What’s a little ironic about this is that debts and ledgers predate “money” (in fact they predate writing) and were an innovation of the Bronze Age civilizations, specifically the Temple setting of weights and measures along with record keeping (the aforementioned debts and ledgers). So while the current arrangement doesn’t require “faith” exactly (it’s probably better to characterize it as a set of expectations about how institutions and other individuals within the system behave) it very much emerged from and owes its genesis to faith traditions long since abandoned.
Hi Brett, exciting how you develop this track! Your articles are best about money I read! Indeed, money has something to do with the "I" and the "everyone else". And it has something to do with contributions and subscription rights and therefore with distribution and distributive justice. A thing that is denied strongly by contemporary neoliberal ideology. Hope to read more soon. Regards.
Perhaps we should look into religion not only from the angel of a belief in god(s) but rather a tool that helps advance the interest of groups trying to keep the masses under control, to say the list, and achieve desired outcomes using reasoning that resonates with needed factions. In that sense all that works could be considered as such: money, democracies, central powers, dictatorships, network gatekeepers, gaming networks, social scoring, humanitarian reliefs, schools, borders, etc. Perhaps too much for a usual person to be concerned about? Let alone to try to take control of... Let me make a prediction that with the pace of development we are witnessing, concept of money will soon be obsolete, there will be a singular market(s), direct barter of skills, products and services, all to be in abundance. We may need a new vertical to be built and believed in: could it be the happiness doctrine - in the sense of constructing all what constitutes human civilization and habitat to serve the happiness of a single person as the building block or vision if you like? Thanks for the article!))
Can we say that the structure of money is as murky and rickety as the law that undergirds it? To what end would you and I utilize a better depiction of an emergent structure of the poorly constituted currencies in circulation?
Hi Christopher, certainly the legal system is part of the structure of money, giving weight to the tokens via legal tender laws etc. We can go into this in due course. To answer your second question: it is politically very useful to have a more accurate description of the monetary system, because it provides us with a much better basis from which to assess economic developments, make decisions, or interventions
Perhaps. Still, I worry that by attributing an emergent structure to money, we are being too deferential to what is and undermining our ability to improve its structure. Seems like an impeccably constituted prosocial currency ought to outperform metrics of credit conjured by and for special interest groups.
What’s a little ironic about this is that debts and ledgers predate “money” (in fact they predate writing) and were an innovation of the Bronze Age civilizations, specifically the Temple setting of weights and measures along with record keeping (the aforementioned debts and ledgers). So while the current arrangement doesn’t require “faith” exactly (it’s probably better to characterize it as a set of expectations about how institutions and other individuals within the system behave) it very much emerged from and owes its genesis to faith traditions long since abandoned.
Great point!
Hi Brett, exciting how you develop this track! Your articles are best about money I read! Indeed, money has something to do with the "I" and the "everyone else". And it has something to do with contributions and subscription rights and therefore with distribution and distributive justice. A thing that is denied strongly by contemporary neoliberal ideology. Hope to read more soon. Regards.
Thanks Jens!
Perhaps we should look into religion not only from the angel of a belief in god(s) but rather a tool that helps advance the interest of groups trying to keep the masses under control, to say the list, and achieve desired outcomes using reasoning that resonates with needed factions. In that sense all that works could be considered as such: money, democracies, central powers, dictatorships, network gatekeepers, gaming networks, social scoring, humanitarian reliefs, schools, borders, etc. Perhaps too much for a usual person to be concerned about? Let alone to try to take control of... Let me make a prediction that with the pace of development we are witnessing, concept of money will soon be obsolete, there will be a singular market(s), direct barter of skills, products and services, all to be in abundance. We may need a new vertical to be built and believed in: could it be the happiness doctrine - in the sense of constructing all what constitutes human civilization and habitat to serve the happiness of a single person as the building block or vision if you like? Thanks for the article!))
Thanks for the comments Natus!
to say the least))
Important connections between money and institutions (and reality) are stated by John R. Searle:
https://academic.oup.com/cje/article-abstract/41/5/1453/4096478
https://doi.org/10.1093/cje/bex034
Can we say that the structure of money is as murky and rickety as the law that undergirds it? To what end would you and I utilize a better depiction of an emergent structure of the poorly constituted currencies in circulation?
Hi Christopher, certainly the legal system is part of the structure of money, giving weight to the tokens via legal tender laws etc. We can go into this in due course. To answer your second question: it is politically very useful to have a more accurate description of the monetary system, because it provides us with a much better basis from which to assess economic developments, make decisions, or interventions
Perhaps. Still, I worry that by attributing an emergent structure to money, we are being too deferential to what is and undermining our ability to improve its structure. Seems like an impeccably constituted prosocial currency ought to outperform metrics of credit conjured by and for special interest groups.
I have yes