Modern Money and National Debt

Abstract

The article identifies the features that distinguish the universal use-value from the special consumer value, which allowed to solve the problem of classification of some forms of money as “complete” or “inferior”. It has been determined that universal use-value, in contrast to the special consumer value, reflects, first of all, relations between people, but not between a man and nature, exists only in commodity production relations and is not destroyed when consumed. Thus, money as a universal use-value should not be reproduced as ordinary goods, so its exchange value or purchasing power is not determined by labor costs for its production. This is true both for modern money and for gold money in the past, which also had insignificant “internal” value. Thus, it is necessary either to attribute gold money to “inferior”, or to recognize that the division of money into “valid” and “invalid” has no clear grounds for it. Modern money, in its turn, is not new production relations in comparison to gold money, it is not a new entity, but a new form of money. It has been proved that modern fiat money should not be regarded as the central bank debt obligations, because it is not such by its nature. Because of this, the existing credit mechanism for the emission of modern money and the growth of public and private debts, caused by such a mechanism of emission, is not necessary.