> The world ran on a depoliticized money for thousands of years: gold. It ran on credit, at least for most people for their day-to-day life: * https://en.wiki

> The world ran on a depoliticized money for thousands of years: gold. It ran on credit, at least for most people for their day-to-day life: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt:_The_First_5000_Years https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt:_The_First_5000_Years The very first instances in the written, historic record (clay tablets) were of credit: * https://www.sfu.ca/~poitras/jesho_UR_14.pdf https://www.sfu.ca/~poitras/jesho_UR_14.pdf Entire civilizations (e.g., Incas) ran without currency (they used gold for ornamental jewelry, not transactions). > many countries have experienced hyperinflation, financial instruments have become monetized and bubbles have been pumped full of paper money, peoples savings are 1% of what they were when this all started, at best. Please list these "many countries". And of the ones that I'll bet you will list, they have specific causes: > There are differences in details and emphases, but the basic story of outside coercion, losing a war/civil war, internal corruption, incompetent/bad economic education/bad policies on banking/currency, elite minorities clinging to power, foreign denominated debt, collapse in real production etc. are the same in Weimar and Venezuela as in Zimbabwe. > As always, the “printing” is the result, not the cause. * https://clintballinger.com/2021/01/12/the-myth-of-hyperinflation/ https://clintballinger.com/2021/01/12/the-myth-of-hyperinfla... And there have been various 'incidents' ("bubbles) during the Gold Standard era without fiat / 'paper money': * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1873 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1873 * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1893 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1893 * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1896 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1896 * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1907 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1907 And in the pre-Gold Standard (<1870) there was the Tulip bubble, South Sea Bubble, canal mania. > What is it about an "industrial society" that requires a government to control the money? This is glossed over, but is at the crux of their position. It has been found (in the US) that it helps with financial stability, especially post-Fed creation: * https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/08/why-the-gold-standard-is-the-worlds-worst-economic-idea-in-2-charts/261552/ https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/08/why-the... * https://archive.ph/FWKcL https://archive.ph/FWKcL