See, this is why it bothers me when people roll their eyes when I mention the gold standard.

Today's dollar is a fiat currency. There's nothing backing it besides the agreement that it represents value. It's worth nothing intrinsically. That's why the finance industry can do apparently whatever the fuck they want with it, bloating their portfolios while diluting the actual buying power of the dollar for everyone else. It's one of the reasons for endless hyperinflation.

If it was backed by something of intrinsic value, say, precious metals, then that would mitigate a lot of this.

People ask what I mean when I sat precious metals have intrinsic value. And the argument could be made that it too is only worth something because people agree that it is. But, it's a finite resource and so its rarity makes it valuable by default. It's not like money where we can just print more. And people will always want shiny things. People with a lot of money will always want the prestige of flashy items made of a material that announces their wealth. And nobody is just going to start giving gold away for dirt cheap just because "all it is is stupid metal that never tarnishes."

And historically as well as economically, it holds true. Gold holds its value. When a currency inflates, diluting its buying power, the price of gold in that currency tends to stay similar to what it was before, when adjusted for the buying power. It's one of the most stable and standard ways to measure the value of currencies. Much better than the petro dollar.

But people think I'm just being bougie and elitist when I say we should back our currencies with precious metals. There's a rationale behind it, but people usually don't listen long enough to hear that rationale...

Also, in the absence of macroeconomic solutions like backing currencies with hard assets, you can take your personal finances into your own hands with a microeconomic solution like diversifying your portfolio (hold a variety of currencies, and some in precious metals). Of course, that requires enough surplus income to be able to save, and enough savings to be able to invest in less liquid assets. But starting with silver instead of gold is a much lower barrier to entry, and although it's somewhat more volatile than gold, it's still far more stable than fiat currency.

And if all of your savings are in US dollars, I would highly recommend holding some in Euros or other similar currency. When the dollar inevitably crashes, it's going to crash hard.