Quote:
Originally Posted by [MERIT]
I chose 5% as an example. The percentage is completely arbitrary to the point, which is apparently going over your head.
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^ No, I was able to understand what you meant by "say 5%", I could even understand your arithmetic, which is why I didn't comment on either item.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lisnaholic
I don't think that any country in the world pays their printers $100 every time they print a $100 bill. I imagine that printing charges are related to printing costs, not, as [MERIT] suggests, the face value of what they print.
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^ What with the cost of ink, paper and printing machine, how much does it cost to print a $100 bill? Let's say $1. That's approximately what a government will pay a printer to make a $100 bill. The government doesn't have to pay a hundred dollars just because that is what's written on the bill. That's the part of your explanation for burgeoning government debt that I was questioning. 5% is a fine number, but isn't relevant because it's an interest rate on a loan which doesn't exist: governments don't have to borrow money from printers in order to have money printed. It's probably a very cheap process for them, compared with building a hospital or airport for example.