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Steve Greenberg's avatar

It is not arbitrary. There has to be an agreement between buyer and seller for a trade to be carried out. This is how markets work.

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Howard Switzer's avatar

Its so strange that people have been trained not to understand money. Aristotle explained it pretty well, it is a social power embodied in law as an unconditional payment system. For most of civilization’s history it has played two roles:

1. An exchange medium for facilitating economic activity (it is just money)

2. An instrument of power capable of dominating the market (the hidden hand)

Well today it dominates pretty much everything including public policy. See monetaryalliance.org. We are governed by unelected power.

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David  Collet's avatar

In this I use arbitrary as being governed by forces beyond my specific control. Unless I trade in significantly high volumes as a buyer, or seller, I accept the posted rate or I decline the trade.

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