Getting paid in space

The writer said, "diamonds are pretty," and left off their use as if
they didn't have any, but they are indeed extremely useful in
manufacturing. For example, tool and die: Tools, or forms used to
shape metal or other substance, plastic, for example,to make other
objects, are often tooled by a diamond wheel because of the fineness
of the cut and the hardness of diamonds against other metals. I
would venture that diamonds are more used for their use value more
than gold, but it may be that I have just not had enough experience
in electrical work to see it used as a conductor. (Husband was a
tool and die man.)

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "hetrevillion"
wrote:
>
> The same problem of moving the 'currency base' applies if it is
> platinum, gold or hydrogen ... physically, all are too massive for
> direct trade for other products, raw or manufactured. That is why
> specie--currency backed by 'real' value or the accepted word of a
> government to redeem the 'fiat' money--was developed in the first
> place. We have not had 'real' money since direct trading of one
> commodity for another was replaced with currency to show value.
The
> currency itself is only worth the paper it is printed on. Silver
or
> gold coinage are only worth the intrinsic value of the metals and
> any 'collector' interest in the coins. The 'money' value is
entirely
> dependent on what other people are willing to trade for
the 'money'.
> You pay your bills with cash, checks or e-transaction only until
> others decide that your money is worthless... witness pre-WWII
German
> Reichsmarks at over 1 billion per loaf of bread.
>
> With a decimal currency of luna.tic, based on anything, the value
is
> determined by the peoples trust that the backing commodity will
> retain its value. Gold is valuable as an electrical conductor and
as
> pretty jewelry, platinum is a valuable catalyst in various
chemical
> processes and as pretty jewelry, diamonds are pretty, hydrogen is
not
> pretty, but it is very useful and no one needs to store it in Fort
> Knox to protect it. Any commodities value will 'float' versus all
> others, i.e. stocks and bonds and international currency
> relationships, as well as hard commodities.
>
> The backing commodity is not 'money'. The peoples trust in the
> currency really has nothing to do with the backing commodity, only
> with the governments reliability to redeem the currency at the
then
> current rate for trade for whatever commodity the people want to
> purchase with the currency. And, of course, to protect the value
of
> their 'money' by preventing counterfieting.
>
> With a hydrogen based currency, as with any other base, any
intrinsic
> value is meaningless other than the ability to exchange the
currency
> for a certain amount of hydrogen. Say for instance that a tic is 1
> liter of hydrogen at 1 standard atmosphere of pressure. That tic
is
> also worth the appropriate amount of gold or platinum or diamond
or
> lamb stew or french fries or algebra lessons for your child. All
> currencies are the same ... fiat.
>
> --- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "terrierkeeper"
> wrote:
> >
> > Problem with hydrogen. How do you move it about for transactions?
> > Plus fire it explodes. And with comets and other sources it is
very
> > easily acquired.
> >
> > Things like Gold do not have these problems.
> >
> > --- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "Lucio de Souza Coelho"
> > wrote:
> > >
> > > On 8/16/06, harvey trevillion wrote:
> > > (...)
> > > > I favor using hydrogen as the basis of trade. It is useful
and
> > use-able ... burn your money for fuel or water. Call the decimal
> > based currency 'tic's, of which, 100 make a 'luna'.
> > > > Harvey
> > > (...)
> > >
> > > No doubt there will be specific cases where hydrogen will be
> > directly
> > > exchanged by something else. However, historically general-use
> > > currencies have been backed by rare (and therefore precious)
> > > commodities like gold. There was never a case of some useful
and
> > > use-able - though relatively abundant - commodity like, for
> > instance,
> > > oil being used for backing up currency.
> > >
> > > (Well, at least not directly. If all that talk about Iran
using
> > Euros
> > > instead of Dollars for pricing oil has some economic basis,
then