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A currency can be backed by anything: gold, dirt, salt, silver, gems, or, in the U.S. dollar's case, faith. As our economy falters, we could shift to a currency based on thin air (stored in high-pressure tanks). Air is both tangible and liquid, and dollars would be redeemable on demand for a certain
fixed quantity of compressed air. The dollar would be a representative currency backed by a commodity, just like it used to be. And inflation would have a whole new meaning.
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This would make my air compressor illegal. |
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There could be a trace gas in the compressed air that would operate like a watermark. It could be a sulfur additive, like in gasoline. |
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Air? Why not custard? That could actually work. Especially if people from Wisconsin took over the world first. |
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//people from Wisconsin took over the world//
God help us. |
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Custard spoils. Thin air is forever. |
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You can have my bike pump when you prise it from my cold dead hands. |
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Custard in vacuum sealed drums and injected full of sodium azide doesn't spoil! And isn't it worth it to have an industry of custard moonshiners? |
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Those are called indulgences. Baked since 13th century AD. |
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Would the value of my retirement fund drop when a high pressure system passes through due to less usable energy? |
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This is probably the only commodity the IMF would even consider, if what I've heard is true. (I heard that they won't allow a currency backed by something that is non-inflatable). |
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I work for a compressor company, so I love this idea. [+] We could get government contracts! |
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<radio announcer voice>"And to the weather...a high-pressure front will bring prosperity to the South-West, but this will be short-lasting."</rav? |
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As a metaphor for the actual economy, I'd like to see the currency backed by a commodity which is either very rare (let's make life difficult for economists), or which has a half-life (good for declining economies), or which can be synthesised from other elements in the laboratory (useful when you want to print money to get yourself out of a hole).
If these don't work, choose something which is rare, has a short half-life, *and* can be synthesised in the laboratory, such as Francium.
([zen_tom] I could quite easily believe a bankrupt Eastern European or South American state will lurch towards facism in this recession.) |
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//the repatriation of anyone who's not English//
Could you forward me the invite, please [z-t]?
I only ask 'cos Mrs AWOL is Scottish. |
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[zt] Well, different isotopes of a single element often have different half-lives, so the half-life of the whole thing could be manipulated by adjusting the mixture of different isotopes. Then the half-life would be announced on the news just like inflation figures are today: "The Bank of England Radioactive Decay Policy Committtee announced today that the half-life of Britain's strategic currency reserves has dropped to 200 days...". |
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Larry Niven did the idea of radioactive currency in "Yet Another Modest Proposal". |
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Yes, but i don't think the title is particularly good as it happens, but i can't remember why. It's in 'Limits'.
I feel a lot of affinity with Jonathan Swift, though i'm not from Mars. |
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