>Gold has no inherent value at all apart from some minor uses of relatively small amounts in the economy.
I've never understood this argument that gold has no inherent value or no use in economy.
First, lets acknowledge you couldn't even make your comment/post from any computer/smart phone on the market that doesn't use gold. That is gold is a great conductor of electricity, maybe not the best conductor, but when combine with its anti-corrosive properties it is the industry standard. Every single computer/smart phones is manufactured with gold, anyway you cut it, that isn't a small part of the economy.
In addition to being a good conductor gold has anti-microbial and anti-bacterial, and anti-corrosive properties. This gives gold inherent value, especially in antiquity, put your food/wine in a amphora made of gold and made of pottery and see which expires first. Finally, gold isn't made through natural processes on Earth, that we know of, it is made in Stars and so what we have on Earth is what we got, that limited supply, makes it inherently valuable as a medium of exchange. Sure we can also go back to using seashells as a medium of exchange, but the Earth will continue printing money. finally, the anti-corrosive and ease of smelting/crafting Gold also gives it a certain value.
Gold is a useful metal, yes. Its use as a money standard is arbitrary. A wiser commodity standard for currency would be a basket of non-scarce commodities that historically do not fluctuate much in price.
But commodity standards in general are not preferred by governments. You could even make an argument that forgoing fiat currency is a national security risk. Countries which use fiat money can conduct warfare more efficiently. And in peacetime they can conduct counter-cyclical monetary policy.
These key advantages make fiat the obvious choice for governments.
But it is not. Gold is finite which is important for a currency. Gold is one of the easier metals to work with/coin, which is important, at least historically. And Gold is non-corrosive, which again is important in coinage.
Sure these unique characteristics may not seem important now that most fiat is digital, but we are talking about a system of money going back thousands of years. It has withstood the test of time, not because its arbitrary, but because gold will last thousands of years, something no digital or paper/cotton based bank note can claim. Plus you can counterfeit all paper/cotton based bank notes, to date no one has successfully reproduced Gold.
I've never understood this argument that gold has no inherent value or no use in economy.
First, lets acknowledge you couldn't even make your comment/post from any computer/smart phone on the market that doesn't use gold. That is gold is a great conductor of electricity, maybe not the best conductor, but when combine with its anti-corrosive properties it is the industry standard. Every single computer/smart phones is manufactured with gold, anyway you cut it, that isn't a small part of the economy.
In addition to being a good conductor gold has anti-microbial and anti-bacterial, and anti-corrosive properties. This gives gold inherent value, especially in antiquity, put your food/wine in a amphora made of gold and made of pottery and see which expires first. Finally, gold isn't made through natural processes on Earth, that we know of, it is made in Stars and so what we have on Earth is what we got, that limited supply, makes it inherently valuable as a medium of exchange. Sure we can also go back to using seashells as a medium of exchange, but the Earth will continue printing money. finally, the anti-corrosive and ease of smelting/crafting Gold also gives it a certain value.