bgz wrote:Would we be where we are without the concept of fiat money? Probably not. Fiat money encourages people to keep it in play, hard physical assets promote hoarding. You're holding on to a concept that we've moved on from, there's no going back.
You act like gold is actually intrinsically worth something. Other than some very specific properties that prevent oxidation and that it is a good conductor, it has no real value to it other than it is shiny. Ooooo, look at the shiny thing.
If you ever get your dream utopia and a civil war actually happens and you're walking around with a hard on for weeks... and other countries attack us because they realize we're weak because we have a bunch of idiots wanting to start a war with their countrymen... your gold coin won't be worth the bag of chips you're willing to trade it for.
"where we are without the concept of fiat money?"
Well I'd say based on facts and evidence we would be in much better shape than the way things have been since the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913 and especially since 1971 when Nixon removed the final connection of gold with the dollar and unleashed the title wave of inflation which of course destroys the buying power of your fiat dollars.
Like economist Thomas Sowell said the Federal Reserve system has been a disaster, a cancer.
https://mises.org/files/thomas-sowell-federal-reserve-cancer
Some people actually think inflation is a natural and normal part of monetary policy, they even think its good for you...how ridiculous is that? https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/
You're right though, "there's no going back" because the system is in a death spiral. Like the ancient Kings who debased their gold and silver coins to fool the people by coin clipping, debasing them by diluting them with base metals or reissuing them in lower weights but keeping the official value the same, they lost all their credibility in the world and they all failed. Even some dishonest early bankers issued paper certificates claiming they were backed by gold in their vaults that really wasn't there, it worked until the people found out and drove the banksters out of existence.
"hoarding"?? You sound like FDR before he stole the peoples gold
You must be really old.
Do you mean saving? That's what normal people do. Of course you can't save anymore like in a savings account since the arbitrarily set FED interest rates have been near zero for a long time now. Between that and inflation you'd be losing money by leaving your money in a traditional saving account. That's a sign of a healthy monetary policy?
Did you know that during the so-called Civil War that the Lincoln administration, desperate to finance his war printed "Greenbacks", fiat paper dollars that he stuck the rubes with and quickly weren't worth a bag of chips on the open market? With $430 million in greenbacks in circulation, it wasn't until the Congress was pressured into passing the Species Payment Resumption Act of 1875 that authorized redemption of greenbacks in 1879 into the shiny stuff on par with the gold dollar.
If there's a civil war, you can wipe your a$$ with your fiat paper and I'll be "hoarding" commodities, the shiny stuff that's been used as real money for thousands of years.
Got an shiny stuff bgz? Send me your gold and silver shiny things, I will relieve you of your shiny burden.
