Do you think that the Worgl, Austria experiment can be applied in America again?

Discussion in 'History and Culture' started by DennisTate, Dec 14, 2014.

  1. Chester_Murphy

    Chester_Murphy Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Yes, I had forgotten, but they eventually must come back to the country of origin, just as your Won must come back. Is this correct?
     
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  2. Mushroom

    Mushroom Well-Known Member

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    Nope, it is all virtual. It is value that is exchanged, with tokens representing that value.

    The actual token used really does not matter.
     
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  3. Chester_Murphy

    Chester_Murphy Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    What happens when I exchange a dollar for a cup of tea? What if all I have is five dollars. Now, I have four. I buy two more cups of tea from you. Now I have two. You ask me to pay rent and that's a dollar and fifty cents. Now I have fifty cents. I buy a slice of toast with my last fifty cents. Now, I have nothing. The money may be virtual or it may not. Where do I get more money? If I work and make donuts, and you don't buy them with the dollars I used to pay you, what happens?
     
  4. Mushroom

    Mushroom Well-Known Member

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    That is all interstate commerce, it has no impact on exchange rates or the amount of currency at play inside of the country.
     
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  5. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    If there is not enough money, prices drop accordingly.

    I believe the reason the Worgl experiment may have worked is it encouraged a sort of economic self-sufficiency within the town, where you didn't have local businesses in impossible competition with bigger outside industries that could offer lower prices.


    I suspect absentee land ownership and draining capital played a part.

    When it's easier to buy something from an outside source rather than buy from a source that will end up giving jobs to the local region.
     
    Last edited: Feb 20, 2018
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  6. DennisTate

    DennisTate Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I just got back an interesting comment on FDR:

     
  7. Mushroom

    Mushroom Well-Known Member

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    That is almost totally wrong.

    To begin with, that very simplistic post is confusing the two very different forms of Socialism that were being practiced at that time period.

    The first is what the poster was claiming that FDR was followed, and that was International Socialism. That is the kind that was practiced in the Soviet Union, and is being practiced in Venezuela. Where essentially the State is the owner of everything, and has complete control over all aspects of life inside the country.

    What FDR was doing was more akin to National Socialism. Where the Government takes on some aspects, but primarily businesses and organizations govern themselves without far reaching government influence and interference.

    And the Great Depression was a worldwide event, not just in the US. The crash itself had almost no effect on the economy, but what it did was shook the confidence in the economy of the normal individual. And it was also an era of deflation, where the buying power of currency actually increased, even further reducing the flow of currency within the economy. This was exasperated by the hoarding of currency and removal of money from banks and being instead held by individuals.

    And this can not be blamed on FDR, it really was a global phenomenon. Australia had unemployment up to 30%. Industrial output of Canada dropped by almost 60%. The economy of Chile collapsed when 80% of their exports ceased because of a drop in demand. Even France saw a decrease of national output of 20%, and a series of riots that led to the rise of their Socialist Party.

    In Germany, the worldwide crisis caused the downfall of the Weimar Republic. And the rise of National Socialist governments in the Netherlands and Italy. As well as the rise of such movements as Sir Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists.

    No, that quote is almost entirely wrong, trying to pretend that the Great Depression only affected the US, and ignoring the global situation entirely.
     
  8. DennisTate

    DennisTate Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I sent your reply off to Mr. Carl Cantrell and he sent me this reply to you:

     
    Last edited: Jul 25, 2019
  9. DennisTate

    DennisTate Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    That is certainly the impression that I had since many years!!!!
     
  10. Mushroom

    Mushroom Well-Known Member

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    Simplistic response, not even worth responding to. I do not know who he is, nor do I care.
     

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