Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/08/20/when-the-us-dollar-is-worth-no.html
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Inflation-proof? Maybe. But the price of gold fluctuates, too. It’s why we got off the gold standard—too much uncertainty.
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while it addresses the problems of fiat currency
Which of the “problems” does it address?
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Utah resident. Never seen these. Never heard of them used. The legislator who proposed this lost reelection and has since passed away.
I think the only way it can be spent now is to pay Utah taxes, but even then the Tax Commission doesn’t know what to do with it.
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Thanks for the on the ground report
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>__<
Hhhhhnnnggghh
Folks here’s the thing: yes the value of existing currencies is based on a self-validating consensual fiction, but that is true of currency itself, including gold, bitcoin and anything else people come up with in the future. The fact that money requires a functioning society doesn’t mean you should put your hopes in gold, it means you need society to keep functioning.
You may have seen blog posts sweatily distinguishing “fiat currencies” from money based on “objective” stores of value; this is grade-A sovereign citizen nonsense. Sure, the scarcity of gold is independent of whether the US government collapses or not, but your ability to exchange tokens for goods and services at all completely depends on that. The only reason a sack of flour has a stable price in milligrams of gold is that both flour and gold have stable prices in dollars. Without that, a sack of flour might cost 1g of gold, or 1kg; it would mainly depend on the difference in social power between you and the person with the corn.
If you aren’t enough of a financial wizard to get rich in dollars, I guarantee you are not savvy enough to negotiate a novel outlaw economy without getting fleeced. I mean, these golden bills look like fun collectibles and that’s fine, but if they form part of your actual financial planning, you are being swindled.
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The price of gold doesn’t fluctuate. The US dollar fluctuates due to it being printed like waste paper. Since the gold standard was dropped, governments have been free to turn on the printing presses. The world needs a non-inflatable, international standard (something like bitcoin or gold) to base other currencies around but this will never happen as governments love the idea of printing more money to curry more favour.
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Sounds like a ■■■■■ von Lipwig idea. I hope whoever pitched it was wearing a gold hat.
(Edit: loling at the ■■■■■ filter)
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Why? Can you point to a modern economy that we should emulate in this regard?
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No. And that’s the point. All world currencies are in a race downhill.
You’re missing the point. Still basing it on the US dollar. Reverse it.
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“ The Goldback intrinsically is worth more than spot (which is a price based on an ounce, not 1/1,000th of an ounce).”
So - it has value beyond the commodity cost. Seigniorage- or - fiat currency.
Though let’s be clear here - even though described as approved by government- it’s not gov currency. And whenever someone wants to privatize gov - it’s to make a profit off of it. That profit comes from your pocket.
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As an additional follow up, a gold standard can’t work, because there’s not enough of it. If money is tied to the value of gold, right now about $7.5 trillion of gold has been mined in human history. The current GDP Of the US is about 3 times that. If you limit money to the amount of gold, you’d have to limit the entire worlds economies to 7.5 trillion USD. The result would be utter financial chaos.
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You’re missing the point.
No doubt.
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Neither does the price of a TI-83 calculator, but I’m not going to use one as currency.
(I have no other point other than this observation. Carry on)
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Well - inflation does exist. But who keeps all of their assets in a pile under the mattress? If there’s inflation what you own goes up in value correspondingly.
So please people - don’t put your life savings in a coffee can buried in the backyard.
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Not to worry. With asteroid mining we’ll have mountains of gold. It just won’t be worth anything because there’s so much gold.
Invest in beets! At least you can eat them.
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My first question remains: why? Slogans aside, why do you think the world needs a non-inflatable, international standard?
ETA: Also fwiw, you appear to be using “price” and “value” a bit more interchangeably than may be kosher
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