they should make an Obama coin and have it made from solid gold

Salix Babylonika

it'd be change we can believe in

Sredni Vashtar

...ayyyyyyy.

glennmagusharvey

the irony is that it'd be change that most people couldn't believe in, except the gold-standard nuts

Klinotaxis

ok serious question: why is gold-backed currency supposed to be intuitively more stable/secure/believable than fiat

i mean partly this question is me reading too much into a joke, but also cos i talked bout bitcoin with a pal last weekend and he was like yeah i can see why bitcoin is less stable, at least US currency has gold backing and i'm like *shaking head*

and all things considered i have more faith in the hugeness of the american government than i do in a stupid metal you mostly use for computer shit

One-Winged Eagle

I'd back my own personal currency with silver, really. For purely aesthetical reasons.

Sredni Vashtar

An extremely rare metal like rhodium seems a lot more stable to me, but then accumulating enough of it to even back part of the "full faith and credit" thing would be pretty insane. I don't care for the fiat concept but it's the most feasible thing not tied to the caprices of international markets.

glennmagusharvey

Klinotaxis said:

ok serious question: why is gold-backed currency supposed to be intuitively more stable/secure/believable than fiat

i mean partly this question is me reading too much into a joke, but also cos i talked bout bitcoin with a pal last weekend and he was like yeah i can see why bitcoin is less stable, at least US currency has gold backing and i'm like *shaking head*

and all things considered i have more faith in the hugeness of the american government than i do in a stupid metal you mostly use for computer shit

I think the basic idea is "there's only so much of it so we all know how much it's worth", but that gets into the problem of the question of "how do you know the worth of something based on how much there is?".

The only answer I can think of right now to that question is "well, we know how much you don't have", which then devolves the issue into a "got mine, fuck you" turf war.  Which, granted, is what these survivalist gold bugs seem to fantasize about anyway...

Calica

mint the platinum coin

lee4hmz

Gold is valuable mainly because it's an unusual color, and is pretty much the only natural metal that doesn't tarnish easily. Otherwise, it's about as convenient to have around as lead (it's very heavy), and just about as useful.

Haven

Calica said:

mint the platinum coin

not even for the debt ceiling. just for lulz and/or infrastructure

glennmagusharvey

lee4hmz said:

Gold is valuable mainly because it's an unusual color, and is pretty much the only natural metal that doesn't tarnish easily. Otherwise, it's about as convenient to have around as lead (it's very heavy), and just about as useful.

Gold is non-toxic though.  Gold just passes through the human digestive system and comes out the other end without harming anything in between, I think.  And hanging out with gold is fine.  Unlike lead.