In kenya i sometimes see situations where the object provides value to a currency, rather than the currency providing value to an object....
some years back, when mobile phones became popular here, i found a borana pastoralist in a cellphone shop. the shopkeeper was trying to sell him the cheapest model, presumably because the man was dressed in traditional attire, reeked of stale milk, had 10,000 mile sandals on his feet - made out of a recycled truck tire. finally, when the borana man decided, he settled on a nokia 6600 (which was top-range back then...) - 'this is too expensive for you ...' the shopkeeper said. 'how much...?' the man asked. '35,000 shillings' (about $450....), said the shopkeeper taking the phone back, and shelving it. 'ah....' the pastoral said, '....3 cows....that is all...' and immediately bought the phone. On 2/5/07, Eugen Leitlwrote:
No, accrued wealth disparity is pretty much built into the monetary system. You need expiring currencies (those slowly losing value unless changing hands) in order to encourage circulation and discourage hoarding. For the same reason a precious-metal backed currency does *not* work long-term. (Of course, fiat-currencies wielded by crooks break down even sooner).
