At 08:18 21/04/02 -0400, you wrote: >Hmmm.... > >Rocks are "real", we can stub our toes on them; coins are "real", we can >choke on them, or throw them at dogs urinating on our lawns (forgive me >Bishop Berkeley). "Money", like other forms of totem worship is a social >convention. > >MG
Please yourself, then. But you're on a slippery slope if you can claim the privilege of denoting anything or everything as real or unreal as you wish. Money has been real for at least 5,000 years, and very probably longer, ever since man traded beyond the confines of his local community. Except for natural disasters like droughts or famines, different forms of money have held their value for very long periods of time (except when government intervenes). If, as it now turns out, you want to reinterpret all known history and all known cultures as having been prey to a social convention and not an economic necessity, then so be it. KH __________________________________________________________ �Writers used to write because they had something to say; now they write in order to discover if they have something to say.� John D. Barrow _________________________________________________ Keith Hudson, Bath, England; e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________
