Good point in many ways that dollars are backed by banks. They are backed by banks needing to pay back dollars to someone else. Dollars are also backed up by underwriting procedures that say what is "worth" putting money into in order to get more money BACK from....which is how banks try to tap into value and productivity in the economy. So there IS the IDEA of being backed by the real value that is out there in the economy. Of course, that doesn't cover credit cards...