This morning a discussion of hybrid money systems.
Is there a way out of America’s Financial mess? Well, turns out yes there is. While it may seem impossible on the surface, there is one path that could pretty much cure “all that ails us.”
I call the process “re-denomination” and it would at once dispense with all kinds of financial uncertainty.
There would, no doubt, be a huge cry from the vested interests in finance. Because it’s in their selfish interests to keep front-running retail stock trades. Which is what online trading platforms do. And – since they’re all cut of the same cloth – the SEC and other mythical enforcement groups in bed with the industry they pretend to regulate – will punish only the slow manual traders. High-frequency trading is crooked but the regulators pretend it’s not.
Yet, how is it HFT online tracing firms can give away stock trades commission-free? Because the real money is made front-running, we suspect.
To fix that – and a ton of other ills – we need a bottom to top rethink. So this morning we toss out a framework to get that done.
After charts and coffee, headlines and OK, if you insist, a few snide remarks along the way. Oh, and our Indonesia Bureau Chief checks in…
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G – Curious bias against east coast..irrational fear of hurricanes versus those nasty north pacific storms..at least hurricanes are warm – cold kills .
Fish & Chips in Vienna ??? AUFKM !? try Weinerschnitzel (pork & veal) and Sausages and the most delicious gold potatoes and white wine.
Hands down 1 of ECD fav cities to visit eurup..on the way to Prague.
As a long time fish&chip fan imho the reason U batter fish filets – is because the fish is lousy in and of its self.
Snapper, Snook, Tuna, Dorado, Barracuda – now you are talking tasty fish…”give me my fish – my filet o fish” must be a fish elitist..
BTC = Instantaneous Settlement -Verify, dont Trust.
Main reason the World is so AFU…take a peek at Makows latest on Soul Scalping or what ECD calls “Sweating the Quill” includes attached pictures of Celebs and Politicians/World Leaders with telltale red/black eye..have I got a “deal” for U..
George,
Just a health note.
In my neck of the woods folks don’t eat barracuda because of the high chance of getting ciguatera poisoning (seldom fatal but most unpleasant unpleasant).
I don’t understand how you re-value something like gold. It has a very specific value already. The cost to mine, process, smelt, store securely and ship. There is a very specific cost to all these steps and therefore should result in a value of gold. If government tries to make up a higher price for gold then the costs to “make” it, then new mining companies would start up and begin to flood the market and devalue that currency. Even if you steal the gold from another country (war), there is a huge cost to the acquisition. Items have real costs in human productivity and resource usage. Any true currency would have to reflect those true costs or you end up in the same place, where people just make up value. At least bitcoin should have a true value that encompasses the cost of the infrastructure to create and the electricity consumed. I don’t think it can be a true currency because it lacks any intrinsic value (has not economic use). You can make your own and the cost of that creation should be how bitcoin is valued. However people today collect Bitcoin because the supply is artificially limited it skews its true creation value. You should not have a currency that has its value changed by collectors. It has to be able to be traded with a clear understanding the currency will have the same value today as yesterday. Prices of the collected items will and should change based on demand, but not the underlying currency chosen used to trade those items.
You say you don’t understand how a government can make up a re-denomination plan. And yet, the evidence is clear and abundant.
The price of tulips circa 1630 was essentially a few minutes of labor per year. Yet, one of the greatest bubbles in history arose.
The price of extracting diamonds is far lower than their actual costs of extraction, and yet what? They are “managed higher.”
At the other end of the spectrum, a unique number has (essentially) no costs and yet these alone are going for $9000 each.
Moreover, if the G20 was to announced that “Gold’s Back!” and countries will be redenominating their storehouses of gold at, to pick a number, $37,000 (halving the US “debt”) I assume you the government becomes the market, not the small consumers. Yes, if we were to see $36,000 gold, we would sell it all and bask in our millions in a far more upscale place.
