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Thought experiment

Discussion in 'Money Talk$' started by billwald, Sep 16, 2009.

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  1. billwald

    billwald New Member

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    Say the cost of warp drives decreases in 200 years and the optimum size for a space ship is 10,000 people, about the size of a cruise ship. Say there is a Baptist colonizing project in the works. It will be a one way trip and you can buy in. There will be sufficient fuel to explore several known planets that appear to be earth-like and should support a colony.

    What sort of economic system should the colony start with? What will you use for a medium of exchange? Why?

    I ask because all discussions of money systems seem to end up with the system we used 2000 years ago being the best. Does anyone propose that some of the fuel and equipment be replaced with a half ton of gold coins so that you can have Bible approved money?
     
    #1 billwald, Sep 16, 2009
  2. TomVols

    TomVols New Member

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    I would disagree that the Bible approves gold as currency. It does not, no more than it approves of the Denarius. I have mixed feelings about ever going back to a gold standard. There are issues with doing so. The major thing right now is how, according to Friedman, the world is "flat."

    Whatever system we use, I'd like to see a govt approach its domestic policy, trade policy, and foreign policy that doesn't wrecklessly endanger its currency. I'd also like to see a fairer form of taxation like the flat tax since we're starting all over and all.

    That's essentially what you're asking. I would not want to live on the Baptist colony on the moon you mention. Dancing would be forbidden and only the first and last stanzas of songs would ever be sung. :laugh:
     
    #2 TomVols, Sep 17, 2009
  3. rbell

    rbell Active Member

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    What a terrible, horrible, awful lie.












    We sometimes sing the second verse. :D
     
    #3 rbell, Sep 17, 2009
  4. KenH

    KenH Well-Known Member

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    It would depend upon what was a valuable commodity on the planet...what could be considered as a store of value over time.
     
    #4 KenH, Sep 17, 2009
  5. billwald

    billwald New Member

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    Due to the weather and other reasons, the Indian People of the Pacific North West had no "valuable commodity ...what could be considered as a store of value over time" except maybe slaves. Until the white people arrived and messed things up they thought they were rich. They were so rich that they invented the potlach, an inter-tribal party at which the tribe that gave away the most stuff "won."

    Seems to me that only people "of the Book" and those corrupted by people "of the book" seem to need a store of value over time . . . or their store of value over time is traditions and customs.
     
    #5 billwald, Sep 17, 2009
  6. KenH

    KenH Well-Known Member

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    I doubt that a society has ever existed or will ever exist that does not have at least something(however one defines that thing) that is considered to be a store of value.
     
    #6 KenH, Sep 17, 2009
  7. billwald

    billwald New Member

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    I suspect that "money" began as a convenience and not as a store of value.

    Even today, money functions as an IOU for future goods and services. In other words, for buying useful stuff in the future. Cash money functions as govt-backed IOUs. Cash (as in greenbacks) is a liability, not an asset.
     
    #7 billwald, Sep 18, 2009
  8. KenH

    KenH Well-Known Member

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    Gold is undeniable a store of value.
     
    #8 KenH, Sep 18, 2009
  9. billwald

    billwald New Member

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    Over time gold roughly parallels the inflation rate so it is not an "investment." The people who make out like bandits are the gold traders. Buy metallic gold and lose 20% up front.
     
    #9 billwald, Sep 19, 2009
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