All Shock, No Therapy

Dennis Robert Redmond dredmond at efn.org
Mon Jan 29 16:22:39 PST 2001


On Mon, 29 Jan 2001, Chuck Grimes wrote:


> So, among the points in the more extended quote, the main use of money
> is social control, and this is achieved by keeping its quantities
> limited to some mystical level where basic social reproduction can
> take place under a domineering austerity (thanks Allan you
> asshole).

Not quite -- the main use of money is exchange, this isn't necessarily tied to social control or domination as such. Issue lots of money to the broad masses and you'd get a consumption boom, not a bad thing in itself, but certainly not a revolution. Capitalism is about turning money -- the vehicle of exchange -- into credit -- the vehicle of accumulation, resulting in ceaseless dynamism, speculations, the creation of new goods and needs, and spectacular crashes and human misery, too. Much more complicated than the merely symbolic.

-- Dennis



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