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Rock/Paper/Scissors currency system

I am richer than you, and vice versa.
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It is generally accepted that money, these days, is nonsense. Most of us have negative money, owed to banks who have positive balance sheets made up of negative money. It is much more painful for a person to be £100,000 in debt than it is for a country to be £100,000,000 in debt. Et cetera et cetera.

Given this state of affairs, further confusion can only make things better. Therefore, I propose a currency system based on rock/paper/scissors. Specifically:

1 dollar = 5 shillings
1 shilling = 8 pounds
1 pound = 5 dollars.

Thus, a dollar is worth 200 dollars, a shilling is worth 200 shillings, and a pound is worth 200 pounds. Change- making becomes a win/win process, and almost any financial transaction benefits both parties. Even better, rather than 1% of the population owning 90% of the wealth, everyone can be richer than everyone else, allowing 100% of the population each to own well over 90% of the wealth. The circulation of money, which most economists agree is a good thing, would become so beneficial that a huge financial reverse-tornado would arise.

This would lead to some new and interesting economics. For example, buying a cheap item using the change from buying an expensive item might make you incredibly rich, whereas buying the cheap item first and the expensive item second would bankrupt you.

As another bonus, the poorest people in society, dealing only in the smallest of small change, could pay off the national debt (much as they do today). In so doing, they would become incredibly wealthy from the even smaller change arising from the transaction.

MaxwellBuchanan, Aug 22 2014

paper_2c_20scissors...20fillet_20steak_2e [hippo, Aug 26 2014]

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       //Given this state of affairs, further confusion can only make things better. //   

       [marked-for-tagline]
8th of 7, Aug 22 2014
  

       If you don't stop this I may just die laughing, asphyxia perhaps.
Skewed, Aug 23 2014
  

       This will only make shiny metals more edible.
4and20, Aug 23 2014
  

       This would solve all of my problems.
the porpoise, Aug 24 2014
  

       Surely the best r/s/p currency would be based on the items mentioned?   

       Scissors are about a quid a go, rocks tend to be cheap, so gravel could act as small change, and paper in the form of banknotes for higher denominations...   

       At a rough go, 1269 bits of gravel make up a scissor, and there's ten scissors to the tenner, so it works out nicely.   

       Also the having to re-jigger all the cashpoint machines and shop tills would provide much needed work for engineering companies.   

       //The circulation of money, which most economists agree is a good thing   

       That only refers to their own money, and when it's circulating into their wallets.
not_morrison_rm, Aug 24 2014
  

       Is this not the system that is already in use? Some people call it currency speculation, others call it making a killing on the exchanges.
DrBob, Aug 26 2014
  

       Why 'Rock/paper/scissors'? - surely it should be based on 'Rock/paper/scissors/Fillet steak', or the more complete and playable game (in the sense of not having what [supercat] termed an "edge imbalance") 'Rock/paper/scissors/Fillet steak/Uri Geller'? (see link)
hippo, Aug 26 2014
  

       //Is this not the system that is already in use?// It seems a very close description of some aspects of the Weimar republic where a member of the peasantry might sell a single potato for many billions of marks.
zen_tom, Aug 26 2014
  

       Ah, but she couldn't then sell one of the marks for a billion potatoes.
MaxwellBuchanan, Aug 26 2014
  

       Not without some form of time-travel, no - at which point most currency systems go awry anyway. Only the most stoic of monetary systems are time- invariant.   

       I think one problem with this is that disputes may well arise, and without any form of mediation, are likely to be resolved to the favour of the party with the scariest and most furrowed brow.
zen_tom, Aug 26 2014
  

       //marks for a billion potatoes   

       Fungibility issues, and very much like Turkish lira in the 1990`s, couple of million lira for a can of beer....   

       Not to mention the South Korean Won, I was double-millionaire every month.
not_morrison_rm, Aug 26 2014
  


 

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