![]() ![]() So the “invention” of fiat money, as something which can be used in exchange for labor/resources from a large diversity of specialized producers, is not accomplished by small groups. If every family-clan, for example, printed its own fiat dollars, each family-clan would have no incentive to accept any other family’s currency in exchange for specialized labor/resources-unless it planned ONLY to purchase something back from that one family-clan. This is because, as an invention, “small-group” fiat money doesn’t work. It also seems self-evident that, from the beginning, fiat money required a large social group organized around a sovereign power. They attain their value only through a social contract. What is unique about fiat money is that, unlike gold or silver or some other easily carried “trade” commodity that has value in itself (and can, therefore, be traded for other things) printed fiat dollars, in themselves, are completely worthless. Whatever the actual dynamics, it seems self-evident that what made this highly specialized division of labor really take off (to heights never imagined by Nature herself) was not just the invention of money and commerce, but specifically the invention of fiat money-exactly the kind of money discussed by the Modern Monetary economists of today. This apparently was in response to the fact that early human groups had overlapping territories and were, as a result, constantly interacting, competing and cooperating with each other. Wilson goes to exquisite lengths to describe the unique evolution of human society-as compared to other eusocial species such as ants, termites and bees-which includes on the human side, above all else, the unprecedented specialization and division of labor homo-sapiens developed. In his latest book, The Social Conquest of Earth, the Pulitzer-prize winning naturalist Edward O. It may be useful to start with a short (and simplified) historical perspective. abandoned the gold-standard over forty years ago-it might be worthwhile to give some consideration to what “fiat money” actually is and the peculiarities of how it works. ![]() Having acknowledged this-and it’s difficult not to accept it as true since the U.S. ![]() dollars are what economists call “fiat money”. It is time to come to terms with the fact that U.S. ![]()
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