Should currency be replaced by chocolate

[Sallubrious]

Should currency be replaced by chocolate ?

This topic arose from a discussion between a group of highly esteemed an respected peers but any input would be greatly appreciated.

First let me set the scene

If you could imagine Geoffrey Robinson as he appeared in ABC's television series Hypothetical striding towards the camera in slow measured paces (which denote supreme worldliness and imply the words to follow will be authoritative and command a respect that few mere mortals could ever be worthy of) He is surrounded by a group that superficially appears to consist of educated free thinking souls but upon further scrutiny the group consists of 1 intellectual pier and is filled with sportsman or programmed industry insiders that can carry a conversation and deceive the general populace about their true motivations and intelligence whilst the host leads the discussion where he wants it to go. It pays not to overshadow your own intelligence too much when you are the star of an elaborate TV production (hoax)

Next a common ploy would be to make a semi humorous joke that works on several levels which would be entirely non-humorous on each individual level but the combined synergy of the joke produces a minuscule chuckle from the one intellectual pier on the panel endowed with mental capacity to appreciate the unbeffiting attempt at humour, creating a Mexican wave type effect on those not comprehending the joke who don't want to appear stupid, that reverberates around the studio in an all too familiar fashion.

Should chocolate replace our currency ?

On preliminary investigation this seems to be preposterous, unfounded and possibly the product of a disturbed mind.

But through the course of the evening we will see that this concept is in based in solid economic principles.

In the course of our investigations we should first consider the primary currency used as a world standard and which until recently was seen as international benchmark that other international currencies are compred to as a point of reference - the US dollar or greenback as it is sometimes referred to.

This green back is an abstract concept that no has basis in the physical world, it is not backed by gold, silver, bronze or any other precious or non precious commodity, it comes from no where and is tangible only by the credence given to it by debtors and creditors.

When we compare this to chocolate we see a resource backed currency that has proven to remain stable in the midst of "unbacked" currency fluctuations.

When the dollar goes up or down chocolate remains stable because it is a resource that is grounded in the real world, it is a commodity that can be traded or stockpiled and it's value is solid.

When we compare this to the US dollar we see a currency that is backed by nothing and propped up by the theft of foreign assets.

How long can we give our faith to this system of fictitious credit and debt ?

If you borrow money the bank wires a series of ones and zeros into your account enslaving you to repay this fictitious debt with real currency earned through years of work and often times hard labour.

When compared to chocolate this deception really starts to unfold and the devices employed become readily apparent. Chocolate is backed by chocolate and cannot be conjured out of thin air like the artificial currencies we are enslaved to.

If I borrow a block of chocolate off someone I owe them a block of chocolate not a block and a half.

Chocolate cannot be wired from one chocolate bank to another and then into the accounts of those needing chocolate.

I could go on but I really need to eat some chocolate.

Thanks everyone I had a good laugh today (yesterday), I'll never look at chocolate the same again.

Edited February 18, 2012 by SallyD

[chnt]

replace currency with cannabis

[Foo]

no

[Pedro Williams]

Hey Sally, I'm melting the chocolate off everything in the house to condense into one big bar so I can swap you for all that crappy pretend currency you don't want anymore. Is white worth more, less or the same?

If I borrow a block of chocolate off someone I owe them a block of chocolate not a block and a half.

 

... only if it isn't Cadburys.

[Distracted]

I think there may be some serious ethical concerns about where this chocolate comes from.

Gold seems a better more obvious choice.

[applesnail]

Not much would change i think, it would still be a world of fat capitalist pigs feeding themselves on greed, only difference would be they wouldnt b filling there wallets with jinka but there mouths & choc accounts with theobromine cravings,a world of stimulated phenylethylamine neurotransmitters twitching with endorphins for more euphoria chocolate to pay the rent! nice its gotta be better then carrying the queens face around in yr pocket! thumbs up for willy wonker!

[Sallubrious]

I'm surprised that was even legible, I was so shitfaced when I wrote it I could hardly walk.

To further the discussion in regards to this artificial currency we must understand that it is a concept of the mind and only remains real as long as people have "faith" in it.

At the present this misplaced faith is bolstered by an equally fraudulent bond system that also backed by faith and the previously mentioned fictitious or "fiat" currency. The bond market and the fiat currency viewed together equate to what could be called a Ponzi scheme where money is conjured out of thin air.

This loss of faith in the US fiat money system is already apparent and several countries have bypassed this system by trading in other currencies deemed worthy of "faith"

When this withdrawl of faith reaches a critical mass it will trigger a cascade that will pull down the entire house of cards.

