It's pretty evident how we can pick cotton without slavery. We do it every day.
On the other hand, you want to expend resources digging a heavy, precious metal out of the ground to use as a glorified record-keeper of transactions. Seems like a huge waste.
Why not create it "out of thin air" as it is needed, and use the metals (and resources required to dig them up) on something else?
The error comes from thinking that money = wealth.
>With all debasement problems at least the precious metals system lasted thousands of years.
I don't think there's a country on the planet that will accept gold for financial transactions without converting to currency. So, no, it hasn't "lasted thousands of years"; it's gone.
>No wonder we've pressed the reset button every 40 years.
Pretty sure if you're anywhere in the First World you're part of the wealthiest, healthiest society that there ever has been.
> It's pretty evident how we can pick cotton without slavery. We do it every day.
The morality of it wasn't evident to slave owners in the past, it seems. Like the morality of printing money isn't evident to most nowadays.
I'm not going to defend gold specifically here because what matters is that there not be a group of people that can issue money. The problem with creating it out of thin air is precisely that some people will be in control of printing it, and will get corrupted by it, endangering the health of that system and of its participants.
I'm also not going to defend gold because someone that is against slavery need not defend and explain ad nauseam how machines will eventually take on agricultural work and blah blah blah. Slavery is immoral because it impinges on people's freedoms. Same goes for printing money.
> I don't think there's a country on the planet that will accept gold for financial transactions without converting to currency. So, no, it hasn't "lasted thousands of years"; it's gone.
You're being intellectually dishonest. The world cared about gold until 1971. It seems to me the world still does care about gold, or central banks wouldn't hoard it like there's no tomorrow, and keep transporting it back and forth. Why do they not keep diamonds? Why not keep Platinum? Why not keep famous artwork? Somehow they seem to love that gold. But you say it's "gone".
It's pretty evident how we can pick cotton without slavery. We do it every day.
On the other hand, you want to expend resources digging a heavy, precious metal out of the ground to use as a glorified record-keeper of transactions. Seems like a huge waste.
Why not create it "out of thin air" as it is needed, and use the metals (and resources required to dig them up) on something else?
The error comes from thinking that money = wealth.
>With all debasement problems at least the precious metals system lasted thousands of years.
I don't think there's a country on the planet that will accept gold for financial transactions without converting to currency. So, no, it hasn't "lasted thousands of years"; it's gone.
>No wonder we've pressed the reset button every 40 years.
Pretty sure if you're anywhere in the First World you're part of the wealthiest, healthiest society that there ever has been.