My point this morning is the valuations are “floaters” – and they are managed. And a National Commission on Money might be able to make up a new hybrid currency that would be more appealing to all: Higher gold weighting (and value!) along with BTC-like (but no convertibility, except in the open market) which would automatically register ownership of an asset at each transactions.
And as for “based on demand” – remember, governments are big enough they not only can move the markets (when small) but can become the market when large.,..
To raise the price of gold, I suggest a new crypto currency called Bitgold. It would be backed by gold. Gold has already been mined, so you don’t have to mine bitgold like bitcoin, since the mining has been done. The $37,000 bitgold price would be easily attainable.
This allows you to create wealth by inflating the price of gold with a crypto. Result, a gold backed currency which can be hyper inflated like the tulip bitcoins. Next on tap…bitsilver.
want a great rate of return.. buy US postage stamps.. you already know that in a little over a month you will make ten percent of your investment…
https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/domestic-letter-rates-since-1863.pdf
George,
Good PN column this morning, but albeit a little depressing. Of course, the no-win situation that we’re all in isn’t news to me, but it did get me to thinking over some philosophical ground that I’ve been over before.
There’s nothing that the average person can do about the greater financial peril that the world is in. It’s something along the lines of an extinction level impact from space. You know it’s coming at some point and there’s not a single thing you can do to stop it. I think that the only true opportunity to make real change would be AFTER TEOTWAWKI. Whoever was left would have an opportunity to rebuild things in such a way as to prevent a future repetition of the current mess we’re in. I think that’s where we are. The system isn’t fixable because it’s too far gone.
That brings me to the philosophical points…is an event of that magnitude worth worrying about? For some yes, but for me, no. Life is short and there are more pressing matters that are within my control to do something about.
That brings me to quality of life. What does that mean? I suspect that everyone would have a different opinion of that and that’s fine. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, etc, etc…go forth and prosper. I recognize that nobody gets out alive, so with that in mind, I have my personal list of things that I value as important to quality of life and longer term goals that I’m working towards. I expect this list will continue, as it always has, to evolve over time.
“is an event of that magnitude worth worrying about?”
Absolutely (but not in the way most people imagine…)
This is my principal lecture point to “preppers and survivalists:”
An EMP – permanent “grid down,” would be, based on my evaluation, the most-severe catastrophic event humanity could survive — mostly because Luddite communities around the World, notably indigenous peoples and the Amish, retain the skillset to do so and essentially, already are. EMP preps encompass all the necessary preparations for surviving any lesser catastrophe. Any greater event is going to be of extinction-level, where an individual’s, or small group’s survival is dictated strictly by random chance.
Every so-often, I watch the movie “2012” when it comes around. It is a cartoon, not based in reality, but I watch it just to keep fresh in my mind, the degree of reality which Hollywierd lacks. Were Yellowstone to let go, people WOULD survive longer on the east coast of S. Africa than they would in most other places, but the loss of a growing season for two generations would ensure that their demise [would] be simply more drawn-out and painful, as they starved to death, than someone living in the Black Hills who got buried under 16 feet of ash…
If a 400′ piece of space junk hits us, there’ll be millions, perhaps billions of human survivors. If a cubic-mile-sized rock hits us, the only survivors will be deep sea plants and animals whose domain is below 300 fathoms. This is pretty much irrespective of whether it hits land or sea. Both will eventually happen. Neither is likely to occur within the expected time of existence of our species, yet I’ve chatted with people who’re trying to “prep” for them. That’s just another flaming example of the fact there are people who have more money than brains, and believe enough of the former can save themselves from themselves.
Were we to have a worldwide economic collapse, like with an EMP there’d be several weeks when the Coin of the Realm was accepted as payment for goods & services. Then there would be a period when NOTHING was accepted, except gold, silver, and jewels, as confidence in all fiats went to zero. As people ran low on class rings and granny’s silverware, barter would become the commodity of choice. At this point in time, the tinker / jack-of-all-trades / general repairman / handyman / capable do-it-yourselfer becomes the most-valuable, and most highly-rewarded member of the community because, as George pointed out, nobody builds a “100 Year Toaster” any more.
