That works if your name is John Smith or you don't use your real name on Facebook. If your name Rumplestiltskin Wajaheskeebergstein and you used your real name, they'll search for you and say, "Funny, this guy sure looks like you."
The problem with (5), is that it would be easy for a party to prevent the other from getting anything they want by creating bills that they want to fail with a giant laundry list of everything the opposition wants, vote it down, and prevent the opposition from getting anything for a year.
You missed the biggest liberal idea. Prohibition of alcohol.
That was certainly NOT a liberal idea. It was pushed by the evangelical Protestant churches. It was accomplished with help of the "drys" - The Prohibition Party. You should educate yourself on what "liberal" means. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_liberalism_in_the_United_States
Yes I do, only too well having lived in a communist country.
Perhaps you have lived in a TOTALITARIAN (that happened to also be communist) country, which is what the current thread is implying. TOTALITARIAN != COMMUNIST. There is nothing inherently communist about suppressing speech.
> I'm sure that's what DeBeers said before the creation of lab diamonds. Now their marketing
> machine is doing overtime to sell "natural diamonds" - ones that are less perfect than lab diamonds.
Ain't gonna happen with gold. Totally impractical. Yes, you can bombard platinum with protons, or iridium with beta particles. But guess what...
* platinum and iridium are madly expensive to begin with, too
* you get a miniscule microfraction of an ounce of gold
* you end up with a lot more radioactive byproducts than actual gold
* At the low end of the periodic table, fusion creates energy, e.g. 2 deuturium (hydrogen plus extra neutron) combine to form helium, as in the sun or a hydrogen bomb. But once you get past iron on the periodic table, *FUSION CONSUMES ENERGY*, while fission releases energy. Think nuclear reactors or atomic bombs. Both use any of thorium/uranium/plutonium. Even without the radioactivity, fusing platinum or iridium with 1 or 2 protons would consume a huge amount of energy. Consider how much you could sell the equivalant amount of hydro power for.
I'm not saying it will happen, only that it could theoretically happen. There was a time when a similar argument was made against artificial diamonds.
Sigh. As I said diamonds are not ideal for money because they cannot be divided into denominations easily, not easily measured, etc. Its all good though dude...I'll keep saving gold, and you can save your "dollars". Hey let me know youre doing after we hit hyperinflation.
Oh, they try it here in Australia. I've heard some horror stories. But they can't legally insist on using a branded mechanic for general services. That's why we have accreditation for auto mechanics.
I'm curious. Does that mean if you have your car worked on by an accredited mechanic, the warranty has to be honored no matter how much an accredited mechanic (theoretically) screws it up? If not, the dealer could say, "Oh, that accredited mechanic really botched your transmission, so if you want it fixed take it back to him," while the accredited mechanic says, "The dealer is lying, the transmission failed, they have to replace it."
But part of the reason why gold has value is that it is a scarce resource, unlike beer cans for example. And yes, I agree if we found some huge pile of gold then yes that would cause inflation. But thats a straw man argument cause that not going to happen. The amount of gold mined per year roughly keeps up with the population growth (about 3%/year).
I'm sure that's what DeBeers said before the creation of lab diamonds. Now their marketing machine is doing overtime to sell "natural diamonds" - ones that are less perfect than lab diamonds.
In the real world, we're not stuck with either extreme.
My refrigerator manufacturer doesn't license repairers. If it's still under warranty, of course I'll go through the manufacturer/supplier first, because assuming it is covered by the warranty, they'll fix it for free. But all other things being equal, I'll personally go with the repairman I've used for years with many different household appliances, who is appropriately qualified, highly experienced and offers a pretty good guarantee on his own work.
That's fine if you have such a person, but if you move to a new area you'd be going with a "licensed" repairman (standard fare, here in the U.S)
I've never bought a new car, but where I live, auto mechanics are licensed by the peak automobile industry body. If you want to get your car repaired under the warranty, you go back to the dealer who will do it for free. But for a general service, even under the warranty period, you can use any qualified mechanic. "Qualifications" are endorsed by the peak automotive industry body.
Oh, you're really missing out on the whole new car buying experience. Believe me, they try everything to make you think a brand-specific mechanic is the only way to go, especially with all the new-fangled electronics and such in new cars these days. Oh, you took it to someone else, they really messed up the whatchamacallit - so sorry about your warranty.
