re: #832 reine.de.tout

I’m not getting drcordell either.
The government prints the money and so it owns the currency.

but if I’ve performed work and I have earned the value of that currency, it just seems to me that value is mine to spend, not the government’s. Except drcordell doesn’t think so.

It’s simple.

You have not earned any value whatsoever. You have earned X amount of that currency. What the value is (value = what you can get for that currency) is determined by the market (= us), the exchange rates, and what value the government sets on your paper. If for whatever reasons the government (any government) decides to devalue its currency by 20% tomorrow, your paper is “worth” one fifth less than it was today.

Paper itself has no value other than as a representation of our common agreements about worth. (And for printing things on or wiping them with.) The government doesn’t have to devalue it, either - we could all wake up tomorrow and agree that the dollar isn’t worth a dime, and it would be so.

“Value” is what we agree it is. It’s purely notional.

The same is true for gold, by the way. We just like it better because it’s shiny and doesn’t burn. Still can’t eat it, much like paper.