Got booze? Got Cigarettes? Own a junkyard? If your answer to all three is “no,” the “prep” for financial collapse will be found in the book: “How to Fix Anything.”
You seem to me to be a person who’s “got it together,” so IMO don’t worry about it, you’re already prepped…
I try not to lose sleep over other people’s bad judgement and behavior, both individual and collective. I spend more time thinking through how I can use materials on hand and my own skills than I do about spending massive amounts of capital on things which have low probability of any practical use.
This year I dropped several hundred dollars on patching up my electrical stuff for surge protection, but that was long overdue, and technology has reduced the costs of first rate protective equipment to the point that it is affordable to the average home owner. The utility companies are supposed to be making changes to their equipment as well. Trump signed an executive order. Most of the pertinent technical info is available for free off of the Homeland website.
I don’t see too many posts at this site from people dropping enormous amounts of money on survival crapola except for maybe the solar hobbyists, and they have all sorts of rationalizations besides prepping. Nor do I see anyone going too far off the well-worn path in their discussions. Most of what I see are mental planning exercises, and that is healthy discourse. I encourage people to think through their objectives before dropping money on anything. And don’t lose sleep over hobbies. If you can’t afford something, then find a different cat to herd in your spare time.
I totally believe that the ones that will survive will be the Amish.. and the bum’s living under the bridge and in the gutters.. they have learned to survive the worst conditions.. without anything and hand a bum a hundred he will help those around him in the same condition he is in.. I forget which college did a study on it.. but the outcome of it was interesting .. the vast majority of us can’t survive loosing our cell phone..almost everyone prepping is prepping only for themselves.. very few prep for the community.. each person has skill levels that exeed those of everyone else.. in essence each person is his own genius those that prep for community will survive because of that…
I use to get irritated at a group of guys that were in a small group I was in years ago.. they thought everyone was a drooling idiot.. what is funny is.. I quit because they kept razzing me about not excelling.. ( one the opportunities have to pass you.. two. you have to be able to act on them when they do come up.. I wasn’t able to take advantage of them) so basically the oxy here is I quit because I thought they were drooling idiots LOL LOL LOL
this is where the amish have it figured out.. they work and live as a group.. each person works in unison for the group.. we work and live for ourselves.. put all of our goals around a piece of paper that isn’t backed by anything or the fluffy in the wind and wires BC.. they put their trust in food and skill sets..
“I don’t see too many posts at this site from people dropping enormous amounts of money on survival crapola except for maybe the solar hobbyists, and they have all sorts of rationalizations besides prepping. ”
Mine was over Economics..Not Prepping.. even though I am a prepper of sorts the reasoning I prep is because of things that had happened in the past..
After my mother passed on.. my brother made a comment.. he said.. ” isn’t it sad that you spend your whole life working and in the end all you have is a couple of boxes of assorted crap a few photo’s and the memories of what you stood for.”
My mother was the last in our family that had a straight lineage back to before our country became a nation…with a few that have spots in history books..( although the family history is way more colorful LOL and definately not covered in the books.. I have one of the horrid berry baskets LOL) sorry I digressed… but on the way home my wife and I were talking and I asked.. what in the hell will our kids remember about us.. I worked a hundred plus hours a week.. my wife about the same thing..there were no magic moments.. and there are very few pictures of myself..when we walked in the door.. turned on the tube.. there was a show on with the leaders of several power companies and they were talking about the increase in energy.. the statement made was no matter what.. there would be a five hundred percent increase in x number of years no matter what..
