“Truth? You can't handle the truth!”

[Funt Solo]

Money is just a sophisticated method of barter. If it was magically done away with, I'd have to swap something else for some cereal and milk. Which would be an enormous pain in the arse. So, someone would quickly invent money. And here we all are.

[The Legendary Shark]

It seems to me that using up finite resources to produce currency makes things more expensive and devalues the currency?

I think that's partially true. All currencies use up resources. "Paper" money and coins also use up a lot of resources, not only in initial materials and printing costs but in continuing fuel also. I'd imagine that the fuel and manpower costs incurred through the constant transportation of cash from one institution to another throughout the world is considerable. Then there are peripheral costs such as safes, armoured vehicles, physical bank buildings with all the concomitant energy costs, and so on. I'm confident that these factors play a significant role in the global banking industry's plans to introduce CBDCs of their own.

The biggest factor in devaluing currency is, as with most things, overproduction. Our current currencies are based on debt, which can be pushed to practically infinite levels. (The more money produced, the less it's worth. The less it's worth, the more it's needed. The more is needed, the more is produced. The more is produced, the less it's worth, and so on in an eternal vicious circle - the true engine of inflation.) Current global debt levels are around 305 trillion dollars, which is due to mismanagement rather than production costs, and is causing incalculable harm and misery around the globe.

Obviously, I take some systems might be better at encouraging co-operation and avoiding coercion, which is what I take from Shark's outlook, but as this cryptocurrency example would seem to show is that there's no system that will self regulate for the benefit of all its users

I agree with this entirely.

In my view, the trick is to come up with a system that can't be manipulated or abused so easily (as a step along the road to doing away with money altogether). In this area alone crypto is a step in the right direction due to the inbuilt blockchain ledger.

Of course, it doesn't really matter what the unit of exchange happens to be. I think it's the institutions that monopolize and manipulate currencies for their own benefit which are at the core of the problem. 

[The Legendary Shark]

The House Oversight's National Security Subcommittee hears from three witnesses, including a former Navy commanding officer, with firsthand knowledge of how the government has handled reports of UFO sightings.

What's going on here, and why now?

[JohnW]

When I was a teenager I worked on a beetroot farm in the summer holidays with a bunch of rough blokes. One overcast afternoon, we spotted a bright white light in the sky.

You've got to get to Washington and testify before that committee, Sharky!
They have to listen to your story!
The aliens are coming for our Earth beetroot!

(Sorry – I didn't follow the link you just posted, but I never forget a good UFO/beetroot close encounter story and I jumped at this chance to recall it.)

[The Legendary Shark]

[JayzusB.Christ]

They can feckin' well have it.

[The Legendary Shark]

Damn right they can. I can't stand beetroot after working there. I used to come home looking like an extra from The Walking Dead.

[The Legendary Shark]

9/11 and "The Unspeakable": Award Winning Actor William Hurt: "It took me a long time to face what I knew to be true about 9/11"

[Funt Solo]

William Hurt: actor, wife-beater, structural engineer. Hear him!

[Art]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Chossudovsky

[M.I.K.]

9/11 and "The Unspeakable": Award Winning Actor William Hurt: "It took me a long time to face what I knew to be true about 9/11"

Good start there, getting the year of William Hurt's death wrong.

[Hawkmumbler]

Seeing Shark post something in the conspiracy thread is honestly more of an adrenaline rush than it ought to be, guaranteed giggles every time.

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

9/11 and "The Unspeakable": Award Winning Actor William Hurt: "It took me a long time to face what I knew to be true about 9/11"

Good start there, getting the year of William Hurt's death wrong.

This is how I found out that William Hurt is dead.

Truly, I cannot handle the truth.

[moly]

Impressive that a dead person can see the truth ffs get a grip

[Funt Solo]

You can get AI to write limericks:

In the realm of conspiracies so grand,
Some say, 9/11 was all planned.
William Hurt, they claim,
Knew the whole twisted game,
But evidence slips through their hand.