i didnt mention anything about nil inflation, i merely pointed out the fact that currency is in a state of perpetual decline, which of course, it is. Another way of saying that inflation is at 2% would be to say that your money is being devalued by 2%. The reason for this as i said is because the concept of money is based on debt. Debt with interest. Ergo, the debt(s) can never, ever be paid because more is always owed than was borrowed. This is why the money supply becomes worth less and less over time, or, to put it another way, why there is inflation. Controlling inflation is based on the supply of money from creditors to debtors. This leads to measures such as 'quantitive easing' (printing more bits of paper) and rioting in the streets of Greece. Its a never ending cycle that inevitably leads to boom and bust...its an intrinsic part of the cycle, as of course, is the enormous wealth that is created by 1% of people who benefit from a recession. As recession means that people need to borrow money and thus the cycle begins again. It could also be argued that this is one contributing factor as to why the rich get richer etc etc. The happiest societies on earth are not the wealthiest. The happiest societies are those that are the most equal, even of they are dirt poor. Countries with the greatest desparity of wealth have the largest numbers of suicides and depression...The USA for example, where typically 1% or so own the nations wealth. Ironically, the mental health problems are quite equally shared across all of the financial classes. Would you like an explanation why, or is it obvious?
Heres a nice vid that explains the concept of money beautifully. Zeitgeist Money Creation - YouTube werent we talking about computers a few hundred pages ago?
watch the video because i think it explains everything very succinctly. you will see that the concept of modern economics is ridiculous and unsubtainable. theres and interesting stat which mentions that in the US, the american currency has been devalued by 96% in 94 years. $1 in 1914 would have the purchasing power of over $21 in 2008, and its been further devalued in the last 4 years (which is inevitable of course). inflation is a hidden tax. does no one think that the idea of paying £5 for a packet of crisps in absurd? What about £50? £500? or £5,000,000? This is eventually where it will lead...but of course it wont because the current financial mechanism will have melted down by then with global instability...rioting is already happening in europe. Oil is traded in US dollars, therefore, its considered the global currency-the currency by which all others are compared (it used to be gold, hence the term, 'gold standard'). Because oil is traded in dollars, the US receives a commission on all transactions traded in that currency, after all, the Fed create the money..China and India-the fastest growing economies in the world, no longer want to trade in dollars because they dont want to pay this commission and are applying pressure against this. The US is in a state of decline, just like the fall of the British Empire, and it relies on China to prop up its weakening economy (even more than Europe). America not only borrows vasts sums from China but also relies on its (Chinas) purchasing power for goods and services...as do we of course. When oil is no longer traded in dollars the american meltdown will proceed apace and america will become a dangerous force. This happened to the British when the pound was no longer the global economy and we lost our Empire. Many think that this is one of the reasons why the US is securing the oil supply. If they control the oil supply then it is less threatening to them when the dollar is no longer the global currency. This is why the entire pipeline across the middle east is surrounded by US military bases...something like 217 at the last count. The only country to oppose the siting of military bases?? Afghanistan. Other countries capitulated, either by US and allied acts of war or economic terrorism-sanctions, trade embargoes and the like. They went after their friend Saddam Hussein (the one whom they sold weapons to and whose Army they/we trained..after all, he was our friend and kept the local countries in check...and let the americans have lots of bases...anyone remember the Iran Contra scandal?), when he no longer agreed to their terms and attempted to nationalise Irans oil industry and remove the Americans from running its oil industry...... Well..you know the rest. 10 years on and theyre still there and were hanging onto their shirt tails.. But wait?? Wasnt it all about freeing the people and setting up a democracy? It hasnt happened. It was never going to happen..But hang on....werent they going to build an infrastructure, you know..after they destroyed the roads and hospitals?? Yes, thats what they said...Whats happened? Well, huge american corporations like Haliburton (run by a guy called Dick Cheney-you may have heard of him) have built almost nothing....except..military bases with their own infrastructure..they even have Burger King franchises within the military towns theyve built...dont believe it? Google is your friend. Bush (an oil tycoon) and all his cronies (most of whom are in the 'defence' game ie Donald Rumsfeld) are businessmen whove gotten into politics from the get go. Look it up, do some research and have a think about huge corporations, their motives (its too easy to point the finger at Monsanto, Exon and BP, but its a good place to start), the fact that the business leaders and politicians are the same people calling the shots, the fact that the financial system is and always was, unsustainable and tell me that it doesnt matter about the record foreclosures and redundancies...its inherant in the system. If no one took out loans, or if everybody defaulted by common agreement, then the money system would collapse almost immediately. This wont happen, yet, because no one realises that money is made from literally nothing, that only 10% of money is tangible and actually exists, and the developed world hasnt decending into financial, or even civil war.
