[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: Re:Global Currency
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Please help make the Manifesto better, or accept it, and propagate it!
---------------------------------------------------------------------
> From: Srinath S
>
> The whole problem (of global free markets and global currency) arises
because
> money is a representation of an intangible thing called "value". Some
> commodity or service is of "value" to us if it meets our demands. The
consumer
> pays for something based on its perceived value to him/her.
>
> The problem with using energy is firstly the question of "measuring" the
exact
> amount of energy required to perform a task. For example, a fat person may
> burn more joules to perform a task than a thin person. So should we pay
the
> fat person more than the thin person? :)
>
About your above question, should a fat person get
paid more, or the previous question about the energy
requirement of a person living in north Sweden and
in a tropical country - the answer is do we pay a fat
person more now! If not, in energy based currency system
also fat person will not get paid more but he has to adjust
how he spends the money he earns to buy more food, like
wise the person living in north Sweden has to work harder
to earn more money to spend more on fossil fuels to keep
warm or he as to find better way to keep warm by spending
less money on fuels, that was exactly what was happening
before western people started using fossil fuels, isn't it?
>
> And secondly the problem is also that something which has the same "value"
> might require vastly different amounts of energies depending on the
physical
> location.
>
The value of products will change according to the
physical location, it is true now also isn't it!
Vegetables are cheaper in the village it is grown,
when we transport it to the city, energy is expended
both fuel, manpower of the truck driver and even pay
the people who built the truck, whole chain of people
involved in getting the vegetable to the buyer......
The current imbalance in trade/economy comes due
to people in some parts of the world use more flues,
use of the fuels is fine as long as it does not pollute
the air/environment which all people in the world has
the same right. The cost of the pollution is not coming
into the picture in the current currency system, that
is why it is favourable to people who use more fossil
fuels. By calibrating all currencies against a clean
energy source will sort out this problem and establish
an equilibrium in favour of most energy efficient
production process using more non polluting energy
sources.
>
> Here is a question. Why is gold so expensive? I have thought a lot about
this,
> but cannot come to a conclusion other than "for historical reasons". One
> cannot eat gold, gold is not hard as iron or lead, it is not light as
lithium
> or duralumin, it cannot be used to build roads, it cannot be used as
manure,
> it cannot be used to run machines, it cannot be used to write software...
Its
> properties that it is insoluble and malleable seems as arbitrary as
anything
> else. It is simply that, historically gold has been expensive and used as
a
> standard which continues today.
>
> Srinath
>
>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is the National Debate on System Reform. debate@indiapolicy.org
Rules, Procedures, Archives: http://www.indiapolicy.org/debate/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------