mjdsr

Yes...they are printing money out of thin air. The fed is much better at producing excuses than they are solutions. They look to blame everyone but themselves.

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Oftencold

Well, they do make religious books for children if that would help.

And whether you care to admit it or not, your parents, or their parents got their moral training from religion.

Morality is essentially a religions concept.

Djinn

The amount of U.S. cash in circulation hasn't changed much, percentage-wise. Check out the image linked below. The bottom section of the chart ("Percentage of Total") shows the relative amount of U.S. cash in circulation as a percentage of all U.S. monetary assets (in green). It has always been around 9% since 1959.

Image:Components of the United States money supply2.svg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

michaelr

They know full well what there doing, thats the part that makes me soooo mad.

michaelr

What 300% hell they tell you their going to double the supply then they say it again, now they print the shit whenever they want. WTF man, why do you think the stuff has lost 65% of its value since 2000?

caffeine

Were that the case, where does it leave non-religious moral and ethical systems? And I'm not just talking about modern secular humanism or anything, I'm talking ancient Confucianism and the like.

Morality is a concept that evolved to enable the successful functioning of human society. It has no necessary connection to religion.

mjdsr

Most of our currency these days only exists on computers or paper. So while there may not be more money in circulation, per se, the fed is responsible for creating new money, and they are responsible for inflation.

When financial institutions lend out money they do not have, they are essentially "printing money." This is not a problem for them because they are basically making money, by lending out money that they never had in the first place. Those in government favor this also because anytime they need more money, they turn to the fed, and the only ones that suffer are the citizens of the country. We pay the price with the effects of inflation and rising prices.

And what about fractional reserve banking? Only a portion of what we have in banks is even available. I know they say this is done to help expand the economy, but it also creates money out of thin air. Fractional reserve does nothing but create debt, and put more money into the pockets of the central banks.

What about the loans we have on our homes and cars? Just because there isn't any new money in circulation, as you are claiming, does not mean much. When we receive a loan, the bank creates the money by putting numbers in the computer next to your name. When they create a loan, they create a deposit. When we finish paying off the mortgage the interest goes into the pockets of the bankers. So they create money from nothing, and then they charge interest on it! And who gave them the power to do that? CONgress!

Banks are only required to have 11% of their depositors' money on reserve at the bank. What do you think would happen if everyone decided to withdraw their assets from the bank? Fiat money systems can only last for so long before things get out of control. Our national debt has grown consistently every year, and anyone who believes the fed or our government when it comes to the economy and money is only fooling themselves. They continually manipulate the data to fit their own agendas...and we, the people, lose in the end.

Djinn

Well, that's why I asked earlier in the thread:

"Your quoted text suggests that our economic woes are due to the overprinting of U.S. currency; actual cash. Am I understanding you correctly?"

Oftencold

I am far from qualified to analyze Confucianism, But I would assume that it borrowed from pre-existing religious morality that it founds favorable.

In practice, a purely secular system of morality essentially uses man as its god, though or course without that terminology.

The problem with such systems, is since they derive their authority from humans, humans can change them at will, for better or for worse.

caffeine

Humans also change God's commands at will. We should probably shift this discussion to the religion forum and stop hijacking this thread if we want to continue it though.