I flipped to another channel…there was show on showing the president walking through a plant that made solar cells for a penny a watt…( oh its ok we can’t have that crap going in america.. congress basically told them to GTFO go to china by passing a legislation..) and the wife and I sat down and discussed the future.. we know from our own experiences that wages will not advance at the same rate.. ( minimum from the early seventies till now would have advanced to shy thirty dollars an hour if it had..) and we knew our power bill was going to keep going up so we chose renewables.. it is the future..
filled out all the forms.. got the stuff ordered.. the wife was concerned.. it was more than ten dollars a watt.. I figured it out gave her the estimate of ten years to pay off.. up it went.. ( they didn’t switch out our meter) I would get the biggest thrill to walk out every day and see it flip back ten KW.. LOL LOL since we were the first the power company would send out someone to check it a few times a week.. after a month.. they called and said.. you can’t have a meter that goes backwards LOL ( they were going to owe us money) and switched out the meter.. LOL after three months of use the head of the power company came out and we had coffee.. he was amazed.. he said we never thought in a million years that it would work as good as it does.. MY comment was you bought your own BS so did I .. unfortunately.. our system the first one.. paid itself off in five years not ten..and right now our energy costs are one of our lower costs..
for small systems to go up.. pennies a month in comparison to the dollars you will be paying in the future…
I did it for the money savings for us.. if the power companies were smart they would do like they did over in europe .. they promote it.. your costs will not go up as our costs go up.. but we will keep your costs at the same rate for ten year period.. we get your excess.. push it promote it.. if every house in our state had one system.. ( doesn’t matter if there are trees or what not..I push the solar towers.. still think that is the answer smaller units starting at the furthest point and work back to the power plant) you see a tree it has roots.. each leaf produces an electrical charge..( if memory is correct its like .005) to assist the total usage of the tree.. the tree still needs the roots and the branches..
this makes the tree the most effient power production unit on the planet.. we need to be the tree.. build a three sided tower.. solar panels on the south east and west.. want to know what your angle is.. look at the top of your canopy of trees.. you have the angle for your area.. here it is thirty to thirty five on the south and forty to forty five on the west and a little less on the east… bring the tower up about sixty to seventy feet.. have a back support pole behind to.. then put an inverted reflective trapazoid in the center of your cells..
dam the kids.. but here is the exact idea I had.. but make it three sided..l with a reflective trap.. the stress shouldn’t be any more than that of a building.. and your not going up a mile in the air.. just a fraction of the height..
https://interestingengineering.com/mit-creates-solar-towers-increase-energy-production
Ray,
You make some great points and I appreciate your input. I especially agree with your views on EMPs. I think a worthwhile prep would be a combination of hardening your home and devices against an EMP and putting systems in place that would allow you to generate your own power. I’m planning to build a house on some acreage in the reasonably near future and I’m going to incorporate this into the design.
Maj13, the secrets are:
1) “Prepping” is nothing more than an insurance policy that YOU (as opposed to an insurance company) direct and control. It is analogous to carrying a spare tire in your MV or a life preserver on a boat.
2) Proper “preps” should be “dual use” whenever possible. Yes, I have LTS food and water, but I also have a half-ton of (organic, CO2-packed, and sealed) corn, wheat, and oats in said storage, which is capable of being planted or sprouted, ground or rolled, as needs dictate.
My “ideal” for a home would be underground, because it’d be livable without HVAC, year ’round, and its “roof” would not subtract from my available, tillable land. I haven’t built my “forever home” yet, but a trip to SE Wisconsin to visit “The Quonset,” and to Eastern Minnesota to check out the underground houses there (UMN is a leader in underground housing and provides a wealth of information on same), is in my planning for next spring. The idea of a living space that’s ~50° ambient, whether it’s 40° below or 120° in the shade outside, somehow appeals to me…
George, instead of waiting for a shorting opportunity, why not invest long? The market does go up & down & you can make money on both sides. Long is 75% of The time, short is 25% of The time. Why throw out the 75%?
George…..Your bear bias is really showing and I think it skews your reporting…sad….There is money to be made in the market both ways and you are just being obstinate….Well I guess Elaine will finally get her “new” kitchen before she turns 80 if you are done trading for quite a while…
I keep offering… Elaine’s really good atg “design” – something I’m absolutely no good at.
