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GRAMP: For thousands of years, money has needed two things to work: a government to print it... and the full faith and force of its institutions to back it up. ARTHUR
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GRAMP: It's one of the fundamental tasks of a government: create and maintain a money system for people to make transactions. ARTHUR
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GRAMP: So the U.S. makes dollars, the Japanese make the yen, and the Europeans make the gyro... ARTHUR: "Euro."
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GRAMP: But now that everyone is buying things online, we have a whole bunch of third parties involved. Sure, it's BASED on the dollar, but now there's this overlay of Paypal and Visa and Google checkout and Amazon "Super Happy Fun Bucks" or whatever. It's FOR-PROFIT companies that are creating and enforcing these e-money systems.
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GRAMP: But, c'mon! If the government has a constitutional charge* to make money and stop fraud - shouldn't that extend to e-money systems as well? Am I idealistic if I say this isn't a job for for-profit companies? NARRATOR: * Section 8 ARTHUR
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ARTHUR: Idealistic, my yellow fanny. You just don't like to pay fees. GRAMP: I HATE IT SO MUCH.
