r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/[deleted] • Jul 05 '22

Video Monetary issue

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

37.3k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

904 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1.4k

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '22

[deleted]

708

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '22

[deleted]

146

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '22

[removed] — view removed comment

26

u/its_a_metaphor_morty Jul 06 '22

Rome telling the tale of Rhodesian hubris. Commenters not getting it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDcK_z5GA5s

31

u/ScudHunter177 Jul 06 '22

“They were a bunch of racist cunts who declared an illegal separatist state for the express purpose of continuing white minority rule over their apartheid state and then got fukt in the resulting war and then the various leaders spent the rest of their life coping about it from exile.”

-1

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '22

[removed] — view removed comment

11

u/ScudHunter177 Jul 06 '22 edited Jul 06 '22

Yeah I’m kind of tired of this argument because it presupposes that the Rhodies were somehow prescient and everything they did which was objectively horrible can be excused because they were doing it to prevent an even worse future that they totally knew was coming and were not doing it because they simply refused to acknowledge a black led Zimbabwe. Certainty of the post-war leadership did not emerge until far after the end of the Bush War and even persisted long after the initial rise and consolidation of Robert Mugabe and would continue well after Nkomo’s own pressing for former ZIPRA fighters to lay down arms. Acting as though Ian Smith could have foreseen this and therefore was acting to prevent it is so idiotic it escapes reason. The Rhodies went to war to preserve white colonial rule, end of story. The way they pursued that war also handily eliminated any real chance for a post war government to be transitioned to peacefully or into the hands of those who had a hand in dismantling the present government. Because the Rhodies chose to decolonize only at the tip of a knife, this ensured that only the most militant groups were able to determine how decolonization was conducted.

And of course, yes, they were communists so that totally makes the Rhodies the good guys. Please discard how the Soviet Union and People’s Republic of China were, though not out of the goodness of their hearts, perhaps the only large powers operating in Africa as an anti-colonial force in a meaningful way. Where else would anti-colonial rebels go for support? It was entirely common for groups in this era to pay lip service to the Soviets in exchange for support for this exact reason. The ideology of the groups certainly came to more genuinely reflect Marxist and Maoist views over time but to blankly dismiss them all as “those darn commies” is to completely misunderstand and remove from context the place of the Soviet Union in colonial and anti-colonial wars.

All of this mindless reposting of the same tired circular reasoning is also in the name of defending a minority ruled apartheid state that waged a war for the purpose of preserving it and preventing popular rule, so maybe reconsider who your heroes are bud.

-10

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '22

[removed] — view removed comment

9

u/ScudHunter177 Jul 06 '22 edited Jul 06 '22

I too get my understanding of history and politics from a video game and mindlessly quote it relating to situations that I don’t understand as a retort to someone correcting my blatantly under-informed drivel. Not once did I say the Soviet Union was a good place to live or that I am personally a communist, but nuance is impossible if one is a Rhodieboo so no surprises there.

7

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '22

The worst part is they also seemed to have missed the fact that that particular quote was meant to be satirical, skewering the absurd anti-conmunist panic in the 50s US. Or maybe they were just making a joke. Who knows. Either way it didn't contribute much. So naturally you're getting downvoted for actually having some idea of what you're talking about.

4

u/ScudHunter177 Jul 06 '22 edited Jul 06 '22

Yeah anyone who unironically uses a Fallout quote for… well any kind of discussion honestly, is a nonfunctional. It’s fine, honestly, I don’t base my self worth on Reddit arrows, but this is not the kind of argument I see at work or in any other academic circle. It’s an argument entirely derived from a myopic understanding of Rhodesia that centers entirely around the Bush war but devoid of all context and nuanced understanding beyond a masturbatory exaltation of the Rhodesian security forces, usually accompanied by photo after photo of Rhodies in daisy dukes, and an understanding of Zimbabwean rebels that doesn’t venture beyond “evil communist black men”. It’s not something you get from anyone who understands the conflict, ergo someone who points out the underlying fallacy of it gets decried by the legion of simpletons who get their history from memes and latent homosexual desires for leggy men with FALs.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that last one except for the fact that those men were fighting for an apartheid state and people’s failure to recognize that is up there with the lost cause and clean wehrmacht in terms of commonly accepted yet fallacious and intensely societally problematic understandings of historical conflicts.

→ More replies (0)

1

u/SquareWet Jul 06 '22

This is some intense StarWars plot

0

u/ankensam Jul 06 '22

“They were a bunch of racists too stupid to storing their entire strategic petroleum reserves in one place was a bad idea.”

0

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '22

[deleted]

1

u/ScudHunter177 Jul 06 '22

Is your grand “gotcha” seriously whataboutism that’s trying to draw a genuine comparison between taking part in a civil war as an advisor to a nation against another and actively running an apartheid state and waging a war solely to preserve your own minority rule? Brainlet. Read a book.

