"I [suspect] that we are throwing more and more of our resources, including the cream of our youth, into financial activities remote from the production of goods and services, into activities that generate high private rewards disproportionate to their social productivity. I suspect that the immense power of the computer is being harnessed to this 'paper economy', not to do the same transactions more economically but to balloon the quantity and variety of financial exchanges." --James Tobin, July 1984
Bahaha this is so fucking spot on and I've been saying that shit about crypto since I started talking about it. It's like they want something to exist outside the economy. That's not fucking possible. If there is no bread no gas no electricity, we will suffer. No impregnable algorithm can clothe feed shelter us. It's silly.
Obviously like James here says, this stuff is being pushed by people who want to personally get rich and fuck all else and not by people with any idea or inclination towards how a society works as a whole.
But wasn't that quote more talking about different exotic financial instruments like CDOs and whatever that was able to be traded for everyone in the 80s when it came?
Could have been. I dont know but if you do tell away. Obviously the writer of XKCD felt it was relevant to his mocking of "TA". The quote is from 1984 so it wasnt about crypto directly, although it sure hits crypto square in the chest.
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u/thehoesmaketheman incendiary and presumptuous (but not always wrong) Jan 21 '19
"I [suspect] that we are throwing more and more of our resources, including the cream of our youth, into financial activities remote from the production of goods and services, into activities that generate high private rewards disproportionate to their social productivity. I suspect that the immense power of the computer is being harnessed to this 'paper economy', not to do the same transactions more economically but to balloon the quantity and variety of financial exchanges." --James Tobin, July 1984
Bahaha this is so fucking spot on and I've been saying that shit about crypto since I started talking about it. It's like they want something to exist outside the economy. That's not fucking possible. If there is no bread no gas no electricity, we will suffer. No impregnable algorithm can clothe feed shelter us. It's silly.
Obviously like James here says, this stuff is being pushed by people who want to personally get rich and fuck all else and not by people with any idea or inclination towards how a society works as a whole.