Patrick Elliott wrote:
> Darren New wrote:
>> Patrick Elliott wrote:
>>> Because, you don't have to worry about people "refusing" money at 
>>> their banks, 
>>
>> Have you tried to cash in a German Dutchmark lately?
>>
> Why do you persist in ignoring the general sense I mean things,

Because you're not being clear.  I'm trying to understand the way in 
which you intend your statements to be interpreted, and I'm being 
hindered by the fact that every statement you make is prima facia false.

> No one 
> that has any of those is going to be able to *get* the gold, silver, or 
> what ever they where valued to anyway, 

That's exactly my point, tho. They *weren't* valued to any gold. They 
were valued to the german government insisting that germans accept it.

If they *were* valued to gold, you could get the gold back.

> so its meaningless to suggest 
> that "backing" currency with something the banks will simply refuse to 
> give back to you, 

It's not backed by gold if the banks won't give you the gold back. 
That's pretty much the definition.

> you still got jack when the 
> bank stops accepting the bit of paper its on. Why don't you get this?

You're again assuming that if money is backed by gold, there's only one 
paper currency and only one bank. Sure. But that's not how it works when 
money is actually gold.

If someone won't take your bank's note, you go to the bank, get gold, 
and give them the gold. If the bank doesn't have the gold, then you 
arrest whoever stole it.

> It doesn't matter what is "behind" the money, because if they stop 
> accepting the money, no matter what is behind it, ****you****, at that 
> point, don't have anything anyway.

You diversify. You put your gold in 20 different banks, and then when 
the first one or two refuses to give it back, you take out your gold 
from the rest.  Just like you diversify stocks.

The paper from the bank is *exactly* the stock of the bank. (Well, not 
exactly, of course, but close enough.) When the country has only one 
bank, and the government controls it, and the government is willing to 
use force to make you accept promises from the bank, then you're pretty 
screwed when the government bank stops honoring their promises.

If you have a gold standard, you can take your gold to a different bank.

-- 
Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)

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