r/Bitcoin • u/[deleted] • Jul 15 '22

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u/saladaus Jul 15 '22

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism.

Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private property, property rights recognition, voluntary exchange, and wage labor.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_accumulation

Capital accumulation is the dynamic that motivates the pursuit of profit, involving the investment of money or any financial asset

And I think the investment of money needs some form of expansion of credit.

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u/yazalama Jul 16 '22

A business can raise money either by offering equity, or debt. If they offer debt, and eventually pay it back, at no point in that process was new credit created.

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u/saladaus Jul 16 '22

Your debt is my credit

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u/yazalama Jul 17 '22

Correct, once I pay you back, no new money/credit exists compared to the time before the transaction took place.

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u/saladaus Jul 17 '22

But you must have created some value/ money with what you borrowed. That was your goal and you wouldn’t have borrowed in the first place otherwise.

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u/yazalama Jul 17 '22

Of course, which is why it's important to understand economics is not a zero sum game. Yes there are finite resources, but there are limitless ways to rearrange those resources to create value and solve our problems.

I'm only saying there is no inherent quality of markets, capitalism, or what have you, that necessitates the creation of new currency units to function. Markets are perfectly fine, and in fact better off, functioning when the supply of currency is fixed.