Ok, fair enough. The agreed value is what counts. But my point stands. Gold (and to a lesser extent silver) is simply the best materials to use as commodity money. Using beer cans would not make sense. Gold as a medium of exchange works out very well. History shows this. Are you arguing that something else would be better used as commodity money?
No, I was only arguing that gold has value (almost) only because of agreement (against your argument that gold "can be used in industry or for ornaments").
Now, all this has nothing to do with fiat money. If we are talking gold -vs- fiat money, then gold still wins. Receipt money is fine. This is where you keep gold at a bank, and they issue a receipt to reclaim your gold. Assuming there is no fractional lending, this is ok. Fractional money always leads to fiat money. Fiat money however has no backing whatsoever. The main problem with fiat money is the ease of devaluing it via inflation. At least fractional money inflation backed by some gold would put some realistic limit on printing money. But a total fiat money (what we have) leads to total devaluation. A 1913 dollar today is worth about 4 cents or so.
Although that is a different matter than that to which I was speaking, since gold has little intrinsic value (compared to agreed value) it has some characteristics of a fiat money (including the possibility of loss of value by a new gigantic find or the ability to make it in the lab).
In addition, fiat money is not all bad, so declaring "gold still wins" is not as clear-cut as the results of a horse race.
Money is a medium of exchange. There are certain attributes that good commodity money must have. People have used food or livestock, or other items like seashells or stones. Metals became widely used in trading. They had intrinsic value (could be used for other thigns than money), they are not perishable, by melting they can be divided into smaller units (would be hard with diamonds fo rexample), and are not able to be counterfeited.
One metal was selected by centuries of trial and error. Gold was commonly used as currency. There seems to be just the right amount to keep its value high enough for useful coinage. It is less plentiful than silver (which is used as a close second as money). Its weight can be precisely measured.
Gold has shown to be very stable. For example, at the Savoy Hotel in London, one gold sovereign will buy dinner for three exactly as it did in 1913. In ancient Rome, 1 ounce of gold would buy a fine made toga, belt, and sandals. Today, 1 ounce of gold will buy a hand crafted suit.
Yet you still don't argue with the fact that gold's "intrinsic" value is a small fraction of its agreed value, which was my entire point.
None of that has anything to do with being a good or terrible currency.
A good currency is more or less constant quantity, hard to make more on demand. Doesn't tarnish or rot or otherwise disappear over time. Infinitely divisible (unlike, say, seashells or cows). High volumetric value density and high mass value density. Basically the opposite of beer.
Not the opposite of beer on a couple of your points. Beer is as infinitely divisible as gold and is more or less constant quantity (due to supply/demand production/imbibing).
The iPad 1 can still do amazing things that you cannot do on a computer (like play a piano, or paint to name just two out of a thousand things), but for many, their battries has started to fail.
Citation needed. I use my iPad 1 every fucking day for music playing. The battery still holds for hours and hours.
Even if you can't fix your fridge, there are plenty of people who can, none of whom require permission from the manufacturer. This prevents the manufacturer and the repairer forming a cartel.
So when you call a refrigerator repairman are you going to pick the one that is "licensed to work on Maytag" (especially if you're still under warranty) or some Joe-the-Plumber who says he can do it? It's the same thing there.
You could just purchase ONE application that manages all of this for you.
Besides, I don't generally make it a habit of using applications that request location services yet don't seem to have a reason to do so.
Oh right, you use an iPhone and you can't see those permissions before you download. Sorry.
Oh quit trolling. On an iPhone the app will ask after you download and if you don't like that, just delete it. BFD!
Slashdot Mirror
Do it yourself. Capitalism is NOT a form of government.
That works if your name is John Smith or you don't use your real name on Facebook. If your name Rumplestiltskin Wajaheskeebergstein and you used your real name, they'll search for you and say, "Funny, this guy sure looks like you."
The problem with (5), is that it would be easy for a party to prevent the other from getting anything they want by creating bills that they want to fail with a giant laundry list of everything the opposition wants, vote it down, and prevent the opposition from getting anything for a year.
Can we abbreviate face transplant to faceplant?
