Message from @ryuplaneswalker
Discord ID: 502011044236099584
All they can use to pay a person for things they need
is apples.
If not everybody needs apples
The person who only trades in apples is fucked.
wat
The point of money is that a person can exchange their apples for money, and use that money to buy things from people who don't need apples.
It's a wildcard commodity.
And so long as currency is used and exchanged, a person who is willing to take those apples to another market can continue to buy apples from the person who only grows apples
and exchange those apples for more money.
The entire basis of capitalism.
that scenario is already assuming that money of some form exists
in a gift economy, or any society without money, he could just distribute the apples as needed, and be given what he wants if others won't miss it
trade economies aren't a thing, tbh
Trade Economies aren't practical
aren't a thing without money*
No, they're not.
not everyone wants apples
Exactly.
That's why currency makes a trade economy actually work
some people would die if you give them an "apple"
depends how hard you throw it
My 400 dollars in dollars
is far easier to carry around than 400 dollars of apples
Fiat Currency, at that, is only valuable so long as people are willing to accept it.
well
It's entirely confidence based.
Gold should back all currency
In theory it does, it's just not a share of a stockpile of gold.
Tim recently made a video about a David Graeber tweet
I do think abandoning the Gold Standard was a bad idea.
he wrote a book about Debt, and how money came to be
worth reading
Having the dollar be worth a fixed portion of a vault of treasure
Anyway, to the point I was getting to
As far as 'super rich people' go
wasn't the gold standard abandoned because of the great depression?
no
it was abandoned because Tricky Dick said so
Being overly concerned about the rich is like being overly concerned about people who are too successful at farming apples.
<:thonk:432992056214945818>
You can ask yourself why does someone need a silo full of apples, sure...