Re:What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know not...
by immibis on Monday May 19, 2025 @07:32AM
(#44028667)
Doing this in an environment where nobody is using dollars will lead to guillotines. The dollar has to be useful for exchange first, and then they can demand tax to be paid in it.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Re:What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know not...
by imtringued on Monday May 19, 2025 @11:04AM
(#44030647)
Uhm no? This is illogical. You just declared money worthless. Nobody is gonna bring out the guillotines if the government demands worthless paper. They'll happily give the worthless paper to the government.
Re:What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know not...
by immibis on Monday May 19, 2025 @03:00PM
(#44033491)
How will they acquire the worthless paper?
Re:What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know not...
by alex43578 on Monday May 19, 2025 @04:35PM
(#44034543)
So this thought experiment isn't just that "everyone decides dollars are worthless" but also that the state is dissolved, along with all the property rights and the govt's monopoly on violence?
That's more like saying "Dollars are worthless in a scenario like Fallout or The Road", rather than making any relevant point about government efforts to maintain fiat currency.
In the original scenario of "people decide dollars are worthless... nothing the government can do", my point was that the government has a lot of levers to pull to backstop value, albeit at a far lower level than today's dollar.