The whole cash register ritual seems so arcane and awkward now that most transactions are done via plastic card. Maybe this whole thing could be integrated into the process of shaking hands via a wearable watch extension that extends a spiral plastic tounge with sensors and display up from the wrist to the palm, so that negotiation can be conducted electronically via a handshake. Two spiraled appendaged would catch eachother guided by thf initial contact of hands and then run sensors by displays in order as they pulled away from eachother.
-- JesusHChrist, Mar 10 2015

I like the idea of a handshake-transaction machine. I take back all those bad things I said about you to people while you weren't here.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 10 2015


Screw that. Bring back Gold. Enough with the fake money that inflates beyond recognition with over-printing, (or digitizing) by assholes in power.

Gold. Period.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Mar 10 2015


Unless you prefer the barter system... no taxes that way though...
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Mar 10 2015


You are right [2fries] but I fear from your anno, yet another screwdriver invention is going to pop up! Screw that!
-- xandram, Mar 11 2015


The pop-up screwdriver.
hmmmm
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Mar 11 2015


Several things: Gold is no more "real" money than paper. It's an agreed upon standard of value with no concrete tie to goods and services.

The most practical smallest unit of gold is (roughly) the gram. Significantly higher if you want relatively pure coins (I think the smallest the US mints is 1/10oz. So your smallest denomination will pay for a sit down dinner. Good luck buying a hotdog. Unless your talking about gold certificates, in which case good luck getting governments not to print more than they actually have in reserve. After all, it's only a problem if they're all callled in at once.

Additionally, I know of at least 3 simple ways to alter gold coins to remove some of the metal without making it obvious to anyone who isn't a trained assayer. One of them is relatively slow, but is indistinguishable from normal wear and tear. Another keeps the weight close enough to the same to make trading by weight questionable. Unless every single vendor hires an assayer fraud will run rampant.

Also, some level of inflation is generally good for the economy. Given that you would have an extremely finite money supply (less than $1000/person at the current exchange rates) chasing an ever increasing supply of goods and services a conversion to the gold standard would be massively deflationary. Good luck paying off your mortgage or car loan, and good luck getting business to invest in new development or hire new workers.

Finally, once all of that is settled out, have fun with the massive inflation as soon as someone actually figures out asteroid mining.
-- MechE, Mar 11 2015


So, gold screwdrivers then?
-- xandram, Mar 11 2015


//Gold is no more "real" money than paper//
True, but it can't be printed out of thin air and given a value, and since there is 'supposed' to be actual bullion housed somewhere equal to every dollar in circulation, the transition from paper to gold should be fairly seamless... unless you're telling me that there isn't actual gold backing up every dollar printed.

//smallest the US mints is 1/10oz. So your smallest denomination will pay for a sit down dinner. Good luck buying a hotdog//
//Unless your talking about gold certificates//
I am talking about incorporating actual gold into coins as currency. Surely there is a way to encase gold within another non precious metal so that it can not be extracted without destroying the coin. No assayers needed, just a non fraudulent government.

...and there's always barter.
The only way I've found to get value for value is by cutting out the middle-man. The more governments allow their currency to inflate, the more they drive their own economies underground because it's the only way for the little guy to keep his head above water.
That is not the way to keep an economy strong.

The amount of gold in circulation will inflate as more gold is discovered, and I can't friggin wait until asteroid mining lets us stop stripping the Earth for gold and raw materials in the first place.

I think that the massive inflation you envision will be nicely spread between worlds... if we make it that far... and if our overlords, living in castles in the sky by then, let us lowlifes off this rock or keep us terrestrially enslaved.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Mar 11 2015


//since there is 'supposed' to be actual bullion housed somewhere equal to every dollar in circulation//

I think the US left the gold standard somewhere in the 1900s.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 11 2015



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