4 ms·

But someone might exchange that gold with you for food, for sex, for medicine, and for what feeds your vices, as they have for millennia.

• mixedCase 9y ago
  Once a semblance of civilization establishes again? Then yes, it's likely. During times of true hardship where the general population is at risk of dying of starvation, disease or being murdered by a once upstanding citizen, and there's no way to readily exchange that gold for needed supplies? No. You would consider yourself lucky to be able to exchange a bar of solid gold for a few cans of food.
  • omarchowdhury 9y ago
    True, it would by necessity be a barter economy.
    • programmarchy 9y ago
      Or similarly, an informal debt economy. If I give Bob a pair of boots, he'll be more obliged to give me one of his pigs when I tell him how nice and fat they look a month later. Informal debt economies really only work within tribal communities where social pressure has more leverage, but it does solve the double coincidence of wants problem.