You missed the biggest liberal idea. Prohibition of alcohol.
That was certainly NOT a liberal idea. It was pushed by the evangelical Protestant churches. It was accomplished with help of the "drys" - The Prohibition Party. You should educate yourself on what "liberal" means. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_liberalism_in_the_United_States
What was that Republican President's name again? Hmm...it's on the tip of my tongue.
That's because it wasn't always the case that Liberal -> Democrat. Yes, Lincoln was a Republican. He was also liberal. Deal with it.
Whoosh!
Mod +200 - No fucking shit.
"'This is some of the best driving I've ever done,' Steve Mahan said the other day.
I guess he usually uses those pavement reflector thingies to drive by braille.
I could not possibly agree with you more.
Yes I do, only too well having lived in a communist country.
Perhaps you have lived in a TOTALITARIAN (that happened to also be communist) country, which is what the current thread is implying. TOTALITARIAN != COMMUNIST. There is nothing inherently communist about suppressing speech.
Everyone believes that Democracy won the cold war over Communism, but given what's happening in the west today, how true is that?
It appears that you have no idea what Communism actually is.
"The case relates to events such as former Formula One boss Max Mosley's legal bid to prevent Google linking to illegally obtained images of himself."
Please stop using the reflexive pronoun (himself) when you mean to use the object pronoun (him).
> I'm sure that's what DeBeers said before the creation of lab diamonds. Now their marketing > machine is doing overtime to sell "natural diamonds" - ones that are less perfect than lab diamonds.
Ain't gonna happen with gold. Totally impractical. Yes, you can bombard platinum with protons, or iridium with beta particles. But guess what... * platinum and iridium are madly expensive to begin with, too * you get a miniscule microfraction of an ounce of gold * you end up with a lot more radioactive byproducts than actual gold * At the low end of the periodic table, fusion creates energy, e.g. 2 deuturium (hydrogen plus extra neutron) combine to form helium, as in the sun or a hydrogen bomb. But once you get past iron on the periodic table, *FUSION CONSUMES ENERGY*, while fission releases energy. Think nuclear reactors or atomic bombs. Both use any of thorium/uranium/plutonium. Even without the radioactivity, fusing platinum or iridium with 1 or 2 protons would consume a huge amount of energy. Consider how much you could sell the equivalant amount of hydro power for.
I'm not saying it will happen, only that it could theoretically happen. There was a time when a similar argument was made against artificial diamonds.
Sigh. As I said diamonds are not ideal for money because they cannot be divided into denominations easily, not easily measured, etc. Its all good though dude...I'll keep saving gold, and you can save your "dollars". Hey let me know youre doing after we hit hyperinflation.
Will do. Let me know when the gold boom busts.
Oh, they try it here in Australia. I've heard some horror stories. But they can't legally insist on using a branded mechanic for general services. That's why we have accreditation for auto mechanics.
I'm curious. Does that mean if you have your car worked on by an accredited mechanic, the warranty has to be honored no matter how much an accredited mechanic (theoretically) screws it up? If not, the dealer could say, "Oh, that accredited mechanic really botched your transmission, so if you want it fixed take it back to him," while the accredited mechanic says, "The dealer is lying, the transmission failed, they have to replace it."
But part of the reason why gold has value is that it is a scarce resource, unlike beer cans for example. And yes, I agree if we found some huge pile of gold then yes that would cause inflation. But thats a straw man argument cause that not going to happen. The amount of gold mined per year roughly keeps up with the population growth (about 3%/year).
I'm sure that's what DeBeers said before the creation of lab diamonds. Now their marketing machine is doing overtime to sell "natural diamonds" - ones that are less perfect than lab diamonds.
In the real world, we're not stuck with either extreme.
My refrigerator manufacturer doesn't license repairers. If it's still under warranty, of course I'll go through the manufacturer/supplier first, because assuming it is covered by the warranty, they'll fix it for free. But all other things being equal, I'll personally go with the repairman I've used for years with many different household appliances, who is appropriately qualified, highly experienced and offers a pretty good guarantee on his own work.