he shouldn't buy apple as he will transfer way to much money to one company and will contribute to rising inflation as he will pay triple for what he can do just as well on a PC....
In the UK the most recent published inflation figures are around 2.4% - 2.6%, as it happens; that is pretty close to 2%, as I said. A figure of 20% (or minus 10%) obviously would not be close to 2%. That's the world I live in. By the way, I always take percentages after the decimal point with a pinch of salt, when it comes to wide composite economic indicators. Nobody can really measure them with that degree of accuracy anyway.
No, it's no more absurd than paying 5 Yen, 5 Rupees, or 5 Shekels. Our descendants in 100 years time will be using some kind of currency, but there is no reason why it should have the same name or the same value as the currency we happen to be using in UK today.
More and more of the stuff we consume (like literature, games, software, broadcasting) is literally made out of nothing. And a lot more is increasingly made out of materials (like silicon, carbon, aluminium) which are extremely abundant on our planet and will not be running out any time soon. It is true there are some materials of which the supply is limited, but the human way is to invent substitutes using materials which are to hand. The planet is awash with energy, in many different forms, more than the human race could use. As I see it, the "natural limits" you mention might be reached in several centuries' time, but certainly not in the lives of my great-grandchildren if I have any.
Energy drives the world we live in. Yes the planet is awash with energy but the problem is how to tap into that energy in an efficient manner and in a form that we can use. Energy prices are only going to go one way and that is up. I am starting a new thread on the Green Economy.
Yes, very likely. But the point under discussion was whether the resources of the planet are exhausted, so that future growth cannot occur. My point was that as far as energy is concerned, there is plenty of it about and it is therefore not an absolute constraint. As you rightly say the problem is how to tap into it. I have no doubt that scientists and engineers will invent ways, as soon as fossil fuels cease to be cheaper and easier to exploit than other options (which point we have not yet reached).
When fossil fuels cease to be cheaper and easier to exploit than other options those options will by definition be expensive and difficult, the low hanging fruit will have been picked. The discovery of commercial quantities of cheap and plentiful oil was a game changer, there is nothing remotely comparable on the horizon. I have many doubts that scientists and engineers will invent ways to fill the gap that will be left by falling oil production and rising costs. If there was a magic solution we would be adopting it. Read the book Richard Heinberg | The End of Growth it is well researched, well writen, very compelling and gaining traction because it explains the mess we are in.
It's hard to really imagine the future. Look at the last 100 years. The oil economy is barely that long. The silicon economy is only about 30 years old. So I don't really buy the fact that we just won't be able to come up with a cheap solution to oil and that if we could it would have happened by now. There will be stuff in the next 50 years that we haven't even envisioned now. Human ingenuity is not to be underestimated.
There's plenty of oil under the sea around NZ, just too deep to make it economic to retrieve at the moment, I believe there is more oil yet to extracted than has been used to date, just like diamonds it is worth more if it is scarce.
I think he lost interest about three pages ago and decided a new piece of slate and chisel for his cave was the future. :tongue:
I think I'm gonna stick to a Calculator, Diary and a road atlas! Hmmmm! Might be using too much paper though!
