Alright so I caught this guy trying to give me a fake $50 at the gas station. I threw it at him and told him to give me some real money and to take his sorry ass home or else I'm gonna call the cops and beat the shit out of him until they get here. He paid up and left so then I started to go on a thought tangent.
If someone circulates fake bills then doesn't that in an indirect way help the economy? It provides a few new goods to be produced so that people have stuff to check the bills with. Then there are the jobs created for companies who make such things. And the people at banks start paying more attention to the bills they take in so that the fake bills don't impact their drawers. People also have more jobs due to needing pupils to reinforce the idea that the bills are out there and to police people who create and try to distribute the bills. So in the end doesn't a fake 5 or 10 do some real good to people out there? Not that counterfeiting money is a good thing or that you can try to pull off a stunt telling the cop that you are just trying to help the economy, but it does seem to help right?
Let me know your opinions...
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8 comments:
Maybe a little, but I'm thinking that the extra bills in circulation would depreciate the value of the dollar bill and cause inflation, too, hurting the economy more than it would help it. We're already suffering from a loss in value of our dollar as it is.
Wouldn't printing a bunch of counterfeit bills be the same as the treasury just printing more legal money? It'd make dollar bills more commonplace and therefore less valuable, right?
I'm sure that there is some business associated with tracking down counterfeit bills and their producers, but I'm not sure how much. The most common device to identify fake bills is those marker things, right? How many of those do we need?
You definitely did bring up an interesting point, though. I'll be interested to hear what others say.
By the way, what excuse did the guy give you for the fake $50?
Nice story, sounds like a fun time. yeah, i agree with marty. if counterfeit bills are circulated and used, it's the equivalent of the government pumping more money into the system, which will cause an inflation problem.
I think you might have something here Tony. The extra jobs created might be more of a benefit than the inflation hinders. Maybe I'm way out of wack saying that, but I would think that more people working creates more GDP for the country, even if there is inflation I think that could counteract it enough so that it is beneficial to have some fake ones around.
Nice story. Nice idea too. While it may provide short-term benefits like you noted, I'm thinking that it doesnt even matter if the fake cash is actually found; as soon as it's realized that additional dollars are floating around, the negatives arise. Just like a stock reporting higher $ than it actually possesses, when its finally realized that certain values are inflated, people might panic. But I agree with Marty and Phil; more cash in the system will simply dilute its value.
You brought this up to Josh and I once, and i agree with David in saying that in the short run it might help the economy, but in the long run it will definately hurt the economy and thusly make it weaker, which is not what we need right now. Although maybe we could do this to get that short term benefits to spur the economy and then make it really easy to trace so that in the long run it doesnt hurt us....
Interesting take on the subject. As others have said, I think your stance is failing to look at the other consequences of counterfeiting bills. The benefits are probably far less than the harm to the economy because of value depletion. Interesting thought though.
see, and it is that idea that confuses me so much about the great depression. Just throw some paper in peoples hands and they will buy stuff and people will be happy again!! i dont understand.
I love how you guys think. Really. And you know what? (Don't be scared) -- you're thinking like economists.
Yes, it could show some good things for the economy - more jobs (what would the Secret Service do without counterfeit bills?), those nifty black lights and pens...
Yes, the long term effect would be inflation, assuming there was enough out there to effect it that much.
And Morgan (if you come back to check this at all) - the Depression was the opposite problem. There was rampant DEflation, not inflation. So printing more money would have actually helped, not hurt, but the government was trying to see if it would solve itself.
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