/lit/ - Literature

>>17401055
The fictions on which the money system rests are highly artificial, and this analysis is not the place to treat them in detail. There is no completely satisfactory theory of money, but the following may be said in this connection. The point of view from which technology looks upon money is a technical one. It looks at money from the viewpoint of circulation, for circulation is the most important technical function of money. Thus, technical progress is identified with an accelerated circulation of money – money is made to work more rapidly. Where treasures and possessions are by nature stable, unchangeable, and out of circulation – features which the technician abhors, because to him they signify sterility – the supporting of the currency by precious metals provides an element of financial stability. From a state of stability where paper money is redeemable in gold, instability begins as the obligation of the state to redeem its currency is suspended. Money is then still backed up by gold reserves, but as the gold reserves melt away, the state is increasingly compelled to try by every means in its power to obtain gold and gold values. The circulation of sheer paper money is rapid, and the more rapidly money circulates, the better does it fulfill its technical function, which is, first of all, to circulate. The deposit of all liquid funds in banks is now recommended and encouraged with the argument that money which is banked best discharges its function of circulation.

The more money is devaluated the faster it circulates. If there is gold, money runs to gold. If there is no gold, it runs to goods. It may be said that bad money runs away from itself. But precisely by doing this it fulfills splendidly its technical purpose. It takes on perpetual motion, circulating with sweeping speed, changing hands and so creating the illusion among the naive that there is a lot of good money, or even that all of us have become richer. The decay of currency is neither local nor transitory. It is a symptom of a certain phase of technical progress. It occurs at the precise moment when the financial needs of the technical organization go beyond those limits within which an orderly financial economy can be conducted."
- FG Jünger