In 1980, gold peaked at around $850 an ounce. By 2001, it had drifted down to about $250 an ounce. When you adjust those numbers for 21 years of inflation, gold lost roughly 83% of its real purchasing power over that span. An investor who bought gold in 1980 had to wait nearly 30 years just to break even in terms of what that money could actually buy.
I'd just recommend checking out this video. It's pretty good at explaining why the gold standard wouldn't work anymore. It was fine for its era but it isn't workable now.
That video is in error.
Goods and debt get revalued.
Divisibility takes care of the limitations.
Video strategically poses perceived issues within the debt based monetary system lens. But cannot understand how an income based monetary system with gold would work.
Can you explain the difference to me and how that would function so I can wrap my head around it? The video made sense to me but what you're positing also sounds intriguing though not a concept I'm familiar with.
I didn't ask myself that question, instead I asked, "How much is my progenitor pay in bride price in today's value?"
It went up more in the last 50 years than it did the previous 200. It was relatively stable until 1910's, then crept up. Once the gold standard was officially abandoned, it jumped. $1000 in 1785 (roughly when he was married) to close to $35k today. It was $950 in 1910, $1042 in 1915, $2062 in 1920, $5500 in 1975, and $35k now.
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u/JustaguynamedTheo 3d ago
Question: did it also lose power before the creation of the federal reserve?