Preindustrial workers worked fewer hours than today's (2009)

Re:Preindustrial workers worked fewer hours than today's (2009) by ClumsyPilot on Thursday August 22, 2019 @08:31AM (#20767293)

I am Russian, and Russia is a total mess, full stop. To address positive rights - societies don't just "run out" of money. As has been repeated a million times, a country with a sovereign currency is not run like a household budget. And the "right to clean water" is rather useful in making sure we don't have outbreaks of the plague and other fun stuff

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Preindustrial workers worked fewer hours than today's (2009) by lotsofpulp on Thursday August 22, 2019 @09:17AM (#20767686)

Money is a proxy for power. That power comes from the ability to trust the government issuing the money and the people the government represents (i.e. the country). You can claim the right to clean water all you want, but unless you fund infrastructure development, and have access to aquifers or fresh water lakes, it doesn't matter how much money a government issues. Similarly, if a country isn't producing enough children to support the elderly, it doesn't quite matter if they've been promised nursing homes.

See Zimbabwe and Venezuela.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Preindustrial workers worked fewer hours than today's (2009) by ernst_klim on Thursday August 22, 2019 @08:35AM (#20767320)

> First, societies don't just run out of money.

Social programs do. Price goes up due to natural reasons, budget goes down due to natural reasons, your government can't provide a service anymore.

The most common example is social security, the pension system. Demography changed, age of retirement goes up, payments go down, and you can't do anything about it.

Sure, the governments try to deflate the price, but there are no miracles, and artificial price deflation causes deficit, for example a deficit of medical personnel or scarcity of a service.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Preindustrial workers worked fewer hours than today's (2009) by xyzzyz on Thursday August 22, 2019 @04:33PM (#20772105)

To address positive rights - societies don't just "run out" of money. As has been repeated a million times, a country with a sovereign currency is not run like a household budget.

Sure, a country with a sovereign currency can create as much currency as they wish. They can never "run out" of money, literally. Practically, though, creating more currency doesn't result in more products being made and services being performed. Most countries are aiming for their currency to hold its real value relatively steady in accord with its nominal value, and you cannot do that if you create more money whenever you "run out" of it. So yes, countries cannot "run out" of money literally, but practically they can and do.

[ Parent | on HN ]