Usually, when I give up my “bear bias” there’s a major decline in the immediate future…
I do make money both ways, myself. As to reporting? We have 19.112 T in GDP and 123 T plus in Federal debt. Rounding, because I’m old and lazy, that looks like we’re 21% over breakeven.. And, in time, since the Fed speaks are saying “no more cuts” wall st. could have the same problem oxy users have: Withdrawal.
Sitting in cash, able to play either way, I still see a terrible future ahead…
You might sharing some of that optimism juice you must have going?
Revaluing gold up doesn’t do anything.
The Baby Boomer “everyone gets a trophy” lifestyle wrecked the place.
“the sins of one generation passing to another”
Liabilities need to be dissolved. Many of us are on the hook for liabilities that were created before we were born.
Since nobody will take concessions the system has to be demolished.
G – can we finally admit & face up to the fact that – ALL Financial “Markets” Are Manipulated/Controlled.
In many cases this manipulation is Criminal – see RICO charges versus JPM – looking forward to that perp-walk.
CFTC/SEC admitted they manipulated BTC’s back last summer at height of market. Hell Litecoin daily trading volumes exceed 90% of all outstanding litecoins – just like Precious Metals markets – its ALL FUGAZI.
Crypto exchanges hold less than 15% of their BTC’s in physical form..fractional reserves – Coinbase claims they around 90% – If U do not hold your BTC’s in physical form U Do Not Own Them .
Just like the MSM – controlled (project mockingbird) and manipulated.
No Worries – we can interpret the charts and beat the Algos – they are after all only as good as the brain doing the coding thereof.
Insurance – Hedges against Big Market moves is mandatory – and expensive & oftentimes does not payoff – but when it does..Champagne Supernova ..
talk about woo woo…phew..
I think someone is playing with my mind LOL.. there are some things I am just anal about. LIke car tires.. my toss out car tires usually are resold as good used tires.. windshield wipers etc.. then there are the things.. like socks.. and underwear etc.. there are never any miss matched socks.. none missing in action.. two go in two come out anything even thinks about being worn through is tossed.. I only buy black socks and white socks always the same brand.. I keep six pair of jeans in the jean drawer.. etc.. I don’t wear suits and god forbid I put a noose on..( my brother ( an international executive globe trotter mr. big bucks) use to send me his old hand taylored suits.. real expensive ones. he would change his wardrobe a couple of times a year. one time I was looking for a good tshirt and looked at the closet with all this expensive hand made crap looked at my wife and said.. honey when have you ever seen me in a dam suit.. never.. so I gave them all away.. then a couple of years ago I had to rent a tux and wished I had kept one LOL ) although there are guys that love to put the noose around their necks and call their hankies pocket squares LOL LOL..
Now.. my socks all accounted for so far…. but in the jean drawer.. down to one pair.. and they are bigger than I am.. fall off to big constantly having to tug them up.. legs two inches longer than my legs to long..who’s are they maybe the jolly giant…. slippers.. I have three pair.. all the right shoe the left shoe has vanished.. they just vanished.. I had one pair that I was going to toss out.. thought well it was my favorite pair once upon a time I would just use them for putzing around in the garage..
so since the rest vanished.. I thought ok.. and dragged that pair out they looked like they had been through a couple journeys around the globe and a war or two.. but they were comforatble .. get up this morning slip on the pair of slippers.. what the hell.. they turned into clown slippers brand new to not my worn toss out slippers.. but two inches longer than my feet and so wide I almost had to put double sticky tape in them to hold them on my feet..
I think the kids are doing the old coffee cup trick on me again.. my coffee cup.. dam.. it always looked like I had a hole in my lip.. start drinking and what did I miss my mouth looked like I had been drooling .. come to find out.. they had poked a tiny hole in it so every time I took a drink a drop would fall down on my shirt.. LOL. It took years for them to confess then one day everyone was sitting around the table and one said to the other.. remember when we..( I think they get that sense of humor from me unfortunately.. when we were kids all the old guys would sit around and talk about how much rain they would get in their rain gauge.. we did the same thing poked a hole in one and then go around to each of the old guys and change the levels..then sit around and listen to them argue about the rain.. when I was in the military we did something similar to..).
