Money is Simple

All too often people think that I'm advocating for gold or silver to be the only form of money.  I'm actually an advocate of a free and competing currency system.  That way individuals can choose their currency, without government coercion or control.  The government doesn't want that though, because when they aren't the money creators they lose power over the people, especially on taxes.  If people want to use salt as currency, I could care less.  My preference just so happens to be gold and silver.  Let the market determine what is valued, and let people decide how they want to trade value for value.  Keep the government out of it.

Anyways, moving on.  Let's consider the U.S. dollar and bonds.  They are currency and debt backed by the U.S. government.  Their value depends on people's confidence in the government to pay back that debt.  People compare gold and silver to our currency.  First of all, there is no comparison.  Gold and silver have been, and are, the only form of money that the world has ever used.  Governments think they should decide the value of money, and it's really only about power and control over the money supply.  Fiat money robs the people who save the most because of inflation.  The money makers inevitably destroy the value by regular increases in the money supply.  I'm not saying that gold and silver will make a perfect world, and money in and of itself is simply a distraction from what really matters in life.  However, only God and mother nature control the supply of gold and silver.  Not some bankster or government official contending with their own egotistical desires for power or greed.

Thousands of years ago money wasn't so complicated.  Did government's levy and collect taxes?  Yes.  Did people and businesses exchange goods for money?  Of course.  The difference in today's world is that money has become so complicated that it barely serves the purpose that it was originally intended.  It should be pretty straight forward.  "I'll give you this coin for that widget."  That is how an economy works.  Of course that is not what our monetary system is anymore, and I would argue that is because of central economic planning and intervention.  My website explains this in more detail, www.argentumusa.com.

The true nature of money was meant to be an easily exchanged store of value.  Value for value, something divisible, and preferably something that didn't carry germs (that is why silver's antimicrobial properties were so appealing).  If I didn't have something you wanted in our trade, I would give you money instead so that I could purchase that good or service.  The same idea was used with labor or work.  If I couldn't trade you something of value, or I didn't have money, I would work to acquire that product.  One of the reasons our centrally planned economy is so driven by consumption is that our monetary and tax systems are set up improperly and discourage saving.  This results in an unnatural response of unsustainable debt and spending, resulting in an unhappy society favoring people who are very rich and people who are unproductive.

In summary, the role of money is simple.  It has to be a store of value, divisible, and easily exchanged.  Our digital world can make the latter two very easy, but value depends on humans survivalist needs.  The choice to me is clear.