Comment on Gold hits $3,500 for first time as US dollar sinks to three-year low

• Dagwood222@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  But who is going to want it? You could buy things like hatchets that will last and are easily traded.

  Copper tubing to make stills will be the most valuable currency.

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  • athairmor@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Eventually, you’ll need a consistent currency.

    If a farmer needs to buy an axe but his crops are still growing, what does he use? His plow? Sheep? Daughter? He needs all of these things to keep his farm going.

    He needs credit but he doesn’t want the axe to cost a fortune in crops with interest. And the axe maker doesn’t want the risk of handing out axes if crops fail.

    What if there’s a way to store credit? Something durable, rare and easily divisible like gold is perfect. Farmer can trade crops for gold. Now, he has something he can trade over the winter and while crops grow in the summer.

    It doesn’t have to be gold but it should be rare or tightly controlled to avoid runaway inflation. Bartering doesn’t scale. You need a currency and gold works.

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    • Dagwood222@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Eventually,

      You’re putting the cart before the horse. In America, the term for a dollar is ‘one buck.’ That comes from the early colonial days when one deer skin [aka buck skin] was the common currency. Trade is possible without a currency. In the early days, access to things like tools and drugs will be far more valuable.

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