[tmbchr]™

Is Creating Your Own Money Bad?



This is clipped from a comment “ian” made on a post of mine from yesterday.

It’s generally bad for the economy if someone can just create money on their own.

So says conventional wisdom, certainly. But how and why did such an infobit become conventional wisdom in the first place? Did it have anything to do with the fact that the people who own banks are the people who sponsor what conventional economic wisdom for the masses turns out to be?

Whether or not creating your own *money* is good or bad, creating your own value is unarguably good, because you can use it to exchange value with your neighbors in non-zero sum deals.







5 Reader Responses

  1. ian Says:
    September 5th, 2008 at 2:42 pm

    Money as a value system has to be honored by both sides (buyer and seller).

    If any one person can create money in a way that is not recognized as valuable by other members of the money community, then that person’s money becomes valueless. And if their valueless money is indistinguishable from your money, your money soon becomes valueless too, as people lose faith in the money system as whole.

    But I definitely agree with you, the creation of value is always a good (or true or beautiful) thing. Money is a metaphor for value, and it’s just important to be sure that everyone agrees the finger of the money is pointing to a moon that’s worth seeing. =)

  2. Big Elk Says:
    September 5th, 2008 at 2:47 pm

    Money as a value system

    Money isn’t a value system. Money acts as a signifier for value which exists elsewhere and wholly separate from the actual physical money.

    What about that Wachovia bank in Florida that started issuing counterfeit $100 bills?

    I’m not talking about individual people making counterfeit American money; that’s illegal. I’m talking about individual people making their own REAL completely individualized currencies on a person-to-person basis backed by real tangible value assets and services which would ultimately trounce the dollar… which is backed by nothing.

  3. Dale Says:
    September 5th, 2008 at 3:05 pm

    also, if anyone can create money, then there is the possibility of competition among the monetary systems, rather than a government-run monopoly on formal forms of economic exchange. sure, if anyone could create money, there could be valueless currencies out there. but now we have a continually inflationary currency which is enforced as the economic standard of society. whereas alternative currencies could base value on a gold standard, a representation of work-hours, or whatever local convention might come up with.

  4. Competitive Currencies - [tmbchr]™ Says:
    September 5th, 2008 at 3:14 pm

    […] Quoted from “Dale” in the comments to a post of mine: also, if anyone can create money, then there is the possibility of competition among the monetary systems, rather than a government-run monopoly on formal forms of economic exchange. […]

  5. Green Sustainable Technocracy - [tmbchr]™ Says:
    September 5th, 2008 at 3:34 pm

    […] Dale is right: alternative currencies could base value on a gold standard, a representation of work-hours, or whatever local convention might come up with. […]



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