Quote:
Originally Posted by BV
When someone loses, someone else gains.
So who gained?
no one
it was all imaginary wealth we lost folks.
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well.. I don't think it was imaginary. From what I understand, some dude many many many years ago realized that gold was the most standard form of currency. He then started to hold it for people so they wouldn't have to hold it them selves. He could secure it, and protect it, and when they wanted it they could just go and get it. He'd charge a small holding fee.
In time he realized that people were leaving their gold there and not coming back for a while so he took the gold and would use it to invest. When someone would ask for the gold, he would either give them the gold or give them a receipt, a paper indicating how much gold they had, and that the paper was backed by the gold.
In time everyone just wanted the paper and would use that as the currency.
Soon, more people came and they wanted their gold, but their gold was being used in investments and so although they technically had the gold, it wasn't there, so the man would give them the paper receipts knowing that the gold would come back one day when the investment was returned.
Now, more and more paper was accepted so the man just kept printing it up, and the people didn't seem to care. They were still able to buy shit and get shit, even though they didn't have shit.
One day someone realized what was going on and so all the people went to collect their gold, and there was none. It was all tied up in bad investments. The system collapsed.
So then... as far as I can tell... we didn't lose shit, because we never really had shit. You can't lose what you never really had.
Welcome to Thunderdome, Max.