Trading other currencies with same structure behind the system is in many ways just postponing the inevitable and possibly putting the factors in place for an ever bigger crash in the future.

Backing the value of a currency with precious metals was a good idea back in the day before the horse bolted so to speak, but now we are in the position where if we cashed in all the gold on the planet it would only cover a small percentage of combined national debts.

To recover the debt of the magnitudes we see today some type of backing will be needed that is sustainable and regenerating.

Which brings us back to chocolate.

[qualia]

replacing money with something else won't fix it. you can still overvalue chocolate, and it won't solve the problem with greed. and when it inevitably becomes scarce (which a finite resource will), the gap between the haves and the have nots will only grow as chocolate becomes more valuable. money isn't the problem, it's what people do with it that's the problem. and interest paid on loans isn't something thats limited to money. interest has been around a lot longer than modern currency. and how is something worth 10 units of chocolate different than something worth 10 units of currency?

[Amazonian]

Chocolate

[incognito]

It may help solve increasing obesity? Or Promote an influx of fat criminals?

Imagine the cacao bean black market. And they thought they had an issue with drugs.

Edited February 19, 2012 by incognito

[Pedro Williams]

Same prob as Amz for me ... I would be eating all my currency

[whitewind]

It's an interesting idea, but I'm afraid it would fail. No matter what is used as currency, be it silver, gold, oil, chocolate - they all have their drawbacks as they are tied to a physical object. While chocolate is difficult to fake, there would be wars over land to grow it, and it would be easily adultered. Nations which had no access to warm climes would refuse to use it, as it would mean nothing. The useful thing about money is that it crosses borders easily, and is available to everyone. In fact, money is much less tied to the greenback than you suppose. Money is just numbers, and the way of calculating those numbers across all borders remain the same - even if the scale is different.

Money allows trade, and in that sense it is extremely useful. What is ugly about trade though, is the fact that it is used by people to attain more than others, and it is used for control. Capitalism may be wrong, but money is simply a way of counting easily.

[Sallubrious]

Good points Whitewind.

Perhaps I should explain where the thread came from.

Last weekend we had a meeting of Newcastle SAB members and one line of conversation was the faltering US economy and the failure of the fiat currency system, and also the underlying theme of a chocolate addiction of one of the members at the meet.

So the thread was an allegory to the (some say) pending collapse of the currency system in place in the US and a cross reference to the chocolate addiction that we all laughed about at the meet.

During the discussion about the chocolate addiction it was suggested (by the chocolate addict) that it would be good if you didn't have to work and could just eat chocolate all day while people do everything for you and all you would need is some way to have people give you money. I thought that was relevant as the bankers running the US system don't work and have people do everything for them while they conjure money out of thin air (fiat currency).

So sorry if it all seemed a bit twisted and offkey, it was like that as it was an amalgamation of a joke and a serious conversation that only people at the meet would have picked up on.

Why didn't any of you bastards from the meet chime in and draw some attention to what I was talking about ?

You all let me look like a raving lunatic.

But seriously I probably should stay away from the computer when I'm that drunk.

Edited February 25, 2012 by SallyD

[whitewind]

Well, you didn't sound too much like a raving lunatic or particularly drunk, actually. I just thought I might be missing some context, but I'm glad you posted because it made me look at money in a different light. As I said, it's just for counting. Which makes it trade itself that's the problem, except for perhaps the counting people who are the ones that are obsessed with acquiring.

I think that (again) trade itself isn't bad, after all if we can't acquire important stuff then we would end up deprived. However, it's the fact that we trade everything and that the field isn't level is what is wrong. I think that I would be happy with capitalism if I could ensure that everyone would have the very basics, like food, clothing and above all somewhere to live. One of the worst things about capitalism is, I think, the ownership of land and property. But it's way too early to go in to this and I'm not fully awake yet so I think I will leave it at that.

[Distracted]

Looks like someone's been reading this thread and have adopted their own ideas.

Hundreds of pounds worth of chewing gum is being stolen from British stores to use as currency in Romania.

Chewing gum and other small packets of sweets are commonly offered instead of small change by shopkeepers according to a police officer who has investigated the thefts.

PC David Walton, of West Mercia Police, said it was a growing problem for supermarkets across the Midlands and North Yorkshire.

On 16 January two Romanian nationals were jailed for stealing £800 worth of chewing gum from stores in Worcester the previous day.

Worcester magistrates ordered Constantin Barbu, 31, and Bogan-Constantin Panait, 23, both from Hounslow in London, to spend seven days in prison after they pleaded guilty to stealing chewing gum from supermarkets.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-17078958