Abstract
In this chapter, we will attempt to give an answer to a perennial question. Professor Melissa Lane (2016), the director of Princeton’s University Center for Human Values, is right (of course): “Rising levels of economic inequality and social immobility raise a challenge faced continually in antiquity, with fresh force: how, and in what circumstances, if at all, can the rich and the poor be enabled to act as political equals?” Perhaps not even for the first time, this is precisely the thrust of the dialogue between Alcibiades and Pericles reported by Xenophon. Analyzing the essential elements of a long sweep of history, it becomes evident that Concordian economics offers a clear-cut set of answers. This chapter is divided into two parts: The first part offers a broad review of how major thinkers of the past have dealt with “money”; the second part presents a practical and intellectual understanding of money within the context of Concordian economics. Both parts analytically deny any validity to the “fractional reserve” theory of money, the assumption that money is created by bankers on the strength of money saved by depositors.
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Notes
- 1.
Both Aristotle and Aquinas (!) committed the grievous error of justifying the institution of slavery. It is also surprising that Aristotle overlooked that physical or wage slavery is an institution that will undermine the middle class, both politically and economically.
- 2.
Thanks to Soini (2023). Interestingly, ever since the election of Pope Francis I have placed my pleas at the feet of Mary, Untier of Knots. See Wikipedia (n.d.). I do that whenever I pass under the statue of Joan of Arc, in Gloucester, with her unsheathed sword in the air.
- 3.
Behind acts of financialization there are few responsibilities and much sheer power.
- 4.
As the Tablet at Stage Forth Park in Gloucester, Massachusetts, records, “On this site in 1623, a company of fishermen and farmers from Dorchester, England, under the direction of Rev. John White, founded THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY”.
- 5.
The most interesting case to study, of course, is that of Aquinas. See, Neil (2011)
- 6.
Irving Fisher (1911: Chap. 7, paras 2 and 3).
- 7.
Keynes (1936, Preface). From the full quotation of this sentence, it becomes clear that Keynes did not set his target quite right. His search was for a “monetary” theory “of output as a whole.” And that is what he got; he did not create an “economic” theory of output as a whole.
- 8.
- 9.
- 10.
For a measure of this problem, it might be sufficient to follow the discussion related to the publication of Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty First Century (2017).
- 11.
There is no definition of money in economics; there is only a detailed description of the functions of money.
- 12.
Gorga (2002, 2009a, 2009b, 2016). Full disclosure: The Economic Process presents a full length treatment of the logical deficiencies of the General Theory and the outline of the structure of Concordian economics. Quite apart from numerous positive reviews, the book is hobbled by two negative reviews, one because the reviewer (Davidson, 2003) openly admitted he was unable to accept the logic of the exposition of the book; he also reasoned in terms of two propositions, one that does not exist in the General Theory—I = S—and another that does not exist in EP—H = I; the other because the reviewer (Broski, 2003) could not find hoarding in the economic system. All reviews can be found at http://www.a-new-economic-atlas.com/p/review-of-ep.html.
- 13.
At page 61 of GT, Keynes writes: “Any reasonable definition of the line between consumer-purchasers and investment-purchasers…”.
- 14.
- 15.
See, e.g., Suppes (1957: 213–220) and esp. Allen (1970, 435–47, 748–52).
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Gorga, C. (2024). Whence Money. In: Concordian Economics, Vol. 2. Springer Studies in Alternative Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54642-6_6
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