Paper money is worthless!

Paper money is worthless. It has no store of value. It has an intrinsic value of zero. Its' claimed value is eroded by inflation (government money printing). It has no guarantee of future wealth. It allows governments to create new money from thin air. It's a confidence trick that makes people work for worthless paper. It allows governments to pay debts by printing money ... then they ask for change!

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Education

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• silver
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• hyperinflation
• jim
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• fiat
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[Clatterpinch]

Another thing to keep in mind is that paper is used for many purposes as well. Writing paper, printing paper, and even toilet paper are all very valuable tools.

[0muffins0]

@Clatterpinch That does not wash. A gold or silver coin is worth it's precious metal content. It is commodity money. A paper $10 bill contains a cents worth of paper, not ten dollars worth of paper. A fiat currency BY DEFINITION is not commodity money!

Bury an ounce of gold and $1700 in the ground and come back 300 years hence. Which has retained its value? Will the paper rectangles still be worth 100 times the value of the paper they're printed on? Obviously not.

[Clatterpinch]

Honestly, I would find no quarrel with my government making a switch to a cashless society, using credit chips as is done in science fiction movies, though it would have to be executed in an efficient way in which there would be little fear of counterfeiting, something I doubt the possibility of. That statement that pookpooki made was correct. Metal money is much more unwieldy than paper money, which means paper money serves the purpose that gold and silver attempted and failed to: convenience.

[0muffins0]

@Clatterpinch "Metal money is much more unwieldy than paper money, which means paper money serves the purpose that gold and silver attempted and failed to: convenience." - Thinking about that statement I realised that paper money is now more bulky than gold. One Sovereign (a penny-sized gold coin) is the same as thirty £10 notes. I would not be able to fold my wallet with all that paper in there! A Krugerrand coin (31.1g of gold) would be 110 £10 notes!

[Clatterpinch]

@0muffins0 Yeah, but the £10 note isn't the largest, is it? Why would you be carrying around that much money in tens instead of hundreds?

[0muffins0]

@Clatterpinch The largest denomination here is the £50 but no-one uses it, cash machines don't dispense them and banks only give you them if you ask specifically or if you're taking out several thousand pounds. £10 notes and £20 notes are what is used here, even for large sums. Even still, a full Krugerrand (just 31.1g of gold) would still be 22 £50 notes! A penny sized Sovereign would still be six of those big notes.

How many kilos of Zimbabwean notes would that be I wonder?

[ivanleo]

Can you please send me all your worthless paper money?

[MrEniena]

All value, not just the kind money has, is non-existent. It is merely a necessary fantasy in order to keep our society going because we need something to motivate us to contribute, work, etc. It 'd be nice if we could evolve to a point where we realize this is true and just the act of doing is its own reward that keeps us fed, productive, and willing to cooperate with one another.

But we've been dependent on monetary value for thousands of years that I doubt that will ever happen.

[GetWithZen]

Money, I feel, has no real value on one's life. What does money do? It is used to buy things. Some things we need, other things we want. I myself am on a journey and I hope it will take me to a small house with only enough money in my name to pay for the basic necessities. I know it is not the usual goal, but it is mine. I want to try to find true happiness. Money only gives you temporary happiness. When I was young I was poor, and very happy. I want that back.

[0muffins0]

@Clatterpinch Also, gold IS money. Why do you think the central banks hold so much of the stuff?

Millions of citizens have also discovered that keeping their savings in gold and/or silver gives them a much greater return than if they'd kept their savings in bank accounts that pay interest rates that are below the rate of inflation. Gold/silver are being used as money again.

[0muffins0]

@Clatterpinch Money printing happens when governments can't cover spending with tax revenues. When the choice is between money printing or unpopular mass sackings of government workers they will always pick printing. It is the easy way out in the short term but leads to crazy inflation and hyperinflation (see Argentina). So governments today will never opt for a gold/silver standard and immediate default/bankruptcy/mass sackings.