Gold Standard

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And if gold were green..

If the value placed on things reguardless of market interference is intrinsic value, and utility value is based only on what it can be used for i agree.

However gold seems to go beyond utility in the value placed upon it, i could use it as a barter with people that have never seen a western man before.

hunter gatherers do not give a crap about gold (they can't eat it)
if your much desired apocalypse comes
and we become foragers.
I will not trade my seeds, candy bars or toliet paper for it.
-Jake

Talk about projection. Im sure you wouldnt trade a candy bar for anything..see i can project too.

oh sorry wrong pronoun "Y'alls" not "yours"
I meant the plural yours
I did not intended to direct it at you personally.
I apologize for any offense. I feel horrible if I offended you.

I should have said the much desired apocalypse
(that would include the religous right and the eco-colapse left)

and projection I accept we all yearn for the end of things.

the argument is that the value of gold like all things is situational not intrinsic.
-Jake

That is because gold is so pretty.

ruveyn

I apologize for my snap, i thought a crazy walked in.

By intrinsic i mean you could go anywhere and people would recognise its value(whatever the exact value may be). No previous agreement or diplomacy would be needed. Now pick a random note of currency from anywhere in the world, and there will be places where it is literaly worth nothing. Gold or other "shinies" never had this problem.

The bag of beans i mentioned before would have a known value, even without use of money. Its value comes from how many it can feed for how long. What is a note worth without a supermarket?

not everyone wants your gold. really speaking as an anthropologist here.
-Jake

Well i guess men hold value in things they can exchange for time invested in other activities .

True, but most TEOTWAWKI situations are calling about a collapse of society...not necessarily an apocalypse.

In those cases, beans and bullets might be more valuable than gold and silver, but if someone doesn't need the beans and bullets you have, they might trade for gold/silver because its rare, valued, and easy to carry. They know another trader will give them what they need in exchange for it.

Reduce any society to a barter system and a monetary system will quickly emerge that provides stability and security to the exchange of payment for goods.

A wise man put it like this....

GOLD is the standard of exchange among KINGS.
SILVER is the standard of exchange among GENTLEMEN.
BARTER is the standard of exchange among PEASANTS.
CREDIT is the standard of exchange among SLAVES.

No. There is no reason to think a piece of gold can exchange for things anymore than a $100 notes do.

The $100 has a set value someone gives it depending where you are, in the USA $100, somewhere else less so, another place they may not value it at all, it is just a piece of paper after all...to a bushman anyway.

and to the same bushman the lump is just a lump of yellow.

How is a piece of gold, or piece of diamond, or piece of rock, different?

At the end it is just your faith that people with give you certain amount of really useful things for your piece of gold.

I dont know why its different, i agree that it is just faith that something holds value in this way. The value probably comes from knowing that they know someone else also has value in it. Also knowing that it cant die, rust away, rot, corrode or diminish any way.

red ochre ,
salt
barley,
copper,
peppercorns,
large stones ,
decorated belts,
shells,
alcohol,
cigarettes,
cannabis,
candy,
wampum,
maize,
iron nails,
beaver pelts,
tobacco

have all been used as money.
I think money is always an abstraction.

-Jake

Money is an abstraction. It's an abstract means of carrying value. The problem is that when people fail to grasp that abstraction, they cling to the shiny goodies and rather than lofty concepts such as fiat money, they abandon it, devalue it, and cling to objects like a surrogate teat.