I’ve been thinking about this way more than is healthy or useful and just waiting for an opportunity to talk someone’s ear off about it, so now that we’re actually on that topic, I’m afraid you guys’ll have to be subject to my word-vomit:
It’s actually IMPOSSIBLE to magically create money in a fiat economy. Now, what the heck is that supposed to mean? Who am I to decide what magic can and can’t do? Well, I’m exaggerating a bit. It’s more that using magic to create fiat money is by definition the same as counterfeiting.
See, fiat money is a social construct whose existence is entirely dependent on the authority of the sovereign entity that’s issuing it. In order for a coin or banknote in a fiat currency (such as USD or EUR) to be legal tender, it MUST be minted and issued by the relevant institution and will also come equipped with a unique serial number (well, banknotes in any case, not sure about coins).
That means if you use magic to create USD out of thin air, each dollar bill (and maybe coins?) is going to have EITHER a serial number that’s already in circulation, a fake serial number, or no serial number. In all three cases this is literally counterfeiting. Representational money would suffer from the same issue, but commodity money would be freely creatable.
MAN, was that great to finally get off my chest. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
3 thoughts on “#1027 Plans”
JerryW
I have ALWAYS thought that Wendy had magical powers… magical powers for good 🙂
Djaevlenselv
I’ve been thinking about this way more than is healthy or useful and just waiting for an opportunity to talk someone’s ear off about it, so now that we’re actually on that topic, I’m afraid you guys’ll have to be subject to my word-vomit:
It’s actually IMPOSSIBLE to magically create money in a fiat economy. Now, what the heck is that supposed to mean? Who am I to decide what magic can and can’t do? Well, I’m exaggerating a bit. It’s more that using magic to create fiat money is by definition the same as counterfeiting.
See, fiat money is a social construct whose existence is entirely dependent on the authority of the sovereign entity that’s issuing it. In order for a coin or banknote in a fiat currency (such as USD or EUR) to be legal tender, it MUST be minted and issued by the relevant institution and will also come equipped with a unique serial number (well, banknotes in any case, not sure about coins).
That means if you use magic to create USD out of thin air, each dollar bill (and maybe coins?) is going to have EITHER a serial number that’s already in circulation, a fake serial number, or no serial number. In all three cases this is literally counterfeiting. Representational money would suffer from the same issue, but commodity money would be freely creatable.
MAN, was that great to finally get off my chest. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
DannyboyO1
Yep. Don’t conjure currency, trade goods are much better.
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