Decline And Fall Of The American Empire

You're defining it so broadly that it doesn't have much meaning. You said, " the Fall Of The American Empire will be punctuated by a major economic event," and now you're making it sound like every other Tuesday. How do you propose that that would happen? Going back to the idea of labour being a source of wealth, what's to prevent me from working, even if not for money?

We are currently at 60% employment for people 16 and older. Adding another 10 percentage points to the currently unemployment numbers would probably be an indicator of a major economic downturn.However, power is relative. History has shown us that when the US goes through a recession or massive depression, so does the majority of the 1st world. The Great Recession of 2008 didn't happen just in the US. It happened world wide.So in relative terms, I think we would be just fine. We will still have all of the infrastructure we currently have. We will still have the diverse economy we currently have. We will still have a massive portion of the world's most productive farm lands. We will still have 300 million people and the means to put them to work.I don't want to swing too far in the Polyanna direction, but I just don't see a dire future for the US.

In relation to this discussion, Hurricane Irma could end up being a major economic event. Estimates of the costs associated with it are upwards of 100-300 billion dollars!

What is the average price of a car today?

It will create a lot of work rebuilding. Is that a bad thing?

I would say $20,000.00 for new ones, $8000.00 for used ones.Just a guess

With Harvey alone the estimate is 250,000 cars to as many as 1,000,000 cars. That's just car loss.

You could work...bartering is a form of economic trade. In order to help the economy, however...people would have to agree with each exchange of labor a common value. This isn't easy to do if I offer dandelion leaves while you have oak timber.

Why wouldn't people use dollars for exchange? There's plenty of them around even if the economists, in their infinite wisdom, decide they're worthless.

Because you said you could work even if not for money.

The question was about work, not pay. What would prevent me from working? Nothing. What would prevent people from paying me in any mutually-agreed-upon medium of exchange? Nothing. Whether or not the medium of exchange is "backed" by the government is relatively insignificant.

I could pay you in a medium of exchange agreed upon by both of us, but if you tried to buy bread with it, you would then have to agree with the baker before you could eat.

Yes. How is that an insurmountable problem?

Because what if the baker cant come to an agreement with the farmer?Everyone has to agree on a means of value before the economy starts to work.

"Because what if the baker cant come to an agreement with the farmer?"Then he will have to try other farmers.One problem with bartering as an alternative to a system using debt is that the farmer cannot get paid for months after he starts working. If he needs some capital to get started, what will offer? His wife and children?Or an IOU... Edited by NoNukes, : No reason given.