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This video bothered me a bit. It's a little dreamy and hoighty-toighty (sp?).
First off, we've got about a dozen different people talking about "the future of money". 12 out of billions of possible contributors to the economy of the future. Not a very large sample size. Tack on the fact that the majority of these speakers are authors, bloggers, and founders, and you've got a heavily biased sample as well. While I'm all for the "digital economy" so-to-speak, no one here is offering anything new or concrete.
Around 4:30, talking about the "new bank" as an expression of the community. Ever heard of a credit union?
Around 6:00, talking about currencies as a free market. How about the billions (trillions?) of dollars traded every day between currency markets based on supply and demand? We're already operating "underneath the instruments built on top of currencies". If he's talking about digital/virtual currencies, what about Farmville dollars, and WoW gold?
This stuff isn't new or revolutionary, and it's coming from a select group of people with very different ideas about money. A favorite quote of mine that's somewhat relevant here comes from the movie Office Space, where they're talking about what they would do with a million dollars. Lawrence says, "...that question is bullshit to begin with. If everyone listened to her, there'd be no janitors, because no one would clean shit up if they had a million dollars." What about the millions of people who won't get to work in some new futuristic economy? We still need janitors who are willing to clean stuff up for cold hard cash.
The most positive aspect of the video was Jerry Michalski at about 4:15, talking about the successful business of the future will be the one that's the most transparent and the most human.
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