A few weeks ago I found that one of my dollar bills given back in change had been hand-stamped. On the stamp was a URL
I was intrigued, so when I got to my computer, I went to the site and entered the serial number for the bill. The form returned the information that someone registered the same bill 110 days before, on October 5, 2004.
I admit I was disappointed. I was expecting a better game, maybe. Something critical of the rat race for the almighty dollar, something Abbie Hoffman might have perpetrated if he had stuck it out to the digital age. Not a fan club for money anyway.
That's what faq page says. The site had been created for fun, to be entertaining, a way to network--through dollar bills. Sort of a Friendster for people obsessed with money.
Then again, if some accountant in Cleveland can find love by registering a dollar bill online, I'm all for it--especially if its a lonely economist in Cambridge.
I hesitated blogging about this site because I didn't want to be pushing people towards Ayn Rand, or some Moonie or LaRouche outfit, unawares. And it doesn't help that the "about us" page is nothing but ads, and there are ads everywhere.
So I don't know if I'd recommend you go to the site.
But the main thing is that it had the potential to be a much more interesting, online, multi-player game. So maybe I should just propose my own money game. Here it is. How about creating a stamp that has "Burn this Dollar for Good Luck" and a URL on it (more on that below). Then stamping lots of dollar bills. Then feeding them into the local economy. Either that or handing them out, the dollars coming from donations.
A web site would be a key part of this game. It would be a slickly-designed site with bogus testimonials from people who have burned a dollar and had some huge, lucky break which made them rich. It might even have the semblance of an online community, a list-serv or something.
Of course, some folks might burn their dollar before writing the URL of the web site down. But more likely is that people will take the dollar bill home and mull it over (or spend it without even noticing), and only burn the bill after visiting the web site.
What's the purpose of the game? To destroy money. A madness of luck-lust will grip the nation, and first all the single dollar bills will go and then mysteriously an invisible hand will start stamping five dollar bills, until all those are burned up, and then ten dollar bills, etc.
And then when all our money is gone, our European overlords, with their invincible Euro, will march in and enslave us.
No, we'll revert to a barter economy and everyone will live on a commune in the woods and worship the Goddess.
Or who knows what will happen? It's all part of the game. Who wants to play?
Posted by jeb at February 21, 2005 9:54 PM | TrackBack