A relevant discussion to the above OP;
viewtopic.php?p=486302#p486302
Sculptor wrote: ↑Fri Dec 25, 2020 11:30 am
Veritas Aequitas wrote: ↑Fri Dec 25, 2020 4:32 am
Sculptor wrote: ↑Thu Dec 24, 2020 11:27 am
"The dollar" is a concept. It is represented variously by bits of paper, small metal objects, and lines of computer code. It wholy relies on belief. THe dollar can exist without these things and the existence of these things does not necessitate the existence of the dollar. If you think they do then ask anyone who owns a quantity of cancelled currency.
I asked,
Is the existence of the US Dollar a fact - an economic fact?
Yes or No?
"Economic" is another concept, that is held in the cerebral cortexes of humans.
Like all such things, it is materially and physically represented by what we call concepts.
Without humans there is no dollar, there is no economy and and so on.
Whatever is a fact is represented by a concept of it.
No that would be silly. In this case, if you want to call economy or dollar a fact, then facts are conceptual. You have the cart before the horse.
The US Dollar is an economic fact of value
If state the USD Dollar relies on belief,
then beliefs can be fact, and
fact can be value.
You are just falling down a rabbit hole of your own construction.
You are saying that any belief has to be factual. How stupid is that?
I beleive in fairies, therefore they are factual.
You really need to stop and think about what you are saying.
Do you deny 'there are economic facts'?
Can you repeat and confirm this,
'There are no economic facts.'
I believe in fairies, therefore they are factual.
Suppose, in this case, you are schizophrenic.
Your believing [the mental activities] is factual, the fairies are not factual.
I can justify it is a fact [psychological and neuroscience] you are believing in term of mental processes of believing.
But the fairies cannot be justified as a fact or real until empirical evidence are produced to verify and justified fairies are real within the scientific framework and system.
But the US Dollar is based on belief [not on real gold equivalent].
Despite grounded on belief and trust [which can be verified empirically], the US Dollar is also an economic fact because it can be traded as a real currency of value.
No one at present would deny the US Dollar is objectively real otherwise no one would hold such currency in their bank or in physical pieces of dollars.
It is an economic fact that is represent by its physical correlates in the brain.
If you insist whatever US Dollar you have in the bank or in paper is not a fact, thus not objective real, why don't you just throw them away?