That works until someone starts manipulating the market by redeeming their dollars for water, selling the water on the market, getting dollars again, redeeming for more water and continuously profiting from the endless cycle.
This is actually why the gold standard ended. Money and real world materials will fluctuate in value and are sold on different markets. Having money pegged to a real world material means someone can take advantage of a treasury by manipulating those markets. This was happening with the US dollar, then the Nixon shock happened and no more gold standard.
Why would people in the future use a currency system that’s similar to one that we used in the past and stopped using because it was fundamentally flawed and vulnerable to manipulation? I suppose if it’s set in a small community where there isn’t anyone that would work out how to manipulate the currency it might work. But if there were bad actors, you’d expect a water based currency system to be manipulated same as the gold based system was before the Nixon shock.
the gold market wasn’t “manipulated”, that was just a lie that Nixon came up with to justify ending the dollar-gold exchange system.
actually the US government just wanted to have complete control over the dollar, including the ability to print more dollars if needed. if the dollar is bound to gold, that’s impossible because you can’t just print gold. by declaring an emergency (“to protect the dollars against the speculators”) they had enough reason in the eyes of the population to make the dollar a pure fiat currency.
If you put all of the US dollars in the world in a pile on the left and all of the gold in the world in a pile on the right, the pile on the left (the dollars) would be worth 10x more than the pile on the right.
There simply isn’t enough gold in the world for a gold standard to work without there being some kind of manipulation of either the value of the dollars or the value of the gold, or both. And if you’re manipulating the value of gold and/or the value of the dollar, what’s the point?
The gold standard stuff is just conspiracy bullshit meant to create discontent and distrust in institutions based on ignorance of what money is. You’re told money should have intrinsic value so you feel like your employer is rewarding you with something of value when you’re paid. The reality is money represents debt, you did work and the money represents what you’re owed by your employer, not a reward. A system based on borrowed money matches the reality of your employer is borrowing your time and skills with that debt being paid once you’ve spent the money. A more realistic system based on money being debt isn’t as prone to manipulation as one based on a belief that shiny bits of metal have magical properties that you’re rewarded with because you’ve a good loyal servant.
That works until someone starts manipulating the market by redeeming their dollars for water, selling the water on the market, getting dollars again, redeeming for more water and continuously profiting from the endless cycle.
This is actually why the gold standard ended. Money and real world materials will fluctuate in value and are sold on different markets. Having money pegged to a real world material means someone can take advantage of a treasury by manipulating those markets. This was happening with the US dollar, then the Nixon shock happened and no more gold standard.
Why would people in the future use a currency system that’s similar to one that we used in the past and stopped using because it was fundamentally flawed and vulnerable to manipulation? I suppose if it’s set in a small community where there isn’t anyone that would work out how to manipulate the currency it might work. But if there were bad actors, you’d expect a water based currency system to be manipulated same as the gold based system was before the Nixon shock.
the gold market wasn’t “manipulated”, that was just a lie that Nixon came up with to justify ending the dollar-gold exchange system.
actually the US government just wanted to have complete control over the dollar, including the ability to print more dollars if needed. if the dollar is bound to gold, that’s impossible because you can’t just print gold. by declaring an emergency (“to protect the dollars against the speculators”) they had enough reason in the eyes of the population to make the dollar a pure fiat currency.
If you put all of the US dollars in the world in a pile on the left and all of the gold in the world in a pile on the right, the pile on the left (the dollars) would be worth 10x more than the pile on the right.
There simply isn’t enough gold in the world for a gold standard to work without there being some kind of manipulation of either the value of the dollars or the value of the gold, or both. And if you’re manipulating the value of gold and/or the value of the dollar, what’s the point?
The gold standard stuff is just conspiracy bullshit meant to create discontent and distrust in institutions based on ignorance of what money is. You’re told money should have intrinsic value so you feel like your employer is rewarding you with something of value when you’re paid. The reality is money represents debt, you did work and the money represents what you’re owed by your employer, not a reward. A system based on borrowed money matches the reality of your employer is borrowing your time and skills with that debt being paid once you’ve spent the money. A more realistic system based on money being debt isn’t as prone to manipulation as one based on a belief that shiny bits of metal have magical properties that you’re rewarded with because you’ve a good loyal servant.