I am pretty anal about stuff like this.. I know it has to be a joke.. just like the day the cabinet doors switched sides.. instead of opening from the left to right it switched to the right to left..
My question is .. when did they do it I am up long after the majority are asleep.. like one or two and back up at four… how did they get away with it I am always around home.. or did I flip into an alternate universe LOL..
I can never match socks! I buy 12 pair all exactly the same and within weeks they are mismatched, even if they started out all the same. Shades of black change, length changes, and that’s current reality – zero quality most times. I could never be that fussy about clothes. I wore a suit for the last time at my daughter’s wedding and found that all my old ones didn’t fit, so I bought one for the occasion. Work clothes are worn until the holes cover more than the fabric and then replaced.
The “Mandela” effect may be simply ramifying neural paths in an aging brain causing importance ranking to change, such that you can look right at an item and not see it. If we have a fixed idea of what something looks like and see it from a slightly different angle, it may seem unfamiliar and therefore not register as well. Then again, it could be ghosts or a dimensional shift…..
the secret.. pair them up when you take them off and toss them in the laundry… when you take them off and toss them in the laundry basket.. pair them up.. when the laundry goes in.. they go in as a pair.. the agitation is what does most of the cleaning.. and as they agitate the socks come apart.. AKA no lost socks.. if you toss them in separate someplace along the line they get separated.. then you find you have one white sock one black or brown sock.. stripes same thing.. rather than dump all the lost one sock pairs in a basket.. pair them up.. two lost socks.. pair them eventually you will have an exact pair..
I hate holes in my socks .. ( froze my feet once upon a time) I make sure they are good to go..
Now the year the kids kept streatching out the waist elastic on my underwear.. ( they wanted me to buy new ones.. I don’t get holes in them either..) when it got to the point where I had to put suspenders on them to keep them up.. I bought new LOL…what is going on is I am sure a joke.. they know I am anal about this stuff and will try to figure out how in the world they did it.. LOL.. may not come out till some dinner some day.. ( I give them puzzles for xmas.. with the gift inside.. some are pretty intense.. I had one that you had to be pretty with it to figure it out.. I would keep it around just to watch people mess with it.. then my eight year old grand daughter begged me to play with it.. they said she was slow.. she took it apart and put it back together in less than two minutes.. then said.. I am bored.. I freaked out.. went and put in my hearing aids so I could hear what she was talking about.. )
“If we have a fixed idea of what something looks like and see it from a slightly different angle, it may seem unfamiliar and therefore not register as well.”
the best hiding spot is right in plain site.. that is why I am sure there are no secrets in the govt.. let everyone know then discredit it.. people see it and don’t know what it is.. take a look around you.. the buildings this one and that.. you know what the ice cream place is.. or that one or the mall.. but hey there is one in the back there.what is that one.. don’t you ever wonder what they do there.. I use to go in and ask.. then a couple of times I had some hair raising experiences.. ( the lumber yard that didn’t have any wood moving around.. went in to see what they did.. cashmere clothes a fifty thousand dollar watch.. and only six guys and computers when there wasn’t any internet or computers.. .. got the heeby jeebies .. and left more security than NSA…they closed and was gone in four days.. my wife says no more.. you cannot go in and check on places.. it scared her..then there was the baseball cards.. that one scared me.. so did the lumber yard.. )
but look around you.. you would be surprised at what is in your own neighborhood.. that is why I worry about the Klub K from russia.. we don’t check loads.. and our ports of entry are basically not under our control.. they could be right next to you.. just like the trojan horse possibilities with the illegals entering.. I am sure the children are just the trade that they can use to settle and setup..
Quality of life is different for everyone, but the purveyors of QOL seem to think it’s about cities, “culture”, and restaurant food!
