cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/51657137
I’ve come up with an idea, but I’ll appreciate comments and ideas. (ty)
The country is small.
It’s between 1000 sq km to 50 000 sq km in size.
It’s has between 100 000 and 1 million people.
Its GDP is over US$10 billion (2026).
FWIW, it’s multicultural with several official languages (most are officially secondary).
It got its independence between WWI and WWII.
There might have been a “Great Leader” in the past who lead at most a semi-authoritarian government (but little, if any, blood was spilled), but for the past few decades it’s been a liberal democracy, though a little socially conservative (e.g. LGBTQ are legal, but can be discriminated against in the private sector; medicinal marijuana is allowed; prostitution is allowed in certain areas; feminism exist, but in the same way it exist in, say, Utah, Texas, Alabama, or (the State of) Mississippi).
rules, if you will:
The currency was and is completely fiat—never backed by anything, such as gold or silver.
Since the country’s creation it hasn’t excessively inflated the currency.
There have been series of currency bills/notes, and I suppose some coins too, that have been de-monetized, though mostly to deal with counterfeiters in the early days.
The currency is (I think the term is “free floating”). There is an official government exchange rate in the banks, but you can now, as you could for most, or perhaps all, of the country’s history, buy it at free market prices even in the country.
As the UK pound (£1), euro (€1), and now the Swiss franc (1 CHF) are each worth more than the USD (in 1971 it was US$1 ≈ 4 CHF, in the 1980s, US$1 ≈ 3 CHF, now it’s almost US$1 ≈ 0.8 CHF) so has, in the past few years, this country’s currency base unit become greater than US$1.
Thank you.
Fiat currency always ultimately has its value ultimately set by court judgements and the threat thereof, to pay taxes or restitution or debts in some number of the specified currency.
Depending on what you mean by “viable”, you could assert that your country manages to not deflate its currency by sharply limiting how many notes it issues and preferring foreign currency for banking. Considering how tiny your country is, this is probably a good idea anyway.
(Also, note that the country is VERY small. On the scale of Wyoming, the least populous state in the USA.)
(Also also, since WW2’s start in 1939 inflation has increased the same-value equivalent for US dollars by some 2300%. If their tax coupons were set to 1 us dollar way back then, they’d each be worn about 20 euros now.)
Thank you for your reply.
or maybe Delaware with half the population,
or maybe Northern Ireland with a third the area and population,
or maybe Jamaica with half the area and a fourth the population.
🙂