The passport is so weird, it’s basically one country saying, “Ya he lives here and we are pretty sure this is what his face looks like.” Just so another country can go “okay cool we’ll let him in”
This is both amazing and profoundly irritating – the exact writing equivalent of that thing artists do – you know, how they’ll mess up anything that’s on expensive paper and planned in every single detail but get them doodling during a boring lesson and suddenly they’re Michel-bloody-angelo.
rich people took a rock and were like “this is worth thousands of dollars now” and everyone just believed them
This is why exchange-based economy is garbage regardless of the standard – it’s all arbitrary. Transferring to a physical-based standard to a fiat standard just transfers the arbitrary value from a random metal or object to the money itself.
Gold, silver, palladium, whatever: it has value because someone, somewhere says it has value and we believe them. Now, the pieces of paper themselves have value because someone, somewhere says it has value and we believe them.
That’s the interesting and frustrating part of the current state of wealth inequality: the only reason their wealth has any value is because we believe whoever told us it does. The entirety of the world economy relies on us believing that it has value. Otherwise, it all collapses. That’s the ultimate bubble that’s ready to burst.
The day is coming when we realize none of it matters, and there are entire social structures designed to make sure that day is put off as long as possible.
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