(June 3, 2009 at 5:55 pm)etogre Wrote: I recently was reading in the local paper about how paper money is the cause of all our economic problems. The author said that the constitution forefathers foresaw this problem and thus only granted the rights for coined money (I don't remember this clause). Even paper money backed by gold and silver wouldn't have been approved by the forefathers.Paper we can make from a renewable source, making it effectively abundant and worthless. Metals like gold and silver are rare in comparison, giving them a value. The point of using gold and silver isn't the "oooh pretty" factor, it's the "oooh rare" factor.
This whole argument to me is stupid. I don't see the value in gold and silver. They're completely superficial elements with no value except that within the eye of the beholder. They cannot give you sustenance in any way.
What's the obsession with gold and silver? For most intents and purposes, they're literally worthless elements, besides looking pretty. I realize silver is the most conductive metal, but we don't even use it for that purpose. Plus, if you're using these metals as coins, or to sit in Fort Knox collecting dust, they're not serving any practical use whatsoever anyways. Backing money with worthless metals doesn't make the money more secure, because it's the same exact faith as believing in paper money being secure. Why is humanity so stupid to not realize this?
Silicon has infinitely more use and real value than gold.
You know the saying "It's worth whatever value someone will pay you for it". So why does our society value these metals?
Am I missing something?
The idea goes that the rarer the substance, the more it is worth. You say silicon has infinitely more use and "real" value than gold, but what is a real value? Silicon is the 2nd most abundant element in the Earth's crust. It is worthless as a currency.
The point about using metals is that you have something to hold. Liquids you can loose easily, gases even easier. Using a solid metal (that is rare) gives you something of value.
Slowly though, we have begun to designate values to metals, such as 1p, 2p coins. Then we changed to paper money, even more worthless.
Now we're at a point where money is a series of bits (electronic) and has no value at all.
