Does Money Exist? 1 of 12

       Does Money Exist?

                  -or-

            Plutism Versus Gödel’s Jinx

 

 

               Table of Contents:

 

Introduction

Aplutism Defined and Critiqued

Plutic Controversy

The Paradox of Trade

Are Currency, Gold or Credit money?

Social Construction and Metamathematics

Elementary Metamathematics

Metamathematical Aplutism

Revelation of True Price.

Antiplutic Norms

Wider Implications of Jinx and Charm

Metamathematical Reforms

Critique of an alleged science, and a self-validation

 

               Introduction

 

            This essay connects fiscal instability to a logic paradox which I call the “metamathematical jinx”. This is a treatise on Metamathematical Economics.

            I start with a definition and critique of a new word: “aplutism”. Then I connect the social-constructivist defense of plutism to meta-mathematics. I briefly review metamathematics through Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorems and Löb’s Theorem; using these results I define metamathematical “jinx” and “charm”. I then prove that money’s existence is jinxed and money’s accounting is charmed: that is, money exists only to the extent that you cannot prove that it exists; yet your books do in fact balance if they can prove it. I end this essay with some Metamathematical Reforms, a brief critique of an alleged science, and a vain self-validation.

 

         Part 1. Aplutism defined and critiqued.

             Aplutism (a - ploo - tizm)(adj.: Aplutic) n. (syn.: Amonetarism, Achrismatism. ant.: Plutism)(from Ancient Greek, ‘treasurelessness’, ‘moneylessness’) 1) Philosophical disbelief in the existence of money. 1a) Doubt or denial of money’s intrinsic value. 1b) The claim that money is always a fiction, sometimes a folly, and often a fraud. 1c) Any political-economic system designed to be separate from the money system.  2) Wealthlessness; poverty; personal lack of funds.

             Aplutism is to the market as anarchism is to the state and atheism is to religion; it defies an established power by denying the existence of that power’s god. You can tell a culture’s true gods by noting which heresies are unthinkable. We have words for those who deny God, or the State, but here we must invent a word for those who deny this culture’s true divinity, the almighty Dollar.

            The “aplutic question” is “does money exist?” It has two meanings, given the two definitions of aplutism; does money exist philosophically, and do I, myself, have any money. But the two questions are linked; for to anyone personally aplutic, it is as if no money exists anywhere in the world; and the fact that many people, much of the time, experience personal aplutism, suggests flaws within plutism. Certainly personal aplutism motivates individuals to devise “political-economic systems designed to be separate from the money system”; which by definition is public aplutism.

             Aplutism in the public sense comes in soft and hard varieties. Soft aplutism is doubt in money’s existence; hard aplutism is outright denial of money’s existence. Soft aplutism can be called “agnostic aplutism” or “agnoplutism” if you don’t mind the neologism.

             “Plutism” is another useful word; its meaning is inverse to aplutism’s: belief in the independent existence of money; belief in money’s inherent value; and also personally having money.