That worked in a feudal economy in the middle ages, but it wouldn't work in a modern economy. What if a company wants to invest, say $50 million in a project? Do they need to bring a train full of gold? How should a government be able to collect billions of tax money in a country as big as the US? How do you pay a vending machine? Does every store now needs a saw to be able to give change? What about online buying/banking?
And last but not least, metal is heavy, do you want to cary pounds of silver and gold with you everytime you go shopping?

Well then banks and such would be invalid since electronic currency is the same sort of thing. In that case say goodbye to alot of technology like online shopping etc

Fiat money.

yea man, it would be so much more convenient to lug around sacks of coins everywhere

well before 1933 money was redeemable in gold.

Paper money used to be silver notes. you could take them to any bank and exchange them for silver. dollar for dollar. pound for pound. You get it, anyway. Now, they are federal reserve notes, they are not even worth anything unless the government says they are.

exactly, and what if your government fails and all "virtual value" of paper bills are lost. then everyone with money is left with a stack of paper with drawings on it.

I personally invest in gold, its always going to have value regardless of bitchy governments

The south had this exact problem with confederate money. And the problem with gold is, The government can confiscate all gold everywhere. Its a real law. The gold hedges and stuff count on the government being to scared to do something that drastic though, and i would imagine they are right.

I live in straya so i dunno laws in murica

bitcoin

I have no idea how the hell that works.
It perplexes me and I don't ever want to dabble in it.

Some junk about computers doing complicated calculations to generate each bitcoin and that's all I know about em.

yes but there is only a set amount generated and governments can't control it because of the algorithms and encryption, i think currenty 1 bitcoin is around 40$ I don't mess with it either because of the intense cpu required

yeah ofcourse you wouldnt want to be carrying arounnd bags of metals, but in saying that over hundreds of years we would have surely come up with an efficient and easy method of trading.

How about credit cards?
Aside from all your finance being in held by an evil bank corporation type dealio it's pretty sweet, even moreso when they add more variety in the cards like debit or what have you.

i dont use credit cards, and dont know why people do either, its a ******* evil scam.

To shop online for one.
And for actual credit cards not debit cards it's basically a mini-loan you can take that's often interest free for a few days, so as long as you're punctual interest doesn't hit you hard. It's pretty handy when you need something now but don't have the money for it like going for groceries and you forgot to withdraw from the bank that day.

yeah online shopping, i guess that would be one of the setbacks, obviously im not argueing that metal trading is master race with no flaws, i just personally think its better than some **** the government gives you

"You are getting paid in 4 pounds of gold, 7 ounces of iron and 1 1/2 ounce of bronze for this week's salary." Yeah because you know, it would be so easy to do things like that. "Here jimmy you get 1/2 ounce of iron for washing the dishes" No.

calm yer tits there mate, I wasnt being literal, and anyhow, if civilization did stick to exchanging metals, surely there would be a much advanced method of doing so other than "here take this hunk of metal".. -.-

you're right we progressed such a long way since we exchanged pieces of metal for things

Like, maybe giving you a tiny piece of paper that weights almost nothing???

your not putting it into perspective, if we did still use metals as a means of exchange, you would not be living your life as it is now, with wallets and whatnot. infact your house would not even look the same, just off the top of my head i could think of a system where everyones house had an underground or backyard 'safe' where precious items are kept, and when out buying something you make some sort of contract agreement, then at the end of the week or month, a collector comes by and collects the amount you owe during that period. that probably isnt the most efficient but just one way. it would still be better to have soemthing of real value rather than virtual value.

Oh I certainly am putting it into perspective. But excuse me for failing to realize why the **** that is anything better than using virtual value?

you really dont know what the benifit of having something with REAL SOLID VALUE that isnt affected by governments and control as opposed to VIRTUAL VALUE DICTATED BY A FEW PEOPLE THAT HAS THE RISK OF LOSING IT ALL? really? aside from the convenience of carrying it in your pocket, theres no other real benifit to bank notes

you do realize that nothing in the universe has real solid value right? things are valuable because people have decided they are (usually because they are pretty looking, but not necessarily)

well we go by the common argument that the rarer something is the more value it has.. according to your logic then nothing in the universe has any sort of value both physically and mentally.

Uh, oh, you do realize metal curencies would still be recognized in only one country? It's the ******* same.

uhh no not really, it wouldnt be a metal "currency" the solid value of the item, be it gold, silver or copper, would have a value in every country regardless, because it isnt depicted by government

Except that it would have the nation's coat of arms on it : P

lel, doesnt change the value of the physical item just because of printings on it. i really dont think you get the idea do you?

You do understand it wouldn't keep it's own value? You still have coins but 1 penny =/= 1 pfenning.

What you are talking about exists today too, it's called hard currency.

well ofcourse it wouldnt keep its exact value in one country the same as another, exchange rates would still apply, but what my main point im trying to argue is that no matter what you would have something with real value.

True, but it's actual value would mostly be far smaller than it's currencial value (again because of bitchy goverments).

hah yep, there is no real solution to it, but theres gotta be better ways than merely having pieces of paper with imaginary value you know what i mean

no.. stop trying faggot..