Adam Creighton,

Many Thanks for your story. Is there any lesson the readers of On Line Opinion can gather from it

...The market determines the true value of money; speculation drives that market. No need for a gold standard at all.

diver dan,

You are right!

“It is speculation that drives the market”.

What the Americans know as Wall Street speculation? Where criminals hold-up Stock Exchanges with weapons that make the Mafia’s repetition-guns sound like sweet music?

Ever heard of gentlemen by the name of Charles Ponzi or of Bernie Madoff and the many who follow their example?

And what of that well known Philanthropist, Michael Milken, well known for the billions he fraudulently made by speculating on the stock Exchange?

Have you ever heard of Richard Pratt who made billions by breaking the antimonopoly Laws?

I suppose you did not mind paying two or three cents more for a container of milk; loosing one cent a day is not a big deal, is it?

And what of Bank’s CEOs taking home tens of millions per year? What do they do with all that stuff?

No one I know needs more than one bed and, at most, three meals per day.

Can you see the paradox of one taking from the bank he manages the very Capital that that bank needs for renting?

Think of how many among the people you know have a job that produce something useful to others, and how many go to work and produce nothing at all.

I am sure that you do not need help to list into job categories your friends, relatives and neighbors for the purpose of estimating their productive input into your society.

Mr. diver dan, we don’t need a Gold Standard, but surely we need some ‘Standards’.

...Well skeptic…you have probably worked out by now, I am as sceptical as the best; but we as citizens have all the possibilities necessary to buy gold as an alternative to paper money as a hedge to inflation: But that is speculation. You must agree that the speculative value of gold is also assisting positively, Governments holding gold in reserves: This article highlights the point.

...Now to your other point, the only true value is earned value, as against the value of speculation which is non-productive value; our economy is prefaced on speculative value of housing. The anticipation that speculation is all positive, is proving now to be somewhat vaporous as the market corrects housing value downwards.

...All Ponzi and pyramid schemes are illegal and are controlled by regulation; Madoff is serving a 150 year jail sentence in the USA as an example. As my line states consistently on OLO, we need a return of “Moral” standards which self-regulate against dishonesty, and support community welfare against personal greed and narcissism

Moral” standards which self-regulate against dishonesty, and support community welfare against personal greed and narcissism.
diver dan,
Non-military National Service for a start.

Individual:

"Non-military National Service for a start".

There is a whole nother subject just awaiting...DD