> Property rights is not propping up stocks and bonds.
I'm not talking about propping up stocks and bonds, I'm talking about ensuring fair, open markets for such things. I'm entirely talking about "protecting ownership so you can invest in building things over the long term without them being taken." That same concept of the government protecting your ownership of some shiny objects applies to protecting shareholders from a company publishing fraudulent financial statements, or selling bonds that are actually objectively worthless with actual review, or shenanigans that effectively remove such ownership aspects.
> 0% is hardly a massive incentive to hold cash.
Negative rate bonds are (or at least were) a thing as well. If it costs more to put your shiny objects and fancy paper in a safe and protect it than having an account at a bank then there's incentive on it even if there are costs. And sure, even with inflation there's still some incentive to hold some amount of dollars. Liquidity has value after all. Even though I'm OK with some slight inflation on dollars I still tend to hold some amount of them. After all, I didn't buy lunch with stocks!
And even then, it is not about 0% being an incentive to hold, it is about not having an incentive to invest. As I already stated, IMO its worse for society overall to encourage people to hoard fancy paper and shiny objects compared to actually investing it. But hey maybe you'd prefer for people to not invest in bonds and what not and instead just have piles of fancy paper and shiny objects instead of roads and infrastructure and more productive enterprises. I'm sure that'll work out well for them.
I'm not talking about propping up stocks and bonds, I'm talking about ensuring fair, open markets for such things. I'm entirely talking about "protecting ownership so you can invest in building things over the long term without them being taken." That same concept of the government protecting your ownership of some shiny objects applies to protecting shareholders from a company publishing fraudulent financial statements, or selling bonds that are actually objectively worthless with actual review, or shenanigans that effectively remove such ownership aspects.
> 0% is hardly a massive incentive to hold cash.
Negative rate bonds are (or at least were) a thing as well. If it costs more to put your shiny objects and fancy paper in a safe and protect it than having an account at a bank then there's incentive on it even if there are costs. And sure, even with inflation there's still some incentive to hold some amount of dollars. Liquidity has value after all. Even though I'm OK with some slight inflation on dollars I still tend to hold some amount of them. After all, I didn't buy lunch with stocks!
And even then, it is not about 0% being an incentive to hold, it is about not having an incentive to invest. As I already stated, IMO its worse for society overall to encourage people to hoard fancy paper and shiny objects compared to actually investing it. But hey maybe you'd prefer for people to not invest in bonds and what not and instead just have piles of fancy paper and shiny objects instead of roads and infrastructure and more productive enterprises. I'm sure that'll work out well for them.