Commodity money vs. Fiat money

A brief look at how money has evolved over time from being printed on valuable substances (commodity money), to merely representing those valuable substances (commodity-backed money), to not representing anything at all (fiat money).

Comments

1. there's a part of the equation you're not taking into account and that is money supply gold has a roughly finite Supply same thing with silver and that gives it a store of value that when you continuously print money into existence it loses its value and the more you have of it eventually it will crash just as all currencies that you can just print into existence and the rich get richer every time the money supply expands the bankers and the corporations and the poor suffer the pain of higher prices until the money does not work anymore it happened before in history it will happen again
2. so if the fiat currency is so bad what is stopping you from buying a commodity? the truth is there is risk in a commodity too.
3. what is so great about gold? what if you can trade in a crappy box TV for a flat screen 5 years later that is progress. if capital isn't incentivized to move you hault progress.
4. Fiat money - "Money backed by men with guns"
5. Americans used to pay other countries/civilizations in silver because they valued it more than gold. I think this was Native Americans and South Americans
6. fiat money is a disaster for our society, it's the main tool used by banks to screw us (together with ignorance)
7. thank you so much! very helpfull video :-)
8. could you please not use the word money for fiat currency. money has a property that fiat currency can't fulfill "A store of value". fiat currency has no value it's all tied to debt to prove that you have some economic value (even if you didn't do anything). At the end of the day fiat currency allows you to lie to everyone else.
9. When I was young, our coins are made of silver around 90's. Now they look crap metal or plastic or something.
10. Its legal tender. The government basically makes it an executive order that paper money is real money. And you just go along with it because the order came from the top. If the government says pink elephants exist. Then you better believe they exist. lol.
11. fiat money is haram ,prophet muhammad ( pbuh ) used gold and silver
12. Wait-so, banks fail, government is bankrupt and can't back up their promise to pay, where are we then? What can fiat money be traded for if it has no value?
13. My bad, bro.. Thank you.
14. The danger of Fiat money is that it is created just as a mint wants, unlike silver and gold. This opens up a possibility to contol the money, and, ultimately, ourselves. In my opinion.
15. In terms of banking and economics Fiat money isn't that safe
16. Silver and gold are just arbitrary metals that have been traditionally used as currency in different cultures. They just as easily could have used iron and palladium. However, you can't just print silver and gold. It anchors the currency to something physical and finite.
17. Venerating the gold standard is bad economics. The money is dollars/euros/whatever because that's what you have to pay your taxes in. Using gold in transactions would be inane.
18. Maybe I missed it..but why was it okay to turn the currency to a fiat money?...how did the citizens at that time respond to that change?...was it voted on?
19. The difference is you CAN'T PRINT no gold or silver thought
20. good work, man!