Money is just paper and print!! So why the lack of it???

Funny, my daughter just said almost the same thing as you. She says, well, it is just paper so why can't they just print more of it. Then our countries wouldn't have debts and the poor countries wouldn't have to be poor anymore. So it is quite the coincedence that you just posted this discussion. I happen to agree with you and my daughter. Why not just print more, as it is only paper. I don't get it either.

I know there is a reason that has to do with value (the value relates to gold or some other thing) but like you I wish we could just print more lol. I think using the barter system would be excellent - you do this for me, I'll do this for you - but I am not an expert in all the things that people need daily to survive. If I was, then wouldn't they be indebted to me if they didn't have something to offer that I needed in return? The money system is flawed, that is for sure, but there is a problem with anything else that could replace it. The bottom line is that no person or company should be allowed to gouge people - charge much more than the real value - for an item or service. Because of capitalism in America, everybody gouges. From real estate to gas to a loaf of bread - the prices charged to people is way outside the actual value - what it costs to produce - that item or service. If there was a law in place allowing only up to a certain percentage that anybody was allowed to charge over and above the minimum cost to produce, then everything would be cheaper. Things are out of proportion anyway because somebody who can throw a football can go play pro and make millions a year while someone who went to college and has loans exceeding 120k and is now teaching and giving an education to our children who will one day run this world makes only 32k a year. That is upsidedown and backwards. I don't see this ever being fixed so some control on prices is the only solution that could be offered. I'm not talking about cutting wages, I'm talking about cutting exhorbitant profits to the business owner, no matter what their business is. Either way the employees always get screwed while the business owner's pockets just get fatter.

At one time money(paper currency) had to be backed by gold, and only those who had enough gold could print money. Then came the Federal Reserve Bank (which is NOT owned by our government but by private investors(the rich)) who took over all currency and was allowed to print money without having gold to back them. All gold had to be given up or those who refused would go to jail. Our government has no control of gold or currency. Want to read more then go to http://i-know-do-you-know.blogspot.com/2008/02/federal-reserve-banks-owners.html http://i-know-do-you-know.blogspot.com/2008/04/gold-give-it-up-or-go-to-jail.html

Great question and one I've often thought about myself. I'll be curious to see if anyone here as an answer. I actually thought of that recently with all the economic problems. Why doesn't the government just print off a bunch of extra money and get things back on track. And since they have the capability to do that, then exactly why do they need our hard earned money in taxes. And do we really know that they aren't helping themselves to some anyway?

Why less money being produced??? Its because the raw materials used for making money is also highly expensive and rare... They dont just simply use ordinary paper The paper and its content has its values and uniqueness.

I have just made a booboo and posted my response under somebody else's response (ChristLikeFarmer). I won't repeat it here, but I believe it may be useful, so please check it out. Lash

Hi Grace, Rosettaresearch gave you the best answer. Money is not just paper it is backed and balanced by some other means. In many countries it is gold. If you keep printing money without these balances you get inflation. Some countries experience that or have experienced it in the past. I remember reading that there was a terrible inflation in Germany before the second war. People had to take wash baskets full of paper money to buy some groceries and every day the price would be higher and they had to take more money with them. So as sad as it is the control on how much money is in circulation is necessary.

I know, most people usually see money very differently. But if we would look at it in a simple point of view, its just like an I.O.U or like a promisory note. Its a bit similay to writing a promisory note or check, like when the maker of the promisory note promises to make a note payable to the payee in exchange for a service done or good he purchased from the payee/receiver of the note. Its quite similar with money but the only difference is that the maker of the note is the government who promises to pay the holder of the note(the money). Another difference of the ordinary note from money is that money is made payable to bearer, that is why even it is stolen it could still have its value without being noticed of being stolen. If you would look at your money/bill, there is a note there stating that the bill you are holding is made payable by the republic or the government. Which means that the issuer of the note which is the government is assuring the bearer of the moneys value,its also the same if we would be saying that the government owes you something in exchange of the note you are holding. Now for the reason why the government could not just print as many as they can is that, they have to print only enough bills to be similar to the gold the country has in its account. For example if the country only has $500 worth of gold in its safe and instead of printing only one $500 bill they printed 2 $500 bill, it would make the value of the $500 bill lesser to $250. The bill is $500 as printed but its value decreased to 1/2 due to over printing of the bill. That is the reason why the country only prints enough bills to circulate so that the bills circulating would be worth its value.

