Re: FIAT MONEY
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Another intresting thing to think about is how 90% of the wealth in the U.S is digital... that is, abstract- with absolutely nothing, not even paper bills, backing it up... yet, the system works, because of consensus and the necessity of a monetary system to handle the exchange of goods and services.
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The whole concept of money and wealth has been an abstract creation all along, AFAIC. Strip away those abstractions (as you describe above), and what you're left with is the reality that the abstract illusion masks: a broad social order for the production of particular goods and services, and for justifying the subsequent distribution of the products of that labor. Numbers in digital bank accounts are the smoke and mirrors that keep us performing our role in that machine, rather than working to redesign it to better suit our needs.
As to your statement that land and other (survival) resources are not "wealth", I would both agree and disagree with that. On the one hand, they do not necessarily have any intrinsic exchange-value, because that is a socially ascribed concept which is, necessarily, subjective and contextually dependent. But on the other hand, they have a utility-value in that they provide a means for survival -- a place to build a house, a place to grow food, a place to sleep at night, etc. So, in that more fundamental sense, these are things of great value (which decorative metals like gold, ironically, are not).
Interesting to think about, anyway.
q/q
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