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Japan tried this in the 90s with expiring vouchers, results were subpar. The bailwick of Jersey sent citizens a prepaid card with £100 expiring in 6 monhts whi

Japan tried this in the 90s with expiring vouchers, results were subpar. The bailwick of Jersey sent citizens a prepaid card with £100 expiring in 6 monhts which was also disabled for ATM withdrawls during 2020. Again moderate results. Money is a unit of account, if you mess with it people adjust quickly, there is no free lunch. It's not the same as giving Wellbutrin+Ritalin to somebody who is depressed.

synnejye 5y ago
Then they must have be doing something wrong? Obviously people would not be foregoing free money if it was easy to get. You are arguing that people would not spend "free" 100 usd on their rent if the money/voucher was directed towards rent.
- ObserverNeutral 5y ago
  "How bad things must be if the government resorts to giving us free money with an expiration date to force us to spend? I'll spend my 100$ card before it expires but I'll save extra 200$ of my salary compared to before. I have to brace for the worst that it's yet to come, it's going to be really bad before it gets better, especially given that the Government is resorting to giving us free money " The more you use extreme measures to force people to do what they don't want, the more they'd refuse to do so. When people are scared and paralyzed by fear, messing with the unit of account won't calm their worries, if anything given how out of the ordinary it is, it could be argued that it makes things worse. Money is external, people pick the scheme apart rather quickly and you end up worse than before because now you look desperate to force them to do what you want
  - samsonradu 5y ago
    Right. Push this insanity too much and people will start bartering using gold/silver/crypto and such. Then the gov is forced to ban the use of assets and things get complicated. Whether this is good or bad on the long run is debate-able, but it would shake things up globally.
- throw1234651234 5y ago
  I think the key to what ObserverNeutral is saying has a strong point - "People will try to sell their fake, expiring "crypto-dollars" for real money, instead of following the rules. Even if they can't see the "crypto-dollar" for less "real dollars", they will just go through some medium of exchange. I.e. buy toilet paper for crypto dollars, and sell it at a discount. Great point. I didn't consider it offhand.
hakfoo 5y ago
Taiwan tried a variant of it during Covid too-- they issued a bunch of vouchers that you could buy for NT$200/500/1000, and stores agreed to take them at three times face value, until the end of 2020. I tried to get one for my banknote collection, but it got lost in the post. :/
- ObserverNeutral 5y ago
  what were the results ?

synnejye 5y ago

Then they must have be doing something wrong? Obviously people would not be foregoing free money if it was easy to get. You are arguing that people would not spend "free" 100 usd on their rent if the money/voucher was directed towards rent.

ObserverNeutral 5y ago
"How bad things must be if the government resorts to giving us free money with an expiration date to force us to spend? I'll spend my 100$ card before it expires but I'll save extra 200$ of my salary compared to before. I have to brace for the worst that it's yet to come, it's going to be really bad before it gets better, especially given that the Government is resorting to giving us free money " The more you use extreme measures to force people to do what they don't want, the more they'd refuse to do so. When people are scared and paralyzed by fear, messing with the unit of account won't calm their worries, if anything given how out of the ordinary it is, it could be argued that it makes things worse. Money is external, people pick the scheme apart rather quickly and you end up worse than before because now you look desperate to force them to do what you want
- samsonradu 5y ago
  Right. Push this insanity too much and people will start bartering using gold/silver/crypto and such. Then the gov is forced to ban the use of assets and things get complicated. Whether this is good or bad on the long run is debate-able, but it would shake things up globally.
throw1234651234 5y ago
I think the key to what ObserverNeutral is saying has a strong point - "People will try to sell their fake, expiring "crypto-dollars" for real money, instead of following the rules. Even if they can't see the "crypto-dollar" for less "real dollars", they will just go through some medium of exchange. I.e. buy toilet paper for crypto dollars, and sell it at a discount. Great point. I didn't consider it offhand.

hakfoo 5y ago

Taiwan tried a variant of it during Covid too-- they issued a bunch of vouchers that you could buy for NT$200/500/1000, and stores agreed to take them at three times face value, until the end of 2020. I tried to get one for my banknote collection, but it got lost in the post. :/

ObserverNeutral 5y ago
what were the results ?