Re: The Cigarette Standard
--- Fred Foldvary <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: "That is a benefit. A good currency is a widely traded, useful, commodity. That's why salt, cocoa beans, cattle, etc., were used as money. Having a consumer use anchors the value of the currency." Good point. Thanks! -jsh __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Web Hosting - Let the expert host your site http://webhosting.yahoo.com
Re: The Cigarette Standard
What I'm curious about is, would a sin-tax on cigs have the same effect
as, say, high interest rates on the dollar? If it's harder to "borrow"
cigarettes because the borrowing cost is higher, does the value of a
purchased cig become higher due to its scarcity in the money system?
jonathan
On Thu, 14 Nov 2002, Michael Giesbrecht wrote:
> Has anybody studied how well cigarettes work as a monetary standard in US prisons?
>From what I've been led to believe, cigarettes are universally used to facilitate
>commerce in a prison economy. It seems like the cigarette is everything a good solid
>currency needs to be, at least within a prison's confines.
>
>
> Cheers,
> Michael Giesbrecht
> Internet Engineering
> Lucasfilm Ltd.
>
>
> I'm here for the beer. - (attributed to) John Locke
>
>
--
Jonathan KalbfeldM268@>6]U('!L87D@=&AI: UNIX, Networking, Programming
Re: The Cigarette Standard
On Thursday 14 November 2002 04:12 pm, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > In a message dated 11/14/02 4:06:17 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > > << <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > "It seems like the cigarette is everything a good > solid currency needs to be" > > Except that you can't smoke your cigarettes and have > them, too. A researcher with alot of smokes could > probably come up with some interesting monetary theory > experiments. > > -jsh >> > > This reminds me that science fiction author James Blish, who novelized the > original Star Trek series, wrote a mammoth work called Cities in Flight in > which someone developed and anti-gravity technology that allowed whole > cities to migrate around the cosmos. Someone else developed a longevity > drug which allowed the people in the migratory cities--or at least some of > the people in the cities--to live indefinitely. For some period of > time--the book covers centuries as I recall--the cities used the drug as > money, but the problem of not being able to take the drug and have it too > came home to roost and their monetary system collapsed. The classic 'example' of this in SF is Herbert's _Dune_, where a longevity (but not immortality) drug is the major interplanetary currency of the known universe. It's portable, desirable, and scarce. It isn't neccessary for life, but it is neccessary for space travel over long distance and for long life. Incidentally, the population living on the only planet where this drug is produced is extremely impoverished and oppressed by the feudal house ruling the planet. They not only see none of the benefit of the drug's market, but in fact *suffer* from it. The spice was of course (at least in part) an analogy for oil, as Herbert was writing in the 70's. - Susan
Re: The Cigarette Standard
In a message dated 11/14/02 5:56:29 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: << That is a benefit. A good currency is a widely traded, useful, commodity. That's why salt, cocoa beans, cattle, etc., were used as money. Having a consumer use anchors the value of the currency. Fred Foldvary >> I was just mentioning in Macro class last week that people have used money based on commodities other than gold and silver--such as tobacco in the southern American colonies. David Levenstam
RE: The Cigarette Standard
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > "It seems like the cigarette is everything a good > solid currency needs to be" > > Except that you can't smoke your cigarettes and have > them, too. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I would have thought that the fact that cigarettes are valuable from a consumption standpoint is what makes them usuable as currency. Consumption of cigarettes would amount to deflation, but new cigarettes would be constantly entering circulation too. > A researcher with alot of smokes could > probably come up with some interesting monetary theory > experiments. That's what I was thinking. I'm just wondering whether anything such research has been done... Cheers, Michael Giesbrecht Internet Engineering Lucasfilm Ltd.
Re: The Cigarette Standard
The classic paper on this issue: The Economic Organization of a P.O.W. Camp, R.A. Radford, Economica, November, 1945 http://academic.bellevue.edu/~jpatton/micro/pow.html Alex -- Alexander Tabarrok Department of Economics, MSN 1D3 George Mason University Fairfax, VA, 22030 Tel. 703-993-2314 and Director of Research The Independent Institute 100 Swan Way Oakland, CA, 94621 Tel. 510-632-1366
Re: The Cigarette Standard
> Except that you can't smoke your cigarettes and have > them, too. > -jsh That is a benefit. A good currency is a widely traded, useful, commodity. That's why salt, cocoa beans, cattle, etc., were used as money. Having a consumer use anchors the value of the currency. Fred Foldvary = [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: The Cigarette Standard
In a message dated 11/14/02 4:06:17 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: << <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: "It seems like the cigarette is everything a good solid currency needs to be" Except that you can't smoke your cigarettes and have them, too. A researcher with alot of smokes could probably come up with some interesting monetary theory experiments. -jsh >> This reminds me that science fiction author James Blish, who novelized the original Star Trek series, wrote a mammoth work called Cities in Flight in which someone developed and anti-gravity technology that allowed whole cities to migrate around the cosmos. Someone else developed a longevity drug which allowed the people in the migratory cities--or at least some of the people in the cities--to live indefinitely. For some period of time--the book covers centuries as I recall--the cities used the drug as money, but the problem of not being able to take the drug and have it too came home to roost and their monetary system collapsed. DBL
Re: The Cigarette Standard
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: "It seems like the cigarette is everything a good solid currency needs to be" Except that you can't smoke your cigarettes and have them, too. A researcher with alot of smokes could probably come up with some interesting monetary theory experiments. -jsh __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Web Hosting - Let the expert host your site http://webhosting.yahoo.com
Re: The Cigarette Standard
In a message dated 11/14/02 1:53:35 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: << Has anybody studied how well cigarettes work as a monetary standard in US prisons? From what I've been led to believe, cigarettes are universally used to facilitate commerce in a prison economy. It seems like the cigarette is everything a good solid currency needs to be, at least within a prison's confines. Cheers, Michael Giesbrecht Internet Engineering Lucasfilm Ltd. >> I wonder if anyone has studied the use of cigarettes as money in Europe at the end of World War II? DBL
The Cigarette Standard
Has anybody studied how well cigarettes work as a monetary standard in US prisons? From what I've been led to believe, cigarettes are universally used to facilitate commerce in a prison economy. It seems like the cigarette is everything a good solid currency needs to be, at least within a prison's confines. Cheers, Michael Giesbrecht Internet Engineering Lucasfilm Ltd. I'm here for the beer. - (attributed to) John Locke
