Superior To A Gold-Backed Currency System

This paper argues that a fiat currency system is superior to a gold-backed currency system. Unarguably, the precious metal makes a great store of wealth. It lasts the test of time and its value is easily tracked throughout history. During the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar, around 600 BC, an ounce of gold would buy roughly 450 loaves of bread. Today an ounce of gold will buy roughly 450 loaves of bread. Gold never goes bad and is an incredible resource for storing value. As a currency, however, it has severe limitations and is horribly ill-suited for the many massive economies spanning the globe today. As you will see, it is only fiat currencies that can allow for economic stability in gigantic economies with incredible amounts of currency in
A gold-standard could cause much environmental damage as miners try to pull as much gold out of the earth as possible. The amount of gold that would have to be pulled from the earth to cover an economy as large as the United States’ would increase mining operations drastically. When mining for gold a massive amount of energy and resources are used. Mining for gold takes a lot of equipment which use massive amounts of natural resources like diesel or gasoline to operate. Mining for gold is not as easy as one may think. A tremendous amount of earth has to be moved in order to get the precious metal out of the ground. Two thousand pounds of ore has to be processed in order to extracts a few tenths of an ounce of gold. One of the major concerns for the environment caused by gold mining is the toxic mine drainage. Gold mines move an unimaginable amount of ground in order to get to the gold. When you dig into the ground that has been buried for a long time the air and moisture can create a chemical reaction that produce toxic metals and acids. (Rastogi, 2010). The process creates toxic byproducts which include substances like sulfuric acid, copper and arsenic which run off into the lakes and rivers surrounding the mines. Big operations mining for gold finish the extracting process by using cyanide. Cyanide is an extremely toxic and lethal substance that is used by companies to go after very low grade ore (Rastogi, 2010). These highly toxic substances are a huge risk to the wildlife as well as humans that live nearby. Animals would die off and people in the surrounding areas would be affected as well due to higher rate illnesses such as cancer that are directly attributed to these toxic runoffs and toxic gases that goldmines produce. Gold mines will sometimes roast ore which causes mercury to shoot into the atmosphere. If gold was necessary to sustain an