Gold

[lester1/2jr]

its a massive philosophical and political thing. our currency used to be backed 100% by gold. you could take 20 or so dollars to the store at any point in your life and get an ounce of gold. thats what the money represented: that much gold.

eventually they started printing more money and logically the dollar... ugh I can't even go on it's so boring.

let me instead explain Mises' regression theorum. There was no moment in history where some king or something said "lets have gold be money". it arose as a medium of exchange for rational reasons. someone said " I don't have a goat, but I will give you this gold, which is scarce, portable, and can't be created artificially, and you can use that to buy your goat."  gold then became the de facto medium of exchange. prisoners use cigarettes as currency. you could conceivably use anything but its harder to keep a horse in your pocket or in a safe.

[ER]

Hey, I know what's coming. I've been stockpiling bottle caps.