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6/17/2025, 9:12:37 PM
>>507855114
>Like if a man owns a well that is a towns only source of water but has a lot of IOUs to different townsfolk.
In this analogy, the man started giving out promises of water his well would collect in the future instead of the water he had directly on hand. Then everybody else started trading those promises, making their own promises of promises, etc. It got complicated and the man was concerned that he wouldn't have enough water to meet everyone's promises. So he did away with the water system entirely, now he only gives out promises of nothing. You can still trade those promises for real things including water, but they're no longer directly related to each other.
>Why couldn't he just ignore them
Because his empty promises are the glue that holds his society together. As long as people believe they can be traded for water and other real assets, they'll keep using them. But if people catch wind of the idea that their empty promises might be worthless, they'll dump them en masse and the whole system falls apart. This is why he can't just arbitrarily decide that some promises are worthless. Everyone, friends, enemies, and even he himself use those promises for everything they do. He has a vested interest in upholding the promise system if he wants to go on living.
>Like if a man owns a well that is a towns only source of water but has a lot of IOUs to different townsfolk.
In this analogy, the man started giving out promises of water his well would collect in the future instead of the water he had directly on hand. Then everybody else started trading those promises, making their own promises of promises, etc. It got complicated and the man was concerned that he wouldn't have enough water to meet everyone's promises. So he did away with the water system entirely, now he only gives out promises of nothing. You can still trade those promises for real things including water, but they're no longer directly related to each other.
>Why couldn't he just ignore them
Because his empty promises are the glue that holds his society together. As long as people believe they can be traded for water and other real assets, they'll keep using them. But if people catch wind of the idea that their empty promises might be worthless, they'll dump them en masse and the whole system falls apart. This is why he can't just arbitrarily decide that some promises are worthless. Everyone, friends, enemies, and even he himself use those promises for everything they do. He has a vested interest in upholding the promise system if he wants to go on living.
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