That's fine if you have such a person, but if you move to a new area you'd be going with a "licensed" repairman (standard fare, here in the U.S)
I've never bought a new car, but where I live, auto mechanics are licensed by the peak automobile industry body. If you want to get your car repaired under the warranty, you go back to the dealer who will do it for free. But for a general service, even under the warranty period, you can use any qualified mechanic. "Qualifications" are endorsed by the peak automotive industry body.
Oh, you're really missing out on the whole new car buying experience. Believe me, they try everything to make you think a brand-specific mechanic is the only way to go, especially with all the new-fangled electronics and such in new cars these days. Oh, you took it to someone else, they really messed up the whatchamacallit - so sorry about your warranty.
Ok, fair enough. The agreed value is what counts. But my point stands. Gold (and to a lesser extent silver) is simply the best materials to use as commodity money. Using beer cans would not make sense. Gold as a medium of exchange works out very well. History shows this. Are you arguing that something else would be better used as commodity money?
No, I was only arguing that gold has value (almost) only because of agreement (against your argument that gold "can be used in industry or for ornaments").
Now, all this has nothing to do with fiat money. If we are talking gold -vs- fiat money, then gold still wins. Receipt money is fine. This is where you keep gold at a bank, and they issue a receipt to reclaim your gold. Assuming there is no fractional lending, this is ok. Fractional money always leads to fiat money. Fiat money however has no backing whatsoever. The main problem with fiat money is the ease of devaluing it via inflation. At least fractional money inflation backed by some gold would put some realistic limit on printing money. But a total fiat money (what we have) leads to total devaluation. A 1913 dollar today is worth about 4 cents or so.
Although that is a different matter than that to which I was speaking, since gold has little intrinsic value (compared to agreed value) it has some characteristics of a fiat money (including the possibility of loss of value by a new gigantic find or the ability to make it in the lab). In addition, fiat money is not all bad, so declaring "gold still wins" is not as clear-cut as the results of a horse race.
Money is a medium of exchange. There are certain attributes that good commodity money must have. People have used food or livestock, or other items like seashells or stones. Metals became widely used in trading. They had intrinsic value (could be used for other thigns than money), they are not perishable, by melting they can be divided into smaller units (would be hard with diamonds fo rexample), and are not able to be counterfeited. One metal was selected by centuries of trial and error. Gold was commonly used as currency. There seems to be just the right amount to keep its value high enough for useful coinage. It is less plentiful than silver (which is used as a close second as money). Its weight can be precisely measured. Gold has shown to be very stable. For example, at the Savoy Hotel in London, one gold sovereign will buy dinner for three exactly as it did in 1913. In ancient Rome, 1 ounce of gold would buy a fine made toga, belt, and sandals. Today, 1 ounce of gold will buy a hand crafted suit.
Yet you still don't argue with the fact that gold's "intrinsic" value is a small fraction of its agreed value, which was my entire point.
None of that has anything to do with being a good or terrible currency.
A good currency is more or less constant quantity, hard to make more on demand. Doesn't tarnish or rot or otherwise disappear over time. Infinitely divisible (unlike, say, seashells or cows). High volumetric value density and high mass value density. Basically the opposite of beer.
Not the opposite of beer on a couple of your points. Beer is as infinitely divisible as gold and is more or less constant quantity (due to supply/demand production/imbibing).
That's not true. Gold has intrinsic value. It can be used in industry or for ornaments.
So can empty beer cans. Gold's "intrinsic" value is a minute fraction of it's agreed upon value.
The iPad 1 can still do amazing things that you cannot do on a computer (like play a piano, or paint to name just two out of a thousand things), but for many, their battries has started to fail.
Citation needed. I use my iPad 1 every fucking day for music playing. The battery still holds for hours and hours.
Even if you can't fix your fridge, there are plenty of people who can, none of whom require permission from the manufacturer. This prevents the manufacturer and the repairer forming a cartel.
So when you call a refrigerator repairman are you going to pick the one that is "licensed to work on Maytag" (especially if you're still under warranty) or some Joe-the-Plumber who says he can do it? It's the same thing there.
You could just purchase ONE application that manages all of this for you. Besides, I don't generally make it a habit of using applications that request location services yet don't seem to have a reason to do so. Oh right, you use an iPhone and you can't see those permissions before you download. Sorry.
Oh quit trolling. On an iPhone the app will ask after you download and if you don't like that, just delete it. BFD!