Political Theory

Re: Morality of using gold and silver as money

J.R.M. — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 00:12:24 GMT

As Merlin said, you can make a moral case for abolition of legal tender laws, but gold is just a metal. There is nothing more moral about it than paper. In fact if freely acting individuals decided that paper money was their exchange medium of choice, it would be immoral to try to force gold on them.

Re: Morality of using gold and silver as money

Merlin — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 09:48:42 GMT

The only moral argument I can think of in monetary matters is the abolition of legal tender laws. I relay can’t see how one could advocate gold on moral grounds, though it’s easy to advocate freedom to use whatever one likes on moral grounds.

Re: Morality of using gold and silver as money

Gman1944 — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 05:09:12 GMT

Gold's been the choice of money by the market time and again throughout history, i.e. It's proven to be the most marketable commodity and so has been chosen as a common medium of exchange by freely acting people. To not allow a society to use the money it would have otherwise chosen, but rather imposing on them a fiat currency, it denies your economic freedom, and therein your freedom period.

Also, the institution of a fiat currency allows those in charge of the money supply to manipulate the value of money and enables them to plan the economy, lowering the standards of living of all the people in the society, and in the case of the US dollar, the world.

Morality of using gold and silver as money

Freedom4Me73986 — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 03:56:55 GMT

Is it more moral to use gold and silver as money than it is to use paper? I believe fiat currency is immoral and anti-philosophical. How would you make a moral case for gold as opposed to an efficiency case?