Just to add a little something more. The 'value' of paper money, is based on peoples' confidence in it. In fact most 'money' only exists in computer memory banks; the proportion of 'money' in actual coins and bills (or 'notes' in England) is very small. As some people have mentioned, each countries currency has a different value, that usually varies each day on the foreign exchange market. That is based on traders' confidence in the running by politicians of the various countries (god help us!). Just a bit more 'food' for thought! :~)

I agree, it's really stupid. The barter system is highly needed. Why not just jump start everybody on the planet with 100k in their bank account? That would solve a LOT of problems!

Hi graceandowne. I'm with you. I could never understand why there is not enough money when all it is is paper. I guess I'm just naive like you. I don't understand all of the wall street and stock stuff.

Money is not just a piece of paper you can produce as much as you want. If that is the case then life would have been wonderful. Money is just a symbol that represents the total amount of wealth in every country. Monetary is base on the value of gold and other wealth a country have. That is why we have different rate in every country. It is base on the gross national income of a country. That is the reason why we have a limit on producing money in every country. In the old times they exchange goods through barter. They dont just create a piece of coin and during the roman empire they started to exchange goods in exchange of gold. This explains how things work before and how things work now.

as far as i know when something is in scarce quantity it's value increases and people are willing to pay high for it. so, if you want to print money then go on but by doing so all will have money but the prices will also go high by same and since it be in plentiful no one will be willing to business in that currency. this will not boast the economy but it will get it down. that is why the money is made in less quantity!!

Well the thing is that the country needs to have like "gold" it has to be wealthy to own cash if not it could be so easy go print money and yay im rich no ur country needs to...yeah. Thats why some countrys are not rich and others are.

You have a very good question there my friend, you give me a headache but its very intereting topic. It cannot just be printed coz it must be something acceptable. It cannot be shared equally coz nobody will work anymore. Get more farmers in poor countries, there will be no poor countries since money can just be printed and shared. With that idea money becomes worthless. I said accepted currency to mean internationally so that we can trade outside the country. We trade goods with each other and the goods must be paid of something acceptable between us. This goods are produce by workers and must be paid because of their labor. Labor is the use of strenght or mind. Therefore, money is the product of the mind. LOL. Maybe the more it confuses you Lol. With a mind, you must be intelligent. Money was invented by intelligent people.. LOL Sorry, with the amount of intelligence i have, i cannot answer your question, thats why until today i remained poor. LOL. just to make you laugh just joking LOL.

They could just print more money but it would not solve the problem as it would make the currency worth less and if they printed too much the inflation would grow so much that the currency would become totally worthless. I am not an economist but that is what was explained to me when I asked the same question. The idea seems so simple because it is. The way the market works at the moment you cannot solve the financial crisis by printing money. You could change the entire economy so that money was not needed but you will never get the rich to go along with that as they would lose their individual wealth. The same goes for sharing the wealth through taxes on the rich etc.

Well, how do you get the paper? From trees. How do you get it from the trees? Cut it down. That in itself is hard work and expensive. Now, how does the designs get on the paper that you cut from the tree? It goes through a printer. Printers (especially on that large of scale) can cost a lot of money- as well as the ink that goes in there. Money, when it first started, didn't mean as much as it does today. They didn't have it circulating every second to someone else. So, it takes a lot of work and time for the money to go from being a tree to being a piece of paper in your wallet- and that's why there's less of it.

Ya know i've always wondered that kind of myself. I mean really why should we have a national debt when there are Mints all over the united states that make our own money. I guess they do it for statistical purposes or maybe they just must have to draw the line somewhere of how much to make per year. That's a very good question, in fact why don't they print me off some money so i don't have to do this for a measily 25 cents a day. LOL.

What would happen if we took the money away and things wouldnt have prices anymore? If we would work for the fun of it and not because we get paid? I have no answers either for your question neither for mine. Cant imagine what would be if things didnt have value anymore and everyone could have what they wanted. Too abstract thinking for me I guess hehe.

goo point! i agree, i wonder how created the idea about money! if people jsut go back in time being caveman (lol) and just forget about the stress of paying this and that. but truly i believe that even the person who invented money is brain wash about it, other people will think of it soon or later, because first human are selfish and wants to know who is #1, such as creating who earns the most price, and money