Libertarian Metaphysics of Presence
Courtesy of Paul Krugman. Awesome. Enjoy it:
"Goldbugs and bitbugs alike seem to long for a pristine monetary standard, untouched by human frailty. But that’s an impossible dream. Money is, as Paul Samuelson once declared, a “social contrivance,” not something that stands outside society. Even when people relied on gold and silver coins, what made those coins useful wasn’t the precious metals they contained, it was the expectation that other people would accept them as payment."
The brilliant point is that despite their forward thrusting rhetoric, some libertarians of the right wing persuasion are actually freaked out by capitalism. Marx also couldn't get his head around the gold thing.
"Goldbugs and bitbugs alike seem to long for a pristine monetary standard, untouched by human frailty. But that’s an impossible dream. Money is, as Paul Samuelson once declared, a “social contrivance,” not something that stands outside society. Even when people relied on gold and silver coins, what made those coins useful wasn’t the precious metals they contained, it was the expectation that other people would accept them as payment."
The brilliant point is that despite their forward thrusting rhetoric, some libertarians of the right wing persuasion are actually freaked out by capitalism. Marx also couldn't get his head around the gold thing.
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