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What if money expired?

noemamag.com

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Re: What if money expired?

#82

Money do expire! There is inflation... I would like similar system for land ownership and buildings. Property taxes at level of 5%. In China land can not be owned, but only leased for 70 years.

Yeah but inflation also affects rich people you see. With this we can have selective inflation but only for proles

Re: What if money expired?

#83

Money do expire! There is inflation... I would like similar system for land ownership and buildings. Property taxes at level of 5%. In China land can not be owned, but only leased for 70 years.

I carry around a piece of hard currency (1901 Silver Dollar) to remind me of what real money is like... it's always been worth about 4 retail gallons of gasoline. I expect that trend to continue for at least another decade. Soft money, tends towards zero, as you said.

According to the internet this coin is worth between $45 and $2150, depending on the condition, but its weight in silver is only worth $18.40 [1]

[1] https://www.ngccoin.com/coin-explorer/united-states/dollars/...

Re: What if money expired?

#84
post #77

The whole point of money was to last longer than the expiring and perishable things it was used to pay for. The purchasing power of a dollar in the last century is about 1/500th of what it was when it was paid for the value someone created back then. If money expires/inflates, people use it to buy something to hedge it, which creates a bubble in that asset. The real estate bubble created by low interest rates is exac…

That's a very good way of explaining this. Here in Brazil the previous generations have a golden rule that you must store value in land, not in money. And Brazil has had tons of inflation and weak currencies in the last decades (with all the poverty and stagnation that it brings).

Land can expire. IIRC back in the late 60s and 70s Singapore had, and may still have, a law requiring purchased land to be developed within 7 years else the government would auction it off.

The same effect is why many economists believe that a bit of inflation is important (this argument is different from the widely held central bank theory that an inflation target of ~2% is better than 0)

Re: What if money expired?

#85
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a difference between inflation, which affects the entire monetary system, and money expiration which affects individual units of currency. In the first case, there is no incentive to use the money any faster, and as long as inflation isn't too high, there could be incentives to hoard/save it. In the second case, each unit has an expiration, and like the game of hot potato, you want it out of your hands quick…

> there could be incentives to hoard/save it Yes -- for a while. Not forever. This is a feature, not a bug. Hoarding/saving for short periods of time (relative to human life spans) is a good thing. It helps damp out transients. Hoarding/saving for long periods of time is bad because it discourages people from taking risks by putting resources to productive use.

The idea that people need to be encouraged to consume (consumption being the opposite of saving) I don't think is supported by economic theory.

Re: What if money expired?

#86
In America in 2023, everything is corruption.

First, the wealthy would agree to complicated contracts with each other so they trade back and forth to avoid ever letting their money expire.

Then my landlord would sneak into my home and swap my new money for her about-to-expire money.

Then my employer would pay me with about-to-expire money by lying and saying they paid me that money long ago, and offer to pay me in fresh money if I worked a lot more hours and accepted a lower wage.

I's still be where I am, unable to gather enough weapons grade material to get even with The System.

Re: What if money expired?

#89
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I carry around a piece of hard currency (1901 Silver Dollar) to remind me of what real money is like... it's always been worth about 4 retail gallons of gasoline. I expect that trend to continue for at least another decade. Soft money, tends towards zero, as you said.

According to the internet this coin is worth between $45 and $2150, depending on the condition, but its weight in silver is only worth $18.40 [1] [1] https://www.ngccoin.com/coin-explorer/united-states/dollars/...

I don't mess with coin collecting, just the melt value.

Re: What if money expired?

#90

Money do expire! There is inflation... I would like similar system for land ownership and buildings. Property taxes at level of 5%. In China land can not be owned, but only leased for 70 years.

> Money do expire! There is inflation...

If someone put 1 dollar on the bank in 1900, then what would it be worth now, considering both inflation and interest?

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