Arguing Time Travel With Joe Weisenthal
Actually we’re really talking about currency debasement. Here’s the article at mises.org, and below is an excerpt:
Joe Weisenthal is an editor and host at Bloomberg who has recently been using his large Twitter platform to cast stones at the inflation hawks. In one recent thread, Weisenthal mocked the people worried about the falling purchasing power of the US dollar, and claimed in fact that it would be immoral for currency to maintain its value over time.
As we’ll see, although Weisenthal’s thought experiment of a time traveler is a bit whimsical, it provides a good opportunity for us to explore the underlying economics. The whole episode underscores, once again, why the Austrian school provides the public with a beacon of light amid the confusion of our financial punditry.
Joe Weisenthal seriously creeps me out.
“It would be immoral, IMO, to have a monetary system that allowed a time traveler from 100 years ago to maintain their purchasing power all that time, without having done anything in that time other than store money under a mattress.”
This sounds like a fancy excuse for cheating workers out of their pay, especially given that the primary reason for inflation is the predatory Federal Reserve and similar institutions.
“This sounds like a fancy excuse for cheating workers out of their pay …”
No, actually, his view is entirely consistent with your socialist hatred of rentiers.
But since socialists haven’t figured out that an increase in production (supply) results in lower prices (and therefore greater purchasing power for the same unit of money), they have to hold two contradictory beliefs, 1) that workers’ wages should maintain or increase their purchasing power, and 2) that it’s immoral to make money off of just holding money.
They’re the same thing.
Note to other readers: Guest has been KNOWINGLY, DELIBERATELY, and PERSISTENTLY STRAWMANNING ME. I therefore ask that you not believe anything he says or implies about my beliefs, unless you hear it from me directly.
For further details, see here for multiple examples of Guest strawmanning me.
https://consultingbyrpm.com/blog/2021/09/my-appearance-on-the-jordan-peterson-podcast.html#comment-2051124
Joe Weisenthal “if it’s a savings account, I guess that’s fine, but not a mattress”
https://twitter.com/TheStalwart/status/1460725159837458438
What the h***?
In relative terms, storing your money under a mattress is probably more moral than putting it in a savings account, since at least under the mattress, you know it’s not going to fund nuclear weapons or other unethical activity. (Except for the part that gets stolen by the Federal Reserve / similar institutions via inflationary practices.)
dontbankonthebomb [dot] com
But, having a moral revolution that involves dismantling civilization might be a good thing.
However, if currency fluctuated wildly due to the fall of the USA’s empire and increased freedom throughout the rest of the world, that would be an entirely different scenario, morally speaking, than if currency is simply fluctuating wildly because the Federal Reserve is indecisive about how much they want to rob the people.
Note: that time I was quoting and replying to Bob Murphy, unlike the previous two comments where I was quoting and replying to Joe Weisenthal.
“However, if currency fluctuated wildly due to the fall of the USA’s empire and increased freedom throughout the rest of the world, that would be an entirely different scenario, morally speaking, than if currency is simply fluctuating wildly because the Federal Reserve is indecisive about how much they want to rob the people.”
OK, but when those socialist-favored business activities that were propped up by the Federal Reserve fall – such as making housing loans artificially affordable to “previously underserved” people (blacks), or paying farmers to not grow crops (because an increase in crops lowers crop prices and throws small farmers out of work) – and there is a resulting increase in freedom in the rest of the economy – the freedom to charge higher rents (and thereby putting slumlords out of business), hire at lower wages (thereby increasing employment for lower-skilled workers) – you think that’s a bad thing.
You’re not pro freedom, you’re pro equitable-distribution-of-wealth – two mutually exclusive things.
Inequity would logically and inoccuously result from the differences between individual humans (“unique” implies differences), and those who happen to have more (“the Haves”) will logically be able to leverage their riches into greater wealth.
This can all happen without malicious intent, and is consistent with human uniqueness. This is why I say that your socialist worldview is *actually* hostile to human welfare.
The way the Federal Reserve steals is by increasing the number of fraudulent claims to goods – which affects the purchasing power of both the rich and the poor.
It’s bad because it’s fraudulent, not because the way in which the Fed defrauds people hurts the poor more.
If somehow there was a way to defraud only the rich for the benefit of the poor, that would also be evil.
But since the poor aren’t the source of production (even when they’re employed by large firms, they’re using the firm’s capital to greatly boost the productivity of labor), by defrauding the rich, you end up hurting the poor anyway because the rich will just leave, and the poor will have fewer places to work.
(Aside: I read on Twitter somewhere where there was an appeal to libertarians to be welcoming to the Left as they are now realizing that having a large government can backfire.
(However, we got to this place – and the world has been here time and again in the past – precisely because socialists cannot see past their good intentions, and they don’t understand economics.
(I’m convinced that you have to rub socialists’ noses in their own policies to get anywhere with these people.)
Note to other readers: Guest has been KNOWINGLY, DELIBERATELY, and PERSISTENTLY STRAWMANNING ME. I therefore ask that you not believe anything he says or implies about my beliefs, unless you hear it from me directly.
For further details, see here, where I wrote up a list containing multiple examples of Guest blatantly strawmanning me.
https://consultingbyrpm.com/blog/2021/09/my-appearance-on-the-jordan-peterson-podcast.html#comment-2051124