A traveler in Baden, Germany around 1550 From: Robert Heilbroner, The Worldly Philosophers, 1972, p 20
“Each community he visits has its own money, its own rules and regulations, its own law and order. In the area around Baden alone there are 112 different measures of length, 92 different square measures, 65 different dry measures, 163 different measures for cereals and 123 for liquids, 63 special measures for liquor, and 80 different pound weights.”
There are about 150 national monies. They are all notes with names and numbers, but nowhere do they say what the numbers mean. It’s like using “meter” for length without anyone having a meter stick to measure length. The result is trial and errors. Who knows where and how many errors.
Today in 2008, we have solved the problem of units of weight and measure, except for money. We use units of the metric system for length, weight, and volume. The result: measurement is done correctly, efficiently, and amicably.
Countries use monies that have names: “euros,” “dollars,” “pesos,” “krooni,” “francs,” etc., but no units of measure, no observable quantity to define, to make definite, the meaning of the numbers on the money.
We must judge the value of our money by comparing wages and prices with our neighbors. Suppose we are inaccurate by five percent. That does not seem like much, but money travels from person to person to person. In 20 steps an error of five percent can grow to 100 percent. In 40 steps it can grow to 200 percent. Let that happen year after year and you get ever increasing economic inequality. That is how we got to where we are today.
Today we have more billionaires than ever before. What is a “billion dollars” anyway? At $50 an hour, 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year, it is 10,000 years of income. No one can “earn” that much income. No wonder we have more bankruptcies than ever before. We need to make incomes more reasonable. That’s why I created this website, to explain how to do it.
To contact Bob Blain:
Cooperation
P.O. Box 644
Edwardsville, Illinois 62025
Phone:1- 618-656-5706
E-mail: Bob_Blain@hourmoney.org