A return to gold was not defeated here by a lack of anxiety about debt or fiat money. No prevailed by eight points, in a close vote whose central instinct was that an imperfect monetary system is safer than an abrupt attempt to replace it.
The argument the floor rated highest was about who would bear the cost of today’s borrowing: “uncontrolled national debt piles disadvantages future generations”. A second No voice made the practical objection more starkly, arguing that there was “not enough to cover £70–90 trillion global money supply”.
Yes voters offered a different kind of confidence. Gold was “a tangible, scarce reference point” against which fiat depreciation could be judged, while the shortest intervention supplied the slogan: “Gold is the one constant for now.” The case was less a detailed transition plan than an appeal for something solid beneath currencies that can be expanded and devalued.
The two sides largely talked past each other: Yes addressed trust and purchasing power, while No answered with institutional risk and feasibility. One voter would “take the words of economists” warning of a “great depression event”; another treated gold as merely “a referance point” and preferred digital, decentralised currency, showing that opposition ranged from caution to a desire for a different monetary future.
In this room, fear of an unworkable cure outweighed faith in gold as a cure for debt.
6 Opinions
Lovely jubely. Gold is the one constant for now. Or should we use saved carbon !!@
Gold is just a referance point. Currency should be made didgital and has been proven to work in a decentralised fashion with the use of bitcoin growing year on year. This would remove the power that banks have and place real control in the hands of the people.
Gold provides a tangible, scarce reference point against which monetary value can be measured. Over long periods, real assets such as houses tend to retain broadly stable values when measured in gold, while their nominal price in fiat currencies rises as those currencies lose purchasing power. Gold’s apparent appreciation is often simply the inverse of fiat depreciation. A return to gold would restore a more credible anchor for value.
If take gold in current prices: The gold in that original £1 coin is worth roughly £761. 31,817 tonnes of pure gold is required to replace £3,309 billion on the UK market money supply, UK government holds only 310 tonnes. Humanity has only mined about 212,500 tonnes of gold in whole history, not enough to cover £70–90 trillion global money supply. We need to find other way to limit creation of money by debt.
I'll take the words of economists if they warn of a great depression event. The mere possibility of such an event renders such a change far too risky.
Returning to the gold standard would favour countries with current or untapped gold reserves however uncontrolled national debt piles disadvantages future generations by committing them to fund repayments, potentially at ruinous rates of return fuelling inflation, tax raising and social decline.