This may be an overly simplistic view of how the economy and economic expansion works, but it's not too far off: any economic system works only so far as the people who use it buy into it (no pun intended but, as always, appreciated), and this is true of whatever the system is. It might be the fiat system that we have all come to know and love/hate. Barter works the same, which is probably the truest form of trade there is. Even crypto works the same: Bitcoin is only worth what it is worth because crypto enthusiasts are willing to purchase it at that price. It's all really quite delicate.
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Fractional reserve banking... an idea so far-out that most people have no clue about it. Or how much it influences their lives.
It works well for some things (i.e. an environment capable of sustaining exponential growth), but the rest of the time? Not so much. Ultimately, the question to ask is, "does the monetary system work for US, or do WE work for the monetary system?" Not hard to see that it's currently the latter.
Yep, for the most part it "just works," and people are content with it. I understand how it grew out of the gold standard, but even gold only has worth because we say it does.
It's scary, and now I'm going to try to not think of it again. 😆
In the end our wealth is limited by top soil. Mono-cropping to pay Peter will eventually starve Paul.
This was clever, Victor:)
Thanks Pryde. 😃 And you're absolutely right about top soil. I think I'm going to turn my entire back yard into a garden.
or a wild pasture ... even better. The grasses grow deep and break up the bedrock.
I like the idea of educating people with comics :)