Everyone interacts with the economy in some way almost every day. When you buy a candy bar, money is going to the store, which paid a reseller, which paid the maker of that candy bar for the candy bar. This affects the economy because by buying and selling things, the econonmy fluctuates. When stores keep buying things but people stop buying things, the stores lose money, stop buying that product which then leads the maker of the product to stop selling it. Money travels everywhere. In one day, a single dollar bill could pass through fifty different people, from the store to the resteraunt to the dry cleaners to the store again to the brother paying off his sister to the sister buyng a cheese burger. However, what would happen if something replaced this money and money only passed through a few people's hands every year?

What if there was a new site that was linked up with practically everyone and everything as a way to pay for products by viewing advertisments and participating in surveys instead of using money?
Advertisiers and companies would pay money to get people to view advertisments and take part in interactive presentations about the product. People would earn points from this and, using these points, could buy software and other products, and eventually everyday items like food. After a while, nobody would have any real money because everyone would be earning points to spend on items. You buy some cereal, enter a code online, earn 20 points. With these points, you buy a candy bar. Eventually, no one would ever use money because everyone could buy anything with points. We would all have cards that we swipe at the checkout and it would be paid for. People could earn points on their computers by downloading and installing software that covers a portion of their screen with ads. The more time they spend watching the ads, the more points they earn. Every time you click a banner ad, a window would pop up that says, "You've earned 1 point!" People would even let programs monitor their surfing habits so they could see relevent ads, click on them and earn points. People would buy points with money and, eventually, they wouldn't have any money left. Eventually, after a while, people would realize that no one really had any money and that the whole world was basically in debt, try and get their points turned into money, realize there is no way to get their money back and end up with the whole economy suddenly and spectacularly crashing. With all the world's money in only a few people's pockets, no one would have any money and the few countries that didn't start using it would be ruined anyway because they had no way to trade with the world.

Sure, it's unlikely but, then again, so was the holocaust.

If there were anything like that on the internet and it was actually working, the government would shut it down to protect the economy. Even if the site wasn't breaking any laws, the government still would have the power to shut it down. But if anything like that actually did happen im sure the government would be able to fix that issue very quickly, some way or another.

do you think you can really earn money just by watching at some ads?

dude, money is earned by real hard work, so roll your sleves and get to it

oh, and if you really want to destroy world economy just say gold is worth 0. and ta-da -- you ruined world economy ))

This post has been edited by matak: Nov 19 2006, 09:17 PM

what you're describing is just another materialization of the virtual thing "money".

In the USoNA you have the USoNA-Dollar, in Japan you have the Yen, in the WEU you have the Euro - that's all money, so are your points from the web.

If you swap a cow for a horse or a horse for a pair of wheels, you trade something of a real value for something else with a real value (but don't ask me if swapping a cow for a horse is a fair deal).
But why should that guy with the wheels want a horse? Why should you carry all your belongings around with you if you go out to find what you need? Enters: Money. Under other circumstances worthless stuff which receives value y the trust put into it by society(-ies)...

Interesting idea, but it wouldn't work. Plus, why would you want to ruin the world's economy? There are so many little things going on in the world that the economy factors in. If you want to ruin the economy, try doing something more realistic like bomb North Korea and then pure chaos would break loose. (well that's not very realistic either) The whole points thing wouldn't work because people advertise to get people to buy their product. With this points idea, the would practically give away their product. There would be no money to advertise and no need to. The economy can be stupid at times, but I don't think anything like this would ever pass.

In Economics, "money" is simple a medium of exchange. Regardess of whether they are dollars, yen, euros, or pounds, the currency is simple a representation of the value attached to it. The "points" would simply become another medium for exchanging your efforts with the purchases you choose to make. I can't see this happening because there are simply too many uncertainties and conditions placed upon the method you are suggesting. To begin with, not everyone has a computer to gain the points, so I would suggest that this approach would fail in a big way. The "currencies" we use right now would prevail.

Plus, to use this as a means of earning a currency to pay for food it's a very bad idea. In the incredibly unlikely event that it did happen then people would have to quit their jobs to earn the points to buy food and survive. The practical upshot being that the companies would then have no workforce to produce anything to either advertise or sell. We would also lose vital services such as the police force, the NHS, fire brigade etc.

Also, the few people that end up with the money would have no use for it. If their aim was to destroy the economy and all other cirrencies then what use is it harbouring the now defunct currencies?

that sounds really intresting..

erm... you've just substuited money for points. and workign for money to workign for points (viewing ads).

you really haven't done anythign excet re-name some existing stuff and make it more confusing!