If I have a giant pile of $100 bills, and I leave it in my room, am I hurting society? Let's say I have a big pile of $80 billion sitting in my house.
What if I burned all of that cash? Is society now poorer? The exact opposite is true. Everyone's dollar bills are now worth slightly more.
Only someone who thinks money is actually valuable will consider this to be a dumb statement. THINK
For those who are confused. It's not really "money" that we want, rather it's the goods and services that money can buy.
Money only has value in that it can buy us what we actually want. If someone hypothetically "hoarded" his money, it would have the same effect of it being burned.
My hypothetical example of a man having $80 billion in cash piled up in a giant room illustrates this point. First of all, in real life this concept is impossible. Money doesn't just "sit there" in a room. The money is loaned out to other people, other businesses, etc.
But EVEN IF this were the case. Even if that cash was just sitting there collecting dust, it wouldn't be a problem.
His $80 billion in cash represents a claim on the existing goods and services in the economy. If the money is destroyed, then those claims are eliminated. Which means everyone's paper dollars are worth a little bit more.