If value is just perception, then there must be some value in a piece of paper
Hello again, dear steem community. I love you all so much and wish the very best to each and every one of you. Recently I've been thinking about how people perceive value and how value is created out of thin air and printed on a piece of paper. The idea of how people find something valuable is really interesting to me and has got me thinking a lot lately.
The whole reason why I'm thinking about this subject is because banks messed something up. My account balance to be exact. Each time I go to an atm and try to view my balance on paper, the numbers are all wrong.
Here are some of the tickets that I have been withdrawing for context:
I don't even have a account in most of these banks, yet the atm still issues these numbers to me. These tickets don't have any terms of what can and cannot be done with it. it just has a a lot of advertising on it as to what bank the ticket belongs to.
You are wasting a lot of money by depleting your votingpower to 4%. Just saying, i would not do this to my money. I try to never go under 80%
Interesting post and thread...TY for sharing..upvoted and followed
I was thinking the same thing, but this time instead of paper why do some groups place more value over fairer skin? Skin bleaching for instance has become an obsession within many cultures and astonishingly enough in cultures, that have darker shades of skin. Where is this value coming from? Yes, I would understand if the person has a skin condition and skin bleaching would alleviate their skin condition, but why is a lighter or a fairer shade of skin perceived as being of a higher quality within society? They say perception is the best medicine, but it's also important what roles society collectively and some individuals (Hitler, Stalin, Kim-Jung Un) influence another person's perception.
I agree with you whileoutsanch, but it's just a case of these folks having been brainwashed through the ages. I know that in India for example, people with fairer skins are indeed perceived as being of a higher class within that society. It is really stupid if you ask me, but I am not from a culture with that "problem" so my opinion won't really count.
In fact, the only way you will get a real answer to your question is to ask someone who lives and breathes in a culture with those perceptions...
What makes something valuable - beyond its actual value as a item - is the belief of the people that its valuable. Hence the term fiat money for nonsubstancial money (latin: fiat = faith, belief).
As long as the people have faith in a currency, it works all nicely, especially for the government and the banks. Everybody accepts that a little piece of paper can buy food, cloth or pay the rent.
But if this faith is damaged, things can turn ugly very quickly. If people start to think that their money has no value anymore - like it easily happens in a inflation - a downward spiral begins. Then a bread or a chicken is much more worth than a box full of bank notes.
the banks are REALLY good at making money out of thin air - they literally do it every single day. They are allowed to lend money that they do not have - and once they lend out $100,000 - they actually now have $100,000 of receivables on their books and they can say that are now $100,000 richer because someone OWES them $100,000 - then the government allows them to lend out 10x more than they really have on the books - and the cycle starts all over again - they loan out money that they don't have and suddenly they now have it - PRESTO! it's Magic!!
And the worst of all is that as the added """"value"""" circulates through the monetary system (not unlike water in the biosphere), someone will actually rely on it. Because, obviously, when the bank forces you to pay an amount, you need to get that amount from somewhere, in order to compensate your loss.
So the artificial gain becomes a true loss of value somewhere, so you literally can't "delete" or "erase" it because that'd be detrimental to someone.
This is how countries' debt accumulates and never stops existing. My country (Hungary) has this issue and the US is at a tough situation with China, as well.
These are the issues that make the rise of cryptocurrencies especially important.
very true words my friend...you make some good points - I've been saying this for years. Our debt system is set up in such a way that it is impossible to ever pay it back.
very new to this but the potential is limitless in other words. Happy to be here and hey one day this will be the future banks (without the greedy part I will hope)
Pretty disgusting! That will be left in the future thanks to this technology.
unreal!
upvoted bro..thanks for visiting on my page..
hi
We work for people those who have lost all the in natural storms for them we want steem supports from you.
Paper is a supporter. Your work comes from the beginning to the last days. Paper is in the field of value education. What we receive is the education.
Nice post my friend :)
Value is such a strange thing to me. I get it both theoretically and practically, but it's still weird. I don't buy the whole idea that fiat money isn't real because it's not backed by gold, but I do agree that it is a flimsy system that is coming undone. Something has value because people say it has value, and therefore it is real.
What I didn't realize until I was well into my twenties (probably because of the '08 crash) is that banks are businesses. They're not infallible, and their existence isn't permanent. They exist as long as we give them legitimacy and continue to do business with them.
Nie post, @ubg. Thanks for sharing :)