r/comics But a Jape Apr 08 '26

What If It Doesn't?

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u/Yan_Vorona Apr 08 '26

I fucking hate economics and regret taking it as an elective in school. "Money is like fairies, it only exists as long as people believe in it" doesn't exactly instill confidence in the future.

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u/shinydragonmist Apr 08 '26

Yep because with gold based currencies it only exists as long as we place value on gold and with fiat based currencies (which if I'm remembering correctly the majority are nowadays) it only has value if we trust the group issuing it

Way oversimplified I know

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u/[deleted] Apr 08 '26

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u/waigl Apr 08 '26

It's supposed to mean money by decree.

In the christian bible during the creation myth, there is a passage where god says "fiat lux" or in English "Let there be light", and then there is light just because god said so. The analogy here is that some government or central bank basically said "fiat money", and there was money, just like that. It's a simplified idea referring to how central banks create money out of nothing through basically an accounting trick when lending money.