Bring Back The Gold/Silver Standard, Well A Fraction Of?

Will never work. Remember, US dollars are scattered across the globe. Gold would have to be re-valued by hundreds, if not thousands of times the amount you've mentioned. Besides, we will see digital currency, not coin, per demand.

i get the above comments, however, I feel that digital currencies will fail. We will see Bitcoin go away, and everyone who got in at the wrong time are burned.

If the government can't track it, they cant tax it. If they can't tax it, they won't allow it.

However, if a group of billions got together and created a trillion dollar, gold backed (or other asset) currency, even at a fraction of it's real value (1/20 to 1), i'd invest.

I think we will see digital currencies fail, then maybe the Euro. The USD has already dropped in value, I do know it's all relative, but.... when min wage is $15, and people out of college can't get a job for more than 40k (with 100k+ in debt), how can someone out of college buy a $200k house, a $400 a month car, 1,000 month in utilities, food, insurance, when they are taking home at most 2k per month.

Something's gotta give.

We need to stop, as a society, living above our means. Nobody needs a $400 amonth car....imo

Mexico tried exactly this, back in the early 1990s, for much the same reasons as you've suggested: silver in the money would put more faith in the money, thus reducing inflation. The Mexican peso was in a downward spiral at the time, so when the powerful Mexican silver lobby suggested they try this, the desperate Mexican government agreed.

The problem is, for this to work, all (or the vast majority) of the money has to be in the bullion-backed form. Otherwise, Gresham's Law will see people hoard the "good money" (silver coins) and choose to spend the "bad money" (non-silver-backed-paper and electronic cash). And it didn't help the Mexican inflation problem one iota. Once the value of the peso fell below the value of the silver in the coins, the hoarded coins were systematically destroyed by the populace in order to get at the silver.

There isn't enough silver and gold in the world to back the presently existing amount of US dollars, let alone the rest of the world's currencies. And unless something really bad happens to prevent the world's population from continuing to grow exponentially or some new whiz-bang technology allows the mining rate to keep up with the population growth for a change, this is going to continue to be the case. Like it or not, inflation is hard-wired into our economy. Sustained long-term deflation can only happen when people and governments make unreasonable sacrifices - such as everyone taking a 50% pay cut, while prices for all goods and services only drop 5%. How many politicians are going to suggest something like that? How many would survive the lynch mobs if they went ahead with such policies anyway?

Look at the Zimbabwe situation a few years back. Now imagine that instead of chasing paper notes they had to chase real gold to put food on their tables. This type of standard will only benefit the wealthy. What really needs to be done is hold your politicians accountable and stop going to war so hastily. And issue Treasury notes that accrue no interest to anybody.

Agreed to all 100% (well, almost).

I do not live above my means, I drive a car that's 14 years old and plan on another 4-6 years.

The point I was making is perhaps to the next generation, whom have become accustomed to living above their means.

Those of us who grew up with nothing (including me), learned early to appreciate, save, and spend wisely. A good bit of the next gen have grown up with far more, thus their expectations are to do better upon graduating/getting a job. The pendulum will swing back, as soon as we stop providing hand outs, cell phones, money,etc to anyone who isn't making 50k per year.

I tell my kids now that it will take them 10 years after college to have the lifestyle they have now, and they will never regret saving and working hard. It's about delayed gratification, and we (Americans), have not taught that to most of the next generation.