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Would company scrip be a problem in a capitalist economy?

I've heard people object to capitalism on the grounds that companies would be able to issue scrip in place of legal tender, and that scrip would only be redeemable at company stores, which would be able to manipulate prices at their will. Is that a legitimate criticism? Would issuing scrip be permitted in a capitalist society? Would it be a problem?

James , 01.11.2013, 08:56
Idea status: under consideration

Comments

DianaHsieh, 06.11.2013, 09:46
Here's some comments that I omitted from the question itself, but I thought insightful and worth preserving:

My thought is that scrip is actually an anti-concept. Because its value is entirely dictated by the company, it is not actually property--and therefore the issuing of government scrip is not, in fact, payment. Therefore any company offering it in place of money would in fact be attempting to enact a contract whereby one group (the workers) recieve no value, and the other (the company) recieves all the value in the trade. Scrip also fails as money in that it is not a tool of savings. If I have money in a bank (assuming it's real money, not fiat money) it doesn't matter what anyone says about its value; I can trade it with others regardless of the opinions of some third party. With scrip, however, the company can unilaterally decide that the scrip is worth nothing, and thereby eliminate my savings.

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