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Thursday, January 14, 2010

Andrew Jackson on Paper Currency

The paper system being founded on public confidence and having of itself no intrinsic value, it is liable to great and sudden fluctuations, thereby rendering property insecure and the wages of labor unsteady and uncertain. The corporations which create the paper money can not be relied upon to keep the circulating medium uniform in amount. In times of prosperity, when confidence is high, they are tempted by the prospect of gain or by the influence of those who hope to profit by it to extend their issues of paper beyond the bounds of discretion and the reasonable demands of business; and when these issues have been pushed on from day to day, until public confidence is at length shaken, then a reaction takes place, and they immediately withdraw the credits they have given, suddenly curtail their issues, and produce an unexpected and ruinous contraction of the circulating medium, which is felt by the whole community. The banks by this means save themselves, and the mischievous consequences of their imprudence or cupidity are visited upon the public. Nor does the evil stop here. These ebbs and flows in the currency and these indiscreet extensions of credit naturally engender a spirit of speculation injurious to the habits and character of the people. We have already seen its effects in the wild spirit of speculation in the public lands and various kinds of stock which within the last year or two seized upon such a multitude of our citizens and threatened to pervade all classes of society and to withdraw their attention from the sober pursuits of honest industry. It is not by encouraging this spirit that we shall best preserve public virtue and promote the true interests of our country; but if your currency continues as exclusively paper as it now is, it will foster this eager desire to amass wealth without labor; it will multiply the number of dependents on bank accommodations and bank favors; the temptation to obtain money at any sacrifice will become stronger and stronger, and inevitably lead to corruption, which will find its way into your public councils and destroy at no distant day the purity of your Government. Some of the evils which arise from this system of paper press with peculiar hardship upon the class of society least able to bear it.



Вычитал на долларколлапсе. Там вообще много интересного - одна из занятных мыслей - природа денег непрямым образом задает структуру социума. Зависимость здесь конечно не однонаправленная. Но идея вполне четкая.



Твердые деньги поощряют мелкий бизнес и устойчивое развитие. Как-то так... бумажные - наоборот - монополии. Пока ключом к социальному успеху был контроль над физическими средствами производства и материальными активами - деньги были материальными.  Когда ключом стал контроль над законами - деньги стали воплощением этого самого закона (вот даже само понятие fiat currency).



Сначала человек чувствовал себя букашкой без слитка, потом без бумажки, и вот теперь уже без Сети. Если электронные деньги станут обязательным средством платежа - что будет тогда? Если сейчас нас двигают к электронным деньгам - вывод напрашивается сам собой...



Логическое развитие идеи: власть ИИ над органическими остатками человеческой цивилизации...

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