I’ve always found these things to be rather pointless. NYC is a dump, IMHO. It’s dirty, has no parking, slow public transit and surveillance to match London. It has high crime rates – especially outside Manhattan and Staten Island. At least a smaller city like Albuquerque is such that you can drive anywhere and carry your stuff in your car. “Culture” and restaurant food only appeals to a small subset of people. I’d much rather locate my home base according to weather – especially sun and low humidity, along with distance from people, so that I don’t have to perform and behave for them all the time. A spouse or gf would be nice, but I’ll be happier never seeing the vast majority of the population other than perhaps once or twice a year – if that. Eating the same thing every day allows your digestive system to acclimate to something, so home prepared food rules.
If money gets regulated much more, people will avoid it for all but necessary transactions. Many of us already do. The only difference I see between a new car and a 25 year old one is that the older car is more reliable and easier to fix. And yes – it’s paid for. Short of destroying asset value or creating a new class of need, I see no real way to force consumption. We prohibit classes of goods and services, such paid sex and some drugs, such that their legitimate demand requires underground transactions. These won’t be either taxed or stopped, so we might as well just deregulate them. Then participants can use the free market and normal laws of commerce, along with the courts to find the balance points of fairness and equity.
Regarding BTC – WTF is a “physical bitcoin”?
That’s a piece of paper (like the present dollar) but you can print it, along with a bar code of the hashtag, and use it for “money” – since hashtags are “registered
” you’d have “registered money” and, since we do two-factor identification… rego Ure’s hybrid currency.
George, you have some really scary thoughts! Two factor authentication is twice the work. Knowing that I’m tracked and traced in all aspects of my life is a reason to just go back into my cave and refuse to participate in anything.
Certain social skills, like casual trading will definitely be honed. Markets such as Craigslist will likely dry up more than they did after FOSTA/SESTA passed. We’ll be back to doing street deals using other “valuables” such as boxes of tide, and that’s for everything, not just drugs. Money goes where it’s treated best, and so do people to the best of their ability. Credit/debit cards do a great deal of what you suggest regarding track and trace, along with using a GPS phone as a second authenticator. I like freedom from society along with freedom within it, as do many others here. I pay dearly for that privilege as you do, since we have real estate taxes every year, along with varying rules(even in Texas) as to what we can do with and on our property. Travel has become an enormous burden over the last several decades with warrantless searches of person and property, along with random seizures. There’s a place for government, but it’s vastly overgrown its legitimate boundaries. Part of (my) definition of money beyond store of wealth and medium of exchange are the words fungible and anonymous. I don’t endorse force or fraud against anyone, but people do have a right to privacy in their affairs, and that includes their lifestyle and their moment by moment location data.
NM MIKE.. in the eighties during the Reagan recession.. people traded their skills for what they needed..
I did stained glass, sign painting, Painted hot air balloons, and glass etching.. since my schooling was in photography.( I was going to be the next ansel adams.. my dream) I would take a positive and make a negative etch on glass or a mirror.. you hunting a deer maybe.. or a picture of a rabbit or sunset etc.. then use hide glue to pearl the side or a diamond stone to grind down a bevel on the edge.. it got me through the days that you couldn’t find jobs.. custom painted motorcycle gas tanks and other graphics.. air brushing.. I never was much good a pen striping.. hands to shaky even though I can ballance an egg on end(I did what I thought was the impossible though I ballanced it not on the fat end but on the tappered side just a few weeks ago when the grand daughter had a teacher tell her that it was impossible no one can ballance an egg LOL the silly guy.. ). or when I was young I could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time.. ( that one is hard to do..really hard to do.. you cannot think at all or you cannot do it). I couldn’t master the art of pen striping.. I did love air brushing though.. lots of fun..
what do you do mike when your tide runs out..
back in the day sugar and coffee and cooking oil.. were huge.. can you make it..
its easy.. but most don’t know how..
Pencil and paper.. how do you keep a record when it is all gone..