I mean I understand the context behind abandoning the gold standard. Great depression and all that. And it worked temporarily, but it created more issues down the line, like cutting off the head of a hydra.

Now we can defer the consequences of bad fiscal policy by punting it down the road every few years, building the tower higher and higher without reinforcing the base. It's going to collapse eventually, and the higher we build it between now and then, the further we're gonna fall.

It's what enabled the "infinite growth" mentality of Reagan-era economics that still plagues us today.

Also, printing paper dollars doesn't stave off inflation. It only masks it on paper. The absolute value doesn't magically increase, it just gets distributed across more dollars. Which means each dollar holds less value, less buying power. Which means things cost more dollars. That's literally inflation.

A basket of commodities could work, if it's well-crafted and not hamfisted or skewed by corporate interests. Precious metals should have a significant portion of it for their stabilizing effect. Maybe 20-30%. Fossil fuels should be excluded, or at least minimized. Everything else should mostly be raw materials, preferably finite. Anything that can be produced has the risk of inflation. Crops, livestock, lumber, etc. should be okay to include, but not exceeding say 20-30%.

But things like computer chips should be out; use semiconductors and rare earths instead. Use iron and steel and copper, etc., but not springs and pipes and wires. If that makes sense at all.

And yeah crypto is bullshit, literally nothing that people hallucinate value onto by the magic of consensus reality.