mmarotta Posted January 25, 2006 Report Share Posted January 25, 2006 In the Nekkid Coin thread, Elizabethann was surprised by the stone money of Yap. You're kidding me! THAT is what they use for paper money! No way! How would you like to have to carry that around to Wal-Mart every time you went! lol! The fact that such stones cannot be carried means that typically, they are stood up in front of the house as a sign of honor and importance. Each stone requires considerable manpower to make and move -- and they have no use. Fishing, gathering, etc., those are useful. Making stones is purely symbolic. POTLATCH is another wasteful economic activity. Inventories of valuable goods are assembled and then broken. This is a rivalry, intended to show how wealthy the tribal leader is that he can afford this trashing of goods. Communists claim that gold money is another wasteful economic enterprise. We dig it out of the ground and then bury it in vaults. It serves some industrial purposes, but basically, gold is useless and the pursuit of it is a drag on the market... or so they claim... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.