For all that talk about opinions (as opposed to facts), you sure don't mind snarkily implying that the gold standard is (factually) a bad idea. So it's bad because "we" [1] abolished it in the 30's (or '71, perhaps)? Or people are only suggesting a return to it because they just don't fucking understand economics? That's rich, considering all you really need to understand about the gold standard is that it prevents governments from printing money as they please, which means for example that there won't be any insiders with first access to newly printed money, benefiting at everyone else's expense. They can use "free money" to buy "non-free" things, and will cause inflation in the process. [1] Who's "we", by the way? People always keep talking about how "we" do this and we do that, as if they couldn't tell the difference between people who have political power, and the rest of us who don't. In reality, WE, the people, are being ruled over. We don't call the shots. They do, and they'll be doing things that are in their self-interest (and against ours), like abolishing the gold standard.Every election, some Republican or Libertarian floats the notion of returning to the Gold Standard (which we abolished back in like the '30s) because people just don't fucking understand economics