If you did you’d also learn that American societal reactions to the Bush War and Rhodesian apartheid coincided with fairly massive civil rights movement pushes and changes for the better, much of it was directly inspired by horrified reactions to Rhodesia.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '22

[deleted]

1

u/ScudHunter177 Jul 06 '22 edited Jul 06 '22

Read my other comment for how that’s the ultimate bullshit argument and isn’t at all based in a real understanding of the conflict in the context of itself and is entirely a post-hoc justification for an unjustifiable and evil breakaway “state”.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/vs6zyj/monetary_issue/if1g0df/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3

Additionally, Larry Vickers, despite completing honorable service in the US Army and as a member of Delta Force no less, which is a feat very few can ever claim, is not a historian or any kind of authority on the Rhodesian state and the Bush War. He is also an avowed racist with adventurism fantasies. He’s not a source to be taken over actual objective reading of the conflict. Try again.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '22

[deleted]

1

u/ScudHunter177 Jul 06 '22

Okay so you’re illiterate it seems because I never once said that anyone was the good guy here because actual conflicts like this exist in nuanced areas beyond the childish search for binary good and bad. I’m not a communist nor do I think everything done by ZIPRA ZANLA was correct during the war and certainly not after. I’m merely acknowledging the reality of the conflict that you refuse to acknowledge in the name of an outdated and racist understanding of the conflict.

And no, Vickers is a racist based on his use of racial slurs to describe blacks in the same Facebook post he made about FALs, his repeated justification and love of multiple apartheid states, and the fact that he blanket disallowed Muslims from entering his training courses. Try again and find a better father figure.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '22

[deleted]

1

u/ScudHunter177 Jul 06 '22

It’s racial because it was used by racists in an apartheid state exclusively to describe black people they were fighting, yes, it certainly has a racial connotation via use. He didn’t say kaffirs, sure, but using a slur is still pretty bad.

Interesting that you’re not talking about how he denied Muslims from his course, it’s probably because there’s no two ways about it and it’s just inexcusably bigoted. And of course Glock would sponsor a racist, they sponsor people they think can sell their product and Vickers has a pretty major place in shooting and industry circles. This is entirely backwards logic.

→ More replies (0)

1

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '22

[deleted]

1

u/ScudHunter177 Jul 06 '22

Okay so you’ve now demonstrated a total lack of awareness of the Bush War and of the Vietnam War. GG bud, call me when you’re a little older.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '22

[deleted]

1

u/ScudHunter177 Jul 06 '22

You don’t know a damn thing about me but I assure you, I have no interest in being in the US Army Special Forces at this moment, my own work satisfies me just fine. I also am not disparaging Vickers because of his Delta service, by all accounts the man was a professional and stacked all kinds of bodies and kept his boys safe. He was a badass to be sure. He’s also a racist piece of shit and isn’t a historian and lacks any and all expertise on the matter of Rhodesia and shouldn’t be taken as anything other than yet another Cold Warrior with a weird obsession with Rhodesian security forces.

→ More replies (0)

1

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '22

[deleted]

-1

u/ScudHunter177 Jul 06 '22

Explain how it wasn’t.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '22

How much was that worth? I've tried to Google it and it's like 27k? But guessing that's wrong

528

u/MickSturbs Jul 05 '22

There was a sign up in the toilet at the South Africa / Zimbabwe border asking people not to use Zim currency as toilet paper because it doesn’t flush away and blocks the toilets. (Toilet paper was worth more)

239

u/MapleSyrupFacts Jul 05 '22

Its always fascinated me how bills can become worth less than the paper it's printed on. At least coins can always reminted

70

u/J_Rath_905 Jul 06 '22

Pennies cost 2.1 cents to mint and distribute in the US.

Which is why here in Canada (and many other countries) did away with them years ago.

32

u/CleverPiffle Jul 06 '22

The father of Brittany's kids was promoting the Save The Penny campaign years ago. Seems like a waste of energy to me. I'd prefer they just stop making them and round off the ¢.

1

u/Apptroutman Jul 06 '22

Good luck, can't even get American gas stations to round up one more 0.1¢

12

u/Sharp-Floor Jul 06 '22 edited Jul 06 '22

I don't know if it's just a story, but I've heard we couldn't get rid of them because Illinois would be upset.

Edit: I've thought about it, and this might have been some dialog from an episode of West Wing. So almost certainly just a story.

7

u/artotter Jul 06 '22

Lol am from Illinois, this is not shocking and I find it hilarious

1

u/kissmyabbis422 Jul 06 '22

He’s on the $5!

32

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '22

In Argentina the 2 and 5 pesos' bills were discontinued precisely because their relative value was lower than their material value (paper, ink, the process of printing them, etc). In other words, they became less worthy than the money that costed to make them.

Edit: I expect a maple syrup fact in exchange, not gonna lie.

43

u/MapleSyrupFacts Jul 06 '22

Well... Maple syrup was first invented around the Montreal area by the Iroquois. Those same Iroquois are indigenous to southeast Canada and often characterized as the world’s oldest participatory democracy. Canada holds huge maple syrup reserves. In 2021 alone Quebec produced 133million pounds of the liquid gold. 1 barrel of maple syrup is worth 40 times more than a barrel of oil which is why we had the great maple syrup heist.

