Jake Anderson wrote:
> Apptech wrote:
>   
>>>> It's well known that when governments just 'print money'
>>>> arbitrarily that the system falls apart, but I don't know
>>>> how the cost gets distributed when it is done in a
>>>> controlled manner.
>>>>       
>>>>         
>>   
>>     
>>> I think the word you're looking for is "Zimbabwe"
>>>     
>>>       
>> No, that's
>>
>>     > just 'print money' arbitrarily
>>
>> I said
>>
>>     > when it is done in a controlled manner.
>>
>> It would actually work.
>> What is not clear to me is how the resultant costs would be 
>> distributed across the economy. The original recipients of 
>> the "fake" money are not obviously disadvantaged as the 
>> money is just as real. If anything they benefit from the 
>> business, as they would with any government purchase. But, 
>> how does the cost then transfer across the society as a 
>> whole?
>>
>> I'm serious about the question. The answer is far from 
>> obvious to me.
>>
>>
>>         Russell
>>   
>>     
> I feel its a pretty fair tax with few loopholes that I can see. Rather 
> than taking money out of peoples pockets you make the money in their 
> pocket worth less. Provided you keep it in check (10% or so of the GNP 
> of your society or something is allowed to be printed each year) the 
> benefits would be immense. You can dump tax officers, tax collectors, 
> most accountants (you still need to keep track of what's going on but 
> that's for your benefit not the governments), taxation departments a 
> whole bevy of paper pushers can become engineers ;->. Small business 
> would sing your praises, your free to do pretty much anything you want 
> financially because you can't dodge the dollars in your pocket being 
> worth slightly less at the end of the year.
>
> Perhaps institutionalise a cyclic "reset" of the value of money every 
> few (tens of?) years such that you don't have $50million notes etc.
>
> I'm unsure of the "border" interactions though, how investors go with 
> putting money in and taking it out of your economy and vice versa 
> although i suspect the money market should make most of those 
> corrections for you.
>
>   
Found some flaws. If I give you $1000 in cash now, you are going to want 
to spend it straight away because in a week its going to be worth less 
in terms of goods. I cant find a way that lets investors get a return on 
their savings, unless the return is greater than the inflation rate. 
Which seems like it'd be unlikley in most cases.

It feels more like a tax on capital than a tax on income/work. You are 
going to be devaluing bridges as well as the money people pay the toll with.

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