weird money idea

[rong]

Hi everybody.  On my way home from midnight shift I had a strange money idea. 

Wouldn't it be handy if there were notes or coins with negative value?

That way, if you wanted to buy something that was $4, but you didn't have 4 $1's and the seller didn't have any $1's, you could pay with a $5 bill and a -$1 bill.

Stores that accumulated lots of "negative" money could sell things by allowing the buyer to - instead of paying in positive cash - take on the negative cash in the amount of the value of the item.  i.e. I'll take this $35 CD player and 35 -$1 bills.

In some ways, it's a lot like going into debt.

I don't see a way, however, to resolve the problem of people just collecting massive amounts of negative bills.

anyhow - weird idea - thought i'd share.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Hi everybody.  On my way home from midnight shift I had a strange money idea. 

Wouldn't it be handy if there were notes or coins with negative value?

That way, if you wanted to buy something that was $4, but you didn't have 4 $1's and the seller didn't have any $1's, you could pay with a $5 bill and a -$1 bill.

Stores that accumulated lots of "negative" money could sell things by allowing the buyer to - instead of paying in positive cash - take on the negative cash in the amount of the value of the item.  i.e. I'll take this $35 CD player and 35 -$1 bills.

In some ways, it's a lot like going into debt.

I don't see a way, however, to resolve the problem of people just collecting massive amounts of negative bills.

anyhow - weird idea - thought i'd share.

*throws the negative money in the ditch on the way out of the store*

I like it.

[Eater of Clowns]

This brought me to $0 bills and what a hilarious commentary they would be.

"Hey this isn't worth anything. Just like the rest of them!"

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Hi everybody.  On my way home from midnight shift I had a strange money idea. 

Wouldn't it be handy if there were notes or coins with negative value?

That way, if you wanted to buy something that was $4, but you didn't have 4 $1's and the seller didn't have any $1's, you could pay with a $5 bill and a -$1 bill.

Stores that accumulated lots of "negative" money could sell things by allowing the buyer to - instead of paying in positive cash - take on the negative cash in the amount of the value of the item.  i.e. I'll take this $35 CD player and 35 -$1 bills.

In some ways, it's a lot like going into debt.

I don't see a way, however, to resolve the problem of people just collecting massive amounts of negative bills.

anyhow - weird idea - thought i'd share.

We already have a system like that. It's called "credit".

[rong]

The difference being that you can't just throw your credit card bill in the ditch on your way out the store.

What's weird, I think, is that because negative currency provides a certain amount of convenience, it must have some sort of value (non negative, that is)

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

The difference being that you can't just throw your credit card bill in the ditch on your way out the store.

What's weird, I think, is that because negative currency provides a certain amount of convenience, it must have some sort of value (non negative, that is)

Except that it really doesn't. You already named the reasons we don't have circulating negative currency. It represents debt, but you can simply throw it away or amass vast amounts of it. It's essentially honor-system IOUs.

It sounds like an idea that probably seems really profound when you're stoned as fuck.

It's not, though.

[rong]

Do you mean to imply that I am on drugs?

[tyrannosaurus vex]

Do you mean to imply that I am on drugs?

Either you're on drugs or you're kinda dumb. Pick your favorite!

[tyrannosaurus vex]

Of course, you could take my paranoid uncle's position that all legal tender is, in fact, a measurement of debt (as every bill is effectively an IOU from the government -- gold standard or not). We buy and sell goods and services with this debt, and we all accept it and expect each other to accept it based on our mutual agreement that the government can, ultimately, back up this debt.

So, your $35 CD player is a physical item with inherent positive value. You have obtained it in return for giving the store a negative currency amounting to $-35. The store accepted this "debt" because it has faith that it will be able to pass this "debt" on to its vendors or its employees, in return for their goods or services which will offset the value of the CD player they just gave you (and so on). Ultimately, if you hoard currency, you are owed the value of that currency/debt by the government which is why bankers have billions, and We the God Damn People had to bail them out. We never made that deal, it was written into the conspiracy we call a financial system from the very beginning, and now Obama won't even let me buy incandescent light bulbs.

Sorry, where were we?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Do you mean to imply that I am on drugs?

I was trying to give you the benefit of the doubt, and that seemed like the most generous assumption.

[Left]

Night shift tends to cause the sprouting of weird ideas.   Some useful.
Don't see how this one would be.

[Salty]

"Duuuuuh, howsabout we just counterfit monopoly money?"
              /

[Junkenstein]

Hi everybody.  On my way home from midnight shift I had a strange money idea. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-25812422

Doing the night shift throws the body "into chaos" and could cause long-term damage, warn researchers.

Shift work has been linked to higher rates of type 2 diabetes, heart attacks and cancer.

Now scientists at the Sleep Research Centre in Surrey have uncovered the disruption shift work causes at the deepest molecular level.

Experts said the scale, speed and severity of damage caused by being awake at night was a surprise.


The human body has its own natural rhythm or body clock tuned to sleep at night and be active during the day.

It has profound effects on the body, altering everything from hormones and body temperature to athletic ability, mood and brain function.

[Left]

I prefer nightshift.
Why?
So many fewer live humans to deal with.

I'm just there to let in the eyeball-collecting people, really...

It has profound effects on the body, altering everything from hormones and body temperature to athletic ability, mood and brain function.

Dunno about rong, but there wasn't much brain function going on here anyway...

[rong]

I prefer night shift too.  If only it weren't at night ...

In my defense - I didn't say it was a *good* money idea.  I didn't say it was an *interesting* money idea. 

But it was an idea I had that caused me to have a bunch of thoughts.  Thoughts that caused me to reexamine my understanding of our money system.

I was under the impression that thinking is a PD approved activity, so I thought I would share the idea.