Dollar bills are nothing more than fiat currency, meaning they have value because a government says they are valuable—not because of any inherent scarcity or natural value.
Gold, on the other hand, has an inherent and natural value based on the market, while dollar bills rely solely on the faith of the users and government manipulation to maintain their value.
Money is historically characterized by five attributes: scarcity (limited supply), durability (resilient material), portability (easy transportation), fungibility (uniform value), and divisibility (can be broken into fractions).
Gold and silver have maintained their status as genuine money for countless years, and this remains true even today. They have all the aforementioned characteristics. However, the currency we commonly carry in our wallets is not real money. It is instead a fiat currency that is created by the federal government and the Federal Reserve, essentially out of nothing. It is close to containing all the attributes, but the more that is printed, the less scarcity it holds.
You see, a fiat monetary system means a system of money that isn’t backed by anything except the faith of the people.
Today this system is breaking down as the people, banks, and governments holding the dollars are losing confidence in the reckless spending of bloated governments.
A question to ask is, do you think the United States government is going to suddenly, magically, balance its budget? Or, is it more likely that Congress and the White House will continue to drive multi-trillion-dollar deficits for years to come, so politicians can stay in power?
The fact is, if the politicians keep spending more than they have, that means more borrowing. And more borrowing means more printing of U.S. dollars.
The more U.S. dollars in print, the less buying power each individual dollar will have. It's simple math, really: as the dollar drops in value, gold, and silver expand their purchasing power, as they've always done.
This begs the question: Would you rather hold onto a currency that erodes your purchasing power in 3, 4, 5 years or one that protects it and retains its worth?
