Former Hostess Employees Bitter About Wage Cuts (fork lift operator- $11 an hour)

[haele]

105. That's always been an illogical statement. Can't run out of money.

Baroness Maggy Thatcher, Neo-Liberal, was a decent technocrat - a good chemist and saleswoman. She had very little understanding of Money and Market policies other than how she could go about hording enough of it to buy her position of power and whatever else she wanted with it. She had no clue as to what a healthy monetary market is, other than at the time she made her money, she was operating in a fairly healthy "Market" that had a few minor, easily correctable glitches that might reduce the amount of money she could collect off the backs of people who worked for a living or produced tangible assets instead of having their money work for more money. She was a Dragon who set herself above people who weren't as lucky as she was; she was not an economist or frankly, even a good businesswoman. If she had not been lucky enough to have the right personality to get accepted into a rarefied circle of power players early in her political career, we would not be hearing squat about her, and she would be a footnote in history as being one of the inventors of soft-serve ice cream.

Anyway, what is wrong with "What happens when you run out of other's money to spend?" -

1. Money is not finite - it is not a resource, but an agreed upon symbol representing a bargain or means to exchange good. Money is a measure of work required to access a desired good or service at the time of the rendering of the service.

2. Money changes value constantly due to it's circulatory nature: inflation (purchasing ability is less with more money in circulation), deflation (purchasing ability is greater due to less money in circulation), and stagflation (money is stagnant and has "no value"- cannot be lent or borrowed - and costs are set by arbitrary valuation of resource availability).

3. Money relies on confidence to hold any sort of value. That's why currency counterfeiting and fake checks/money transferring is a serious crime that only actually provides a short-term benefit to the counterfeiter; not only does it flood a market with "fake money", people will not want to use money because they're afraid of getting stuck with the fake money that has no crediting value behind it.

It takes both the "Market" force and the community (i.e. governments) to dictate the value of money whether it is a local or global scale - just look at what happens to currency during times of inflation or deflation - when within weeks, what used to be able to be purchased with one of a particular unit of currency "now" requires hundreds or thousands of those measures due to political, environmental or market forces.

Tangible resources - sustenance, housing/productive land, component elements and finished products, are finite, but money isn't finite. So while one can run out of resources or the access to resources, as long as one can work or provide something in trade that can be symbolized through money, and/or the government or a trusted monetary source can one can never run out of money.

That famous "Thatcherism" only makes sense if one looks at money as the primary resource and all other resources as secondary to money. As in, that statement only makes sense if one is greedy and sees life itself as a zero-sum game to be won or lost individually. People who link economics to political systems - i.e. Libertarians, Neo-Liberal/Conservatives, Communists, Oligarchs/Plutocrats often make that sort of tunnel-vision and put actual money in the same critical needs category as air, water, food, social standing rather than as a measure of work.

Practicing the philosophy of economics as a zero-sum game is not a viable economic system, no matter what side of the liberal/conservative, neo-liberal/neo-conservative, communist/capitalist side of the fence you are on.
In fact, I'm inclined to believe that is why there is that old saying "The love of money is the root of all evil". Because the love of money, the hording and over-valuation of money, is what destroys communities, countries, businesses, and empires.

Haele