Is fiat currency a ponzi scheme?

[thilanliyan]

Sounds like it

EDIT: Video is from around 2012 for additional context.

 

[Brainonska511]

Why is it a ponzi scheme? Fiat currency is backed by the full faith and credit of the government (which rests on its ability to collect taxes and enforce laws), and you can use it to purchase goods and services. It's not using new "shareholders" to pay off existing ones.

I don't recall crypto being good for use as a currency beyond doing illegal things.

 

[Indus]

It's only a ponzi scheme if you're in so much debt, you need new people to buy into the debt in effect creating a ponzi scheme.

So the USD is not a ponzi scheme despite Trump's best efforts to make it one.

 

[MrSquished]

It's not just a Ponzi scheme, it's a pump and dump scheme, it's straight up fraud scheme, I mean it's a very diverse type of currency.

edit: For some reason I read the thread as being about crypto

 

[fskimospy]

Looks and sounds like it
Maybe crypto can work better?

It's amazing how frequently the term 'Ponzi Scheme' is used incorrectly, instead meaning 'something I don't like'. People call Social Security a Ponzi Scheme all the time and it makes me want to slap my forehead because it's such a silly idea.

A Ponzi Scheme requires two fundamental things:

1) Current participants are paid using funds from new participants in an unsustainable way.
2) Fraud/deception.

Amusingly enough this describes crypto pretty well and fiat currency not at all.

 

[Pens1566]

No, but crypto is.

 

[brycejones]

Looks and sounds like it
Maybe crypto can work better?

Not this shit again

 

[thilanliyan]

It's amazing how frequently the term 'Ponzi Scheme' is used incorrectly, instead meaning 'something I don't like'. People call Social Security a Ponzi Scheme all the time and it makes me want to slap my forehead because it's such a silly idea.

A Ponzi Scheme requires two fundamental things:

1) Current participants are paid using funds from new participants in an unsustainable way.
2) Fraud/deception.

Amusingly enough this describes crypto pretty well and fiat currency not at all.

Did you watch the video?
I certainly don't claim to know all the intricacies of the money system, but they're arguing that the continual issuance of currency by the fed backed by bonds is like a ponzi scheme since they have to continually print.

I'm certainly not advocating for crypto to replace our current system (my comment in the OP was more tongue-in-cheek), however, outside of some meme coins and some actual pump and dump schemes, the major crypto currencies can't just print money like is done for USD. Outside of the stable coins, using BTC or other coins for purchases doesn't really make sense IMO since the value can change so drastically.

EDIT: I will remove my comment about crypto because it has nothing to do with the video, and appears to be confusing others lol.

 

[brycejones]

Did you watch the video?
I certainly don't claim to know all the intricacies of the money system, but they're arguing that the continual issuance of currency by the fed backed by bonds is like a ponzi scheme since they have to continually print.

I'm certainly not advocating for crypto to replace our current system (my comment in the OP was more tongue-in-cheek), however, outside of some meme coins and some actual pump and dump schemes, the major crypto currencies can't just print money like is done for USD. Outside of the stable coins, using BTC or other coins for purchases doesn't really make sense IMO since the value can change so drastically.

EDIT: I will remove my comment about crypto because it has nothing to do with the video, and appears to be confusing others lol.

So basically the gold bug argument.

Still not this shit again.

 

[fskimospy]

Did you watch the video?
I certainly don't claim to know all the intricacies of the money system, but they're arguing that the continual issuance of currency by the fed backed by bonds is like a ponzi scheme.

I don’t watch YouTube videos. Regardless, assuming that is their argument it is wrong and they don’t know what a Ponzi Scheme is.

Not only does issuing new currency have nothing to do with a Ponzi Scheme but the terms under which it is issued are widely publicized and there is zero deception involved.

I'm certainly not advocating for crypto to replace our current system (my comment in the OP was more tongue-in-cheek), however, outside of some meme coins and some actual pump and dump schemes, the major crypto currencies can't just print money like is done for USD. Outside of the stable coins, using BTC or other coins for purchases doesn't really make sense IMO since the value can change so drastically.

EDIT: I will remove my comment about crypto because it has nothing to do with the video, and appears to be confusing others lol.

The inability to increase the money supply is one of the big reasons crypto is so bad at being a currency.

 

[fskimospy]

So basically the gold bug argument.

Still not this shit again.

Gold was such a good currency peg that literally every country in the entire world abandoned it.

After years and years of not understanding how money works the world finally wised up and dropped that shit. It would be insane to throw away that progress.

 

[Jaskalas]

Gold was such a good currency peg that literally every country in the entire world abandoned it.

After years and years of not understanding how money works the world finally wised up and dropped that shit. It would be insane to throw away that progress.

But as the years, decades pass... we can raise new generations of people with no understanding how money works.
If they try to learn, we can wrap them up in a cult of personality and sell them a new "truth".

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Fiat currency is a Ponzi scheme in the way society is. Yeah if new people stop participating it all falls apart, but also everyone starves to death so it doesn't really matter.

Yeah crypto is something in between Ponzi and fraud, similar to the stock market (only one is propped up by the govt).

 

[Brainonska511]

Yeah crypto is something in between Ponzi and fraud, similar to the stock market (only one is propped up by the govt).

Stocks actually represent ownership in companies which produce things, provide services, and own stuff. Very different than crypto.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Stocks actually represent ownership in companies which produce things, provide services, and own stuff. Very different than crypto.

Sure, and their price is wholely dependent on their value, profits, etc, as seen with Tesla and Twitter.

I'm only half taking the piss, it needs to be acknowledged that the feels based economy in crypto was born on wall street.

 

[feralkid]

It's not just a Ponzi scheme, it's a pump and dump scheme, it's straight up fraud scheme, I mean it's a very diverse type of currency.

edit: For some reason I read the thread as being about crypto

You had me worried for a second...

 

[biostud]

If you are worried just give me all your fiat money. I know how to dispose them safely.