissociated to real wealth via abstract money. Dissociated people, fortunately, still see the bling in gold.

 

The problem with gold, lol, is that it's hard to manipulate as a currency. Physicists speculate it can't even be made in our solar system, requiring the high energies of a supernova. So money masters have to debase it with impure alloys, like during the fall of Rome, until gold coins aren't gold anymore, inflating the currency. Or, they go from being storage vaults with a fee (like a real bank should be) to being loan offices under a fractional reserve system, whereby a bankster can create digital and paper versions not associated to what is stored in any vaults.

 

 

[Guest GingerTom]

Money has never made sense to me--if you're starving and I have a dozen eggs and you want to give me a couple of pieces of toilet paper for it, well...

 

Unfortunately it's getting worse because instead of paper and metal there are contries that are now making their money out of dead dinosaurs: Plastic.

[Symon]

Oddly enough, gold is only as valuable as it is because most of it is locked in banks! (The world agrees it's valuable). How otherwise do you explain the massive rise in its 'value' over the last ten years? Oddly enough, about ten years ago, the Bank of England decided that gold was becoming so 'worthless' they needed to unload lots of it. Sadly, that proved to be a mistake. They were taken in by the idea that true wealth would be in financial instruments. (Oops).

 

For example, in the Old and Middle Egyptian Kingdoms, Silver was worth FAR more than gold because gold was common but silver was rare.

Money IS a virtual commodity, even gold. It's an accepted agreement of the value of ultimately people working at something, nothing more. The Egyptians found it useful but not that valuable a metal. Diamonds are similar for that matter, they are about as common as quartz. Again, most of them are in vaults.

 

Oh and people have made gold artificially for some time now, it's just ridiculously expensive. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_synthesis#Gold)

 

If you want a rare valuable metal, think platinum. Nothing has intrinsic value. If you are dying of thirst, a glass of water is priceless!!!

[Symon]

Oh, just a clarification, being old, I'm using virtual in its true meaning (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuality), not the common shorthand of 'something concerning computers'.

 

For example, if Adam and Eve decide to use pretty cowrie shells so he can pay for blow jobs, they've invented the first virtual commodity!

 

Meanwhile, Lilith looks on and tries to decide which of them is the more deranged. (grin).

[thesapien]

Symon, saying gold has value because it is stored in banks, begs the question. Why is it stored? Because it has value. Why does it have value? See.

 

I don't think Brown's Bottom, as they call the unloading of England's gold, was really intended to help.

 

You are using "virtual" incorrectly, here, I think. A home's value is also an agreed upon value, yet homes are not virtual.

 

I do suppose you could describe the decay of a higher element into an isotope of gold as making gold. Do you know what properties the isotope has? Curious.

 

How can you say nothing has intrinsic value, then in the next sentence say water does?

[Nepro]

Digitalize the currency and you lost your freedom, anonymity of the cash would be gone forever. That's just too far pushover, letting your banks hold all your money is like giving them more power if they had not had it enough already. Soon the international banking system would degrade you clients to nothing more than digit if you let them hold all of the money property, which basically it is.

They hold most of the money property in their hand). Even the governments would be at their mercy (and they are even now, where do you think the government borrows money? they go to central bank/federal reserve you name it, and those banks have nothing to do with government, they're independent meaning they're private, and they are in charge of money supply and regulate its value (get it?).

The government usually only gets the chance to decide the head of central bank (this the case of US), but they have absolutely no control or even oversight (thanks to Paul Ron Congress has minimal oversight now) of what they're doing there. The peeps in your parliaments or congresses are clueless what goes inside of the central bank(s). That is the case for all countries of EU, USA, Canada and other developed nations.

 

Support small local banks, screw the big corporate swines that milk people whenever they get the chance.

 

This is just crazy. I hope that future generation won't be that nearsighted.

 

The virtual money as we have now credit/debit cards is just enough.

[Guest GingerTom]

(It said I needed five characters--is this enough?)