Double Money Standard

The Double Money Standard was a protocol set into place by the World Council of Corporations in 2051. Essentially it stated that the words 'I promise to pay the bearer the sum of one dollar' did not apply to services. Hecne the old-style currency, the dollar, woudl continue but only as a measure fo the value of goods, that is, manufactured things, stuff. Services would be measured by service dollars.

In practice, what this meant was that since everyone will work for their keep if they're starving, the value of service per se is rather low, especially when compared to the real dollar. however, skilled people can do things that no other person can, and therefore they should be well rewarded. The service layer, comprising drivers, engineers, cooks, cleaners, artists and architects, doctors, nurses, newspeople, writers, actors and teachers, even the crème de la crème, lawyers, were paid in service dollars, or, as they regrettably came to be known in the street, girl-money, fuckmoney or fuckdollars. There is thus a wide spectrum between the rich and the poor in service. No one who has previously not owned any goods is allowed to earn real dollars; since every transation is done via charge card sweep, there is no money to steal. Most of the petty crime became pointless overnight.

Since the hanyo corporations controlled nearly all the property, raw material, munitions and equipments, their banking networks became the only places where real dollars were traded (although banking is technically a service).