Sound Money is better than Fiat Money for the average citizen.

I'm glad we can agree that the fall of many nations has more to do with their fiscal policy and budgeting than their currency choices. If a nation is reckless, it doesn't matter if it uses fake money or real money, it will suffer and harm the prosperity of their economies and their citizens' savings one way or another. Where there is a will, there is a way. But let us consider what would happen if 16th century Spain and early 21st century Zimbabwe found themselves using the other's currency system. Spain, racked with debt, would have undoubtedly repeated what Zimbabwe did; maybe not at the ridiculous rate of 80 billion %, but they would have undermined their whole system just the same. Governments find themselves in a tough situation periodically and the temptation to dilute everyone's hard earned savings is just too much, and they indulge. And they don't indulge in just a little "healthy" inflation (these quotations denote sarcasm) as you infer. The inflation is monstrous in proportion and destructive in nature. In Zimbabwe's case, had they been forced to use paper money backed by gold, they simply would have had to default on their debts because the sound nature of money backed by gold would not have permitted them to stretch it at all. Its not the end of the world when a nation defaults, and in fact it can be a very positive thing. Its not like an international repo company is going to drive through the country repossessing all the nation's TVs or tanks or whatever the money was spent on. The worse thing that would happen is, due to a terrible credit-rating, international commerce would think twice before investing there, again. I find it morally offensive that any government would adopt a financial system that penalized people who save money before making a large purchase. Saving is the not only the personally responsible and disciplined thing to do, but it is actually better for the whole economy! Look at the housing bubble that burst not ten years ago. People were buying houses without placing a down payment because the federal government forced banks to issue the extremely high-risk mortgages in order to "stimulate" the housing industry. The whole thing fell flat on its face. Focusing on spending rather than saving because of fast economic stimulation is comparable to consuming energy drinks rather than a steady diet of whole grains simply because you like the stimulation. Beware the crash that follows the sugar high. "Real savings come first if you want to invest." - Friedrich Hayek Saying that our standard of living has gotten better since 1913 so we should accept the current fiat system is a huge cop-out. No one can contribute these gains in life quality to foolish fiat fiscal policy. It is more due to innovation, enterprise and hard work of regular citizens DESPITE the poor monetary policy of the politically elite. I support Thomas Woods and his research. If you are to challenge his premises, provide evidence of your own. Your emotion and conjecture on the topic of The Great Depression is not fitting nor will it be accepted in these hallowed halls of Debate.org. I will admit your idea of a population out growing a money supply is an interesting one. I have never heard of that before. In everything I have read, I have never encountered such a thing happening. It probably would take thousands of years for a single country to out grow its rare metal reserves, and since most countries have over time switched their currency systems, this has never been a problem. An interesting point, I admit, but I don't think it would be much of a problem. Look at BitCoin. They started off selling a single digital coin for only 6 cents. When the price per coin reached over $800 they had already created smaller money units that represented fractions of a single coin. So not something to worry about. A last word on inflation. I like your idea about rewarding productive workers with raises, but underlining that principle is the reality that inflation steals an individual's wealth, makes them work harder to earn the same value they once possessed. That is a vicious cycle.