{"id":24131,"date":"2017-06-11T18:59:01","date_gmt":"2017-06-11T23:59:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=24131"},"modified":"2017-06-11T18:59:01","modified_gmt":"2017-06-11T23:59:01","slug":"debt-based-money-corrodes-society","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=24131","title":{"rendered":"Debt-Based Money Corrodes Society"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"small-12 medium-10 medium-centered columns featured-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dweaay7e22a7h.cloudfront.net\/wp-content_3\/uploads\/2017\/06\/shutterstock_189583550-650x360.jpg\" alt=\"Debt-Based Money Corrodes Society\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row content-body\">\n<div class=\"small-12 medium-10 medium-centered columns\">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<h3 class=\"small-12 medium-2 columns\"><span style=\"color: #222222;\"><\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/dailyreckoning.com\/debt-based-money-corrodes-society\/\">Debt-Based Money Corrodes Society<\/a><\/h3>\n<div id=\"single-article-body\" class=\"small-12 medium-10 columns single-article\">\n<p>We open today\u2019s reckoning with a hypothesis:<\/p>\n<p class=\"blockquote\"><i>The current monetary system debauches the culture.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Long-suffering readers are familiar with our\u2026 <i>diminished<\/i> regard for paper money.<\/p>\n<p>Paper money \u2014 or digital money nowadays \u2014 is the great bogeyman of the boom\/bust cycle. It inflates bubbles of every model and make.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, paper money fuels big government\u2026 as oxygen fuels fire.<\/p>\n<p>But paper money\u2019s effects on the culture?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt has a very important impact on our culture,\u201d writes economist Jorg Guido Hulsmann.<\/p>\n<p>Under \u201cnatural money\u201d like gold Hulsmann explains, prices tend to fall over time.<\/p>\n<p>So natural money encourages the virtues of saving\u2026 thrift\u2026 deferred gratification. It sets the mind to the future:<\/p>\n<p class=\"blockquote\"><i>In a free economy with a natural monetary system, there is a strong incentive to save money\u2026 Investments in savings accounts or other relatively safe investments also play a certain role, but cash hoarding is paramount.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Before the 20th century, explains Hulsmann, debt was a cultural taboo\u2026 a big scarlet \u201cD.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Credit for households was virtually unknown, he says. And only the poorest households resorted to debt-financed consumption.<\/p>\n<p>Ah, but then the 20th century came along with its wars\u2026 its social movements\u2026 and its cranks\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Gold is a famously uncooperative agent of change.<\/p>\n<p>It resists social uplift, in the same way an old man resists a new pair of shoes.<\/p>\n<p>It turns away from the sound of trumpets.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou go over there,\u201d gold says. \u201cI\u2019m staying here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe trouble with gold is that it turns its back on world improvers, empire builders and do-gooders,\u201d wrote Bill Bonner and our leader Addison Wiggin in <i>Empire of Debt.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe nice thing about gold is that it is so unresponsive,\u201d they continued. \u201cIt neither laughs nor applauds.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And that\u2019s why it couldn\u2019t last\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Only a debt-backed system of paper money could finance the great wars, the social improvements and the fevered dreams of the 20th century.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Debt-Based Money Corrodes Society We open today\u2019s reckoning with a hypothesis: The current monetary system debauches the culture. Long-suffering readers are familiar with our\u2026 diminished regard for paper money. Paper money \u2014 or digital money nowadays \u2014 is the great bogeyman of the boom\/bust cycle. It inflates bubbles of every model and make. Meanwhile, paper [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[15379,15378,15299,309,2069,536,736],"class_list":["post-24131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-liberty","tag-boombust-cycle","tag-brian-maher","tag-debt-based-money","tag-fiat-currency","tag-monetary-system","tag-money","tag-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24131"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24132,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24131\/revisions\/24132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}