Can someone explain to me what Ron Paul's point was?
I just looked up some definitions of money, and "generally accepted medium of financial exchange" seems to be a key part of the definitions.
All sides agree that gold has value, and stable value at that. But is it money?
Will the grocery store or car dealer generally accept a chunk of gold as payment for goods?
If I owned a grocery store or car dealership, I would be very upset if my salesmen didn't accept payment in Gold. It has always held its value better than toilet paper poo poo money. That is reason enough to take it over fiat.
You would probably get a kick out of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ef0VG1WEP10even if it proves Ben's point...among other things.
I actually side with Ben on this one. All current legally supported monetary systems are, I would argue, debt based (which gold...and bitcoin...are not.) I don't think it means a whole lot, and I expect it is just a matter of time before things shift in this respect. Perhaps not a lot of time.