Re: Paying for Katrina

On Fri, 23 Sep 2005 14:24:36 -0400, "tonyp" <tonyp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
>
>"Mason A. Clark" <masoncERASETHIS@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote
>
>> Which points to the real, I would say "desperate," need for
>> an *Economics Without Money* i.e. *Real Economics*
>
>There's economic _activity_, and there's "economics" as a description of
>that activity. I think it's useful, sometimes, for "economics" to examine
>economic activity without reference to "money".
>
>"Money" is just a shorthand way of keeping track of the exchange of goods
>and services, usually across time and space. I make you a pizza, today, in
>exchange for a haircut, tomorrow. My countrymen build you a million
>flat-screen TVs in exchange for your countrymen building us a dozen
>airliners.

If "money" were just a shorthand for keeping track of the exchange of
goods, you are describing what is basically a barter economy. A key
feature of a modern economy is credit, sometimes over many years as
with mortgages or long term bonds. There is no way your definition of
money fits into the real world economy.

>If a dispassionate Martian naturalist were observing the frantic to-and-fro
>of earthlings, these exchanges are what he would see. Could he come up with
>a workable theory of how these exchanges happen, without knowing we have a
>concept called "money"? I tend to think yes.

That Martian naturalist would have to be blind or naive if that is all
he would see.

.

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