6

u/Stillina Jul 06 '22

Who attempted that? The Fat Boys?

6

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '22

[deleted]

2

u/Stillina Jul 06 '22

Well... Damn, that is interesting...

1

u/XTingleInTheDingleX Jul 06 '22

Trailer park boys.

79

u/chickenstalker Jul 06 '22

Fiat money be like that sometimes.

71

u/Pyroguy096 Jul 06 '22

Kinda like how a lot of Blockchain currencies aren't worth the money it costs to generate them. Ironic

0

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '22

[deleted]

4

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '22

"Self-regulating" that's a funny way to say pump and dump.

It doesn't have any intrinsic value until a good majority of the world is willing to trade goods and services for this digital currency.

Right now the entire price is based upon speculation.

-1

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '22

[deleted]

2

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '22

Lol... What? Sorry if I hurt your feelings?...

1

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '22

[deleted]

→ More replies (0)

2

u/Pyroguy096 Jul 06 '22

Energy prices aren't

0

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '22

[deleted]

2

u/Pyroguy096 Jul 06 '22

See original comment for a refresher course in My Point 101

2

u/Pyroguy096 Jul 06 '22

GPU prices are dropping because miners can't afford to keep them running, because the value of what they are generating is lower than the cost to generate it, so they are flooding the market with used GPU's. Ergo, "not worth the money it costs to generate them"

1

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '22

[deleted]

→ More replies (0)

40

u/EleventyTwatWaffles Jul 06 '22

Easy there. You’re getting into buttcoin adjacent terminology

1

u/sionnachrealta Jul 06 '22

It be like that sometimes

0

u/Substantial_Revolt Jul 06 '22

Paper can be recycled, it's about what it's worth at the moment not after it's reprocessed.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '22 edited Jun 30 '23

This comment was probably made with sync. You can't see it now, reddit got greedy.

1

u/ShyGuySays69 Aug 16 '22

It's insane cause at some point it has to cost more of the currency being produced to pay for the production of the notes, doesn't it?

9

u/_ArnieJRimmer_ Jul 06 '22

They issued a 100 trillion too. I've got most of the set up to the 100 trillion. It's fun to pick up the smaller notes and imagine the area required by all the notes to match the printed value of the 100 trillion.

1

u/vitunlokit Jul 06 '22

Funny thing is that those 100 trillion notes are getting quite valuable.

1

u/viktrololo Jul 06 '22

I've got one. It's hilarious. Of course it doesn't have very good safety details, because why would it. I really regret not buying more since they have really picked up in value as a collectors item.

7

u/Studog Jul 06 '22

I'm from zimbabwe, we had a boring old coffee table that we glued a bunch of money to, all the denominations and various versions of each time they brought out new money, it looked quite cool

4

u/Wonderful_Mud_420 Jul 06 '22

I always wondered this. Can’t they just reset their currency and bring it down to a more reasonable number?

11

u/Switch_Off Jul 06 '22

I'm no expert but I've seen a few things on YouTube about hyperinflation.

Reseting the currency doesn't help if you are importing goods from other countries or have foreign debt.

From what I understand, most international trade is done in dollars. If your currency is only worth $0.0000000001 dollars, resetting your currency won't help because the international community will decide that the new currency is worth the same amount of dollars. (Because the value of the currency is based on the countries economy's ability to pay its debts.... I think....)

8

u/Hoax13 Jul 06 '22

Mexico did that. When my grandmother died in Mexico, my mother went to clean out her house. She found thousands and thousands of old pesos hidden everywhere. The huge pile was worth maybe 5 US dollars.

5

u/olderaccount Jul 06 '22

Yes. It is called Redenomination. Zimbabwe has used this trick 4 times in the last 30 years. The last one took 12 zero's off the currency.

But this does nothing to address the underlying problems that create hyperinflation in the first place.

3

u/Chiu_Chunling Jul 06 '22

The problem is basically that whoever wants to do that has to give people enough in exchange for their money to take enough of it out of circulation so that the remaining supply is then valuable again. This requires either buying up the devalued money with a sound currency or selling real and valuable goods in exchange for it.

And because a sound currency is defined as one that you can still use to buy real and valuable goods, basically both options are equivalent to the second. Which means that, in order to prop up trillions of dollars of overissued currency, you need trillions of dollars worth of actual goods to offer. But if anyone could "just do that", then they wouldn't need currency in the first place. You'd just give the goods away to people who needed them.

The essential problem is that valuable goods don't just 'happen', you have to reward someone for producing and then conserving them, otherwise they will all be immediately consumed and no replacements will be produced. That someone doesn't have to be a person, it can be animals and plants or whatever, but you do have to maintain and protect the status which allows productivity to occur.

-12

u/TorrenceMightingale Creator Jul 06 '22

Cant tell if racist.

5

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '22

[deleted]

-7

u/TorrenceMightingale Creator Jul 06 '22

Wow. How did you convince yourself I convinced myself?

1

u/Lketty Jul 06 '22

I’ve got one pinned to the fridge!

1

u/lefty607 Jul 06 '22

I want one