I love the explanation of money as a means of voting in the global economy.
I think if people understood this, it would clear up a lot of misconceptions. Consider for examples the question: Is it wrong to burn your money? (For simplicity, just interpret wrong here to mean forgoing an opportunity to help others in exchange for nothing. E.g. it would be wrong to throw out food when a homeless person right in front of you is asking for it.)
In my experience, most people say "of course burning money is wrong; first, you could have helped others with that money, by giving it to someone who needs it; second, burning the money provides no benefit." However, this argument is incorrect. If you understand that money is just a vote in the economy, than burning your money is just giving away your vote, which means others get more of a vote. Therefore, burning money is the same as distributing your money to others in proportion to how much of that denomination they already have. (Obviously this is not the most effective form of charity. So you shouldn't burn your money, but it's better than buying yourself a yacht.)
Now, this idea is quite counter intuitive to people in my experience because the actual mechanism by which another human being is ultimately benefited by you burning your money is hard to explain; if you had spent that money, it would circulate through the economy causing inflation, meaning others have less purchasing power... But if you see things in terms of votes in the global economy it's easier to understand.
I love the explanation of money as a means of voting in the global economy.
I think if people understood this, it would clear up a lot of misconceptions. Consider for examples the question: Is it wrong to burn your money? (For simplicity, just interpret wrong here to mean forgoing an opportunity to help others in exchange for nothing. E.g. it would be wrong to throw out food when a homeless person right in front of you is asking for it.)
In my experience, most people say "of course burning money is wrong; first, you could have helped others with that money, by giving it to someone who needs it; second, burning the money provides no benefit." However, this argument is incorrect. If you understand that money is just a vote in the economy, than burning your money is just giving away your vote, which means others get more of a vote. Therefore, burning money is the same as distributing your money to others in proportion to how much of that denomination they already have. (Obviously this is not the most effective form of charity. So you shouldn't burn your money, but it's better than buying yourself a yacht.)
Now, this idea is quite counter intuitive to people in my experience because the actual mechanism by which another human being is ultimately benefited by you burning your money is hard to explain; if you had spent that money, it would circulate through the economy causing inflation, meaning others have less purchasing power... But if you see things in terms of votes in the global economy it's easier to understand.