this post was submitted on 16 Dec 2024
166 points (97.7% liked)

United States | News & Politics

2019 readers
670 users here now

Welcome to !usa@midwest.social, where you can share and converse about the different things happening all over/about the United States.

If you’re interested in participating, please subscribe.

Rules

Be respectful and civil. No racism/bigotry/hateful speech.

Post anything related to the United States.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] peoplebeproblems@midwest.social 4 points 5 days ago (4 children)

I really need you and everyone else to know that the gold Standard was holding down inflation. The massive wealth disparities we see now are because of the US dollar becoming fiat.

The quicker we return to a standard of any kind the quicker things go back to normal.

This is not their intent. They want ownership of property, not gold. Property is the only thing in true demand. And only the wealthy can afford it.

[–] Sinthesis@lemmy.today 14 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

you and everyone else to know

Coming in hot, I see.

gold Standard was holding down inflation

The gold standard was one of the causes of the Great Depression due to deflation. Deflation is terrible for economies and much, much harder to control. Be happy that you can keep your gold, FDR made everyone turn in all their gold (you could keep $100 worth) punishable by $10,000 or 10 years of prison. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_6102 But guess what happened? Now that the Fed had more gold, they could issue, I mean, printbrrrrr more notes....which allowed more loans to be made, which allowed more industry to happen, etc, etc.

massive wealth disparities we see now are because of the US dollar

Inflation adjusted, Carnegie was worth $300 billion and we were on the gold standard then. What stopped the Rockefellers and Carnegies for a while? Regulation. What is allowing them to come back? Deregulation. Oh and taxes on the wealthy. Ask yourself what Musk had to lose if Trump didn't win?

standard of any kind the quicker things go back to normal.

Wampum? Think about what you said there standard of any kind. We all have to agree something is valuable, for it to hold value. Wampum was beautiful purple shells used as currency. Gold's elemental properties (electrical conductivity, non-reactive, etc) were not known, it simply looked shiny. There's honestly no good answer here, even bitcoin. For example, I still can't buy a coffee with a bitcoin, it must be converted to something else first. What if I'm somewhere without an internet connection? Cash is king.

Property is the only thing in true demand

I can agree with you here. Property "value" has surged twice recently, Chinese investors in early to mid 2010s (I forget why, I'd have to look that one up again. Something about their construction boom had crashed, too much supply on their market, so they turned to the US to invest. Anyway, there was a $750,000 house near me that stayed vacant for 3 years before it was sold for $1.25 million. I looked up the owners on the county government site) and Covid really hurt commercial real estate so they turned to residential/land.

/edit formatting

[–] frezik@midwest.social 11 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Instead of inflation, gold causes a financial crisis just because its price fluctuates. That's not better.

Edit: typo correction

[–] theonlytruescotsman@sh.itjust.works -1 points 5 days ago (3 children)

It's price only fluxuates based on availability, and we're on a finite planet. The real problem would be environmental regulations regarding gold recycling at that point.

[–] Bronzebeard@lemm.ee 5 points 5 days ago (1 children)

We just discovered possibly the largest deposit of gold ever, just a few days ago. You could not have picked a worse time to push for a gold standard

[–] frezik@midwest.social 2 points 5 days ago

Man, gold bugs are dumb as shit, aren't they? I haven't run into them in the wild very often since cryptocurrency took off, but the Ron Paul brigade used to be all over. At least tankies agree that the means of production ought to be seized by the workers (however bad they are at working towards that goal in practice).

[–] frezik@midwest.social 5 points 5 days ago (1 children)

That is not how mineral wealth works.

[–] theonlytruescotsman@sh.itjust.works -4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Do tell me how you get infinite gold.

[–] frezik@midwest.social 5 points 5 days ago

Irrelevant. Gold has a use, and we haven't dug up all of it. Its price would fluctuate like any other mineral. Practical asteroid mining would crash the entire economy, but even without, gold used for any practical purpose besides money would put pressure on the demand curve that's never the same from day to day.

[–] ubergeek@lemmy.today 1 points 5 days ago

Like a new vein of ore discovered in some far off land?

Yeah, that's what caused a lot of wars, and financial bubbles.

[–] Redfugee@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I would agree with you, but then we'd both be wrong.

I mean I can give you the charts that show the split happens right around the time Nixon ends the gold Standard in 1971.

Yes, that Nixon.

[–] Bronzebeard@lemm.ee 5 points 5 days ago

We also had more regular and much bigger recreating during that time. I'll take a little inflation over wrecked economy every few years. Wages can increase to match inflation. Mass unemployment isn't as easy to fix