/biz/ - Business & Finance

>>13147917
>dollar has value only because people believe in it too
dollar has value because debts (in america) have to be payable by (at least) cash

in theory US military can collect dollar debts from other countries by force, but you get much better results using economic treaties and laws to "force" that repayment

its hard to collect debt from a country full of corpses

also gold is better than silver in a few ways, including being more dense (an absolute must for durable radiation shielding, such as in space), and more chemically electro-negative than silver (+3 cation instead of silver's +1)

cost (and scarcity) is what causes us to use copper wiring in powerlines instead of silver or gold for example


>>13147939
thats a terrible analogy

like comparing how people didnt know what hydrogen or carbon was until a couple hundred years ago but they were still using or interacting with hydrogen before then

stores of value are measured by their scarcity, and their usage by (whoever it is you wish to make a transaction with), the only physical thing that matters to have a good store of value is durability, and scarcity