Residents from the Milwaukee neighborhoods of Riverwest and East Side are scheduled to meet Wednesday to discuss printing their own money...Really?
And it's completely legal.
As long as communities don't create coins, or print bills that resemble federal dollars, organizations are free to produce their own greenbacks—and they'd don't even have to be green.
What if they're "gold, silver, or other metal"?
Well, that was a disappointment. I thought some people were finally seeing the light, and issuing a currency backed by property that would always have value. The article describes coupons with no redemption value outside of the municipality. Even a manufacturer's coupon has a fractional cent value. The notes are actually just gift certificates, but likely exempt from state laws which require gift certificates to be forever worth face value in cash.
ReplyDeleteIf I were the local WalMart manager, I'd buy them up in exchange for another currency. This must be possible, because the Wisconsin DOR accepts only US Dollars for sales tax remittance.
it's legal to print bills of credit that are backed by the municipality simply because they're just as worthless as any other fiat currency. it doesn't matter whether you pretend your bills are backed by a commodity. we saw where that led; this is a whole branch of the great experiment that failed miserably.
ReplyDeleteat least they'll learn first hand why jefferson rhetorically forbade the government from issuing paper "money."
I wonder what would happen if someone started printing money backed by the contractual obligation to provide one hour of unskilled noncompetitive light-exertion labor. (Skilled, competitive or strenuous labor being worth multiples of that unit.)
ReplyDeleteMaybe then people would have a solid idea of the value of money.
Also, we'd have to abolish the concept of the minimum wage, because 1 work-hour would be the minimum wage. If people can't live off that, Mr Politician, you'll have to figure out a way to bring prices down.
I knew immediately what was going to happen to them so I bought some right away.
ReplyDeleteOne thing you can get murdered for in this country, messing with money.
Its telling that the government has a problem with a fake currency that is actually backed by something (gold, silver, etc.) instead of their piece of crap that is backed by debt and more debt and more debt, and printed out of thin air by the billions every year.
ReplyDeleteWould the real counterfeiter please stand up!