This piece serves the purpose of attempting to contextualize humanities economic and monetary expansion in relation to gold.
Part 2 and 3 of this 3 part piece are formed as a sort of jenga puzzle with dates and historical text from a variety of sources (listed at the end), all intertwined in chronological order to provide as much debt to this dance played between humanity and gold. This should help to facilitate the understanding of humanities economic expansion, by having a common standard means of exchange respected by humans throughout cultures and time. There lays its value, to prevail regardless of time and place.
The introduction & philosophical analysis
In business, when someone or something serves a purpose with very little downside risk, and can allow reliable delegation of certain tasks, it more than not allows an economic entity (a person, a business, a nation), to optimize and or expand their output. Either way, it is a win win, for both the business and the stakeholders win (consumers, employees, investors), from better services, prices, salaries, profits, therefore it is a no brainer to employ that individual or incorporate that system/framework towards that achievement. It does exactly what you want it to do, therefore the business’ mind can focus more on weighing other variables that need its attention. Even from how we focus on our mind, as individuals or as a collective, it respects the principles of scarcity, we can only focus on so much at a given time. It appears we are always incurring drastic chaotic cycles with a lot of social conflict from our monetary deviations, from centralized egos. An old tale of history.
This can allow any economic entity to enter a spear form of framework to penetrate and expand the way it desires. Like genes as they get passed on, that pick up and incorporate strong genes for the purpose of strong continuity. A very reliable part of natural law for natural expansion. If life itself is an economic game of producing, consuming and allocating resources (physiological or tangible), for all nations, businesses and persons, then incorporating those very dynamic truths into our collective economic framework is not flawed. Economic alignment is necessary among the countless frameworks of entities that are consciously and unconsciously playing this game. That makes it a very dynamic and complex game. So why not adapt behaviors/frameworks/pillars that we can depend on despite those difficult truths of the game.
Being rational is very much about respecting natural law, since it dictates the very reality and parameters of our conscious lives.
This ties in to the principle ideology of a ‘homoeconomicus’ is:
-“Homo economicus is a financial term that some economists use to describe a rational human being. Homo economicus is a model for human behavior, characterized by an infinite capability to make rational decisions. The model is generally used in economics and was first proposed by John Stuart Mills in an 1836 essay defining the characteristics of political economy. Modern research has proved that the theory of an economic man is a flawed model.” –Homo Economicus Definition (investopedia.com)
This requires a malleable framework, since that is rational at the same time. This is to be as Bruce Lee so beautifully said; “you must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water my friend.” Water with enough energy (pressure) asserted on it can also become deadly like a spear piercing through flesh. What natural law tells us is time doesn’t stop, and because nothing is fixed like time itself, everything changes, and therefore malleability is an important component of a dynamic natural ecosystem. The expansion of humanity and its collective consciousness, shows nothing but change from constant clashing egos and realities. It is rational to always assume and expect change. Using gold to anchor our economic behaviors appears to be a dire solution that diminishes the ability of human ego and ignorance to thrive and cause sustainability problems witnessed throughout the history of civilization. Gold is like an anchor to all that dynamic change, economically speaking. 6000 years of history demonstrates a beautiful story that provides an old progressive solution to a very relevant problem. Let’s make use of it so we can go solve other problems that plague our system.
Now having established that rationale, respecting natural law, if we observed the relationship gold played with humanity, we see a positive correlation…lets take that further now. If that has always been humanity’s most reliable form of exchange that provided sustainable value until the mid 20th century of our globalized expansion, then why is any human trying to apply their personal desire of altering that very truth? Seems like ego rather than anything else, another old tale of history. Gold has been loved, desired and utilized across time in correlation with our expansion. That makes it incredibly reliable by simply back testing our history. It also makes it a mean (average) baseline off which humanities economic expansion can occur. It provides a constant baseline off which natural wealth can truly expand. This is a key dynamic relationship towards having a viable, flexible and sustainable expanding economy. Sure sounds a lot like what a rational mind would incorporate into their framework to ensure optimal output. Would seem rational for a trusting and functional global economy, with so many dynamic variables, such as all the social problems it has, to trust a monetary framework that has pierced through time alongside us. Every time people deviated from it, it was in my opinion heavily from the centralized personal interest of a select few; greed, to obtain something more for the benefit of the few, at any cost. Human suffering most often than not appears to be that cost that history keeps trying to teach.
Bon, that’s history, we are now in 2020, whatever our ancestors past digressions were, nothing but a lesson can be picked up from it’s tale. That’s what a rational civilization must do, be flexible like water. This is where also lays the power of a free market, respecting these principles. These are what yields sustainable behaviors, as a collective, providing an ecosystem framework that trickles down to its very operators (the citizens, who’s collective actions dictate the collective output). The stakeholders can truly benefit on a collective scale. Sustainability is very much part of that since humans cannot over indulge from the abuse of monetary egos that deviate a nation to their whim. Can be correlated, to the expansion of the consumeristic reality leveraged off the debt from deviations in economic truths. .
It would be useful for establishing how far off a nation’s economy can deviate from its baseline wealth and truly take on debt. Bring some sustainability to our consumerist framework. Again, a possible natural solution to a behavioral problem plaguing our reality.
The argument isn’t that we can’t find a better way to improve our globalized dynamic monetary system, or that gold is the only forever answer and so ignore everything else. Not at all. Simply, why not find a way to play off of something that is reliable, that creates like in technical analysis, a strong resistance from which the price can increase (economic expansion). Far less down side economically and socially speaking since we know it works, when so much isn’t working. Let us finally move on. From an optimal perspective, it serves the purpose. I do accept the idea of bitcoin being backed by gold or a basket of metals, it seems more logical as a system to expand sustainability leveraging what works. Or would you rather continue the game of experimenting with economies which history shows it always has untold and unintended consequences. From a healthy and sustainable point of view, it doesn’t seem to be an irrational idea to incorporate the principles of water which is shapeless yet also capable of acting like a spear; the desire of our economic expansion.