Zero Value

 

Does the dollar have worth?  No.  It is hard to believe that the official currency of the most powerful nation in the world is worth almost nothing.  So if you doubt me, Dear reader, then please attempt to prove it's value. 

 

Perhaps you can learn to make an origami butterfly out of a dollar bill.  A certain amount of artistic value will be attained, perhaps you could impress a lady friend... 

 

Or, if you have enough dollars you could stack them into tight bales and build a house out of them!  Its up to you. 

 

"No." says you, "I'll prove that this bill has value by treating you to McDonalds." 

Good try Dear Reader, and thanks for the Big Mac, Fries, and Coke.  Delicious!  But you've only proven that everyone else thinks that your dollar bills have value.  You still did not prove that, in fact, your dollar bills DO have a value beyond their potential for rolling Uncle Ben's Dollar Bill Joints!

 

I am not using hyperbole.  Fact is, that the paper in your wallet, and those digits in your bank account, have no value at all.  Just a perception of value.  And 'perception' is not 'reality'.  Both individual and mass perceptions often differ from reality.  Just ask Comrade Lenin and his followers, for they perceived that Communism would actually work!

 

You citizens of the U.S.A. all pretend just as those silly Communists did.  You pretend that your troops fight on foreign soil to spread freedom.  You pretend your democracy is the ultimate political system to be emulated.  And you pretend also that your US Dollar denominated earnings have value, because, if for no other reason, the government says they do, and they would not lie!

 

But the most significant evidence of the USD having value is the fact that merchants accept these dollars in exchange for the goods you need.  Further more, the government it's self accepts its own currency as payment for taxes, permits, tariffs, tickets, fines, etcetera.  So one can have confidence in accepting payment for your efforts in US dollars, because one can always spend those dollars...  Right?

 

But you can only spend those dollars if their is a merchant on the other end of the transaction who is willing to trade you goods for your paper.  And that merchant will only take the paper, if he knows that he can spend it.  It is a collective and enduring delusion, not unlike a Ponzi Scheme. 

 

If you have ever worked retail and inadvertently accepted a counterfeit $100 bill, you'll benefit from this anecdote.  So you're counting cash and notice the counterfeit... "Awe Crap!" says you, thinking over your two choices; (a) take the bill to the bank where you will receive nothing for it, thereby ensuring your $100 loss.  Or (b) walk down the street to the next business and pass off that fake $100 bill for a bundle of real goods.  In other words, pass the counterfeit problem on to the next business person.  The reality of our situation is that all of the money is counterfeit. 

 

All of this paper is counterfeit!  Why does it matter who prints a paper bill if nothing backs the bill?  South Korea, Iran, the Mafia, or the Federal Reserve can each print US dollars, but if none of this paper is representative and exchangeable for a real value such as gold or silver, then its all the exact same trash.

 

But you pretend, and you pass the trash around.  Pass the counterfeit problem, the fraud, the impending disaster onto the next guy.

 

If you stop pretending now, you have a chance.

 

Today, we don't have to pretend a gallon of gas has value.  The value of gasoline is evident to anyone who desires to drive a car from point A to point B. 

 

A barrel of oil, a bushel of wheat, a pound of copper, and an ounce of silver each have objective and measurable values.  They are valuable because human beings need them to live.  They do not have value because a State official deems them to have a certain value.  The market (billions of free trading individuals) determine the values of these commodities, just as they determine the values of laptops and laptop dances.

 

But what happens if everyone wakes up one morning and comes to the realization that the US Dollar is all just ink and paper, or for the most part, electronic data entries?

 

Read On!