What is a reasonable working alternative to a fiat currency?

Considering that it appears that any country in history that has had a fiat currency has gone down the toilet economically.|||there is no reasonable working alternative





re-introducing gold standard will kill economy via deflation





barter would kill economy as people will spend too much time looking for somebody willing to barter what they have, and have less time to work.|||No, there is nothing reasonable about it. In a fiat money system, money is not backed by a physical commodity (i.e.: gold). Instead, the only thing that gives the money value is its relative scarcity and the faith placed in it by the people that use it.





It is very dangerous since in a fiat monetary system, there is no restrain on the amount of money that can be created. This allows unlimited credit creation. Initially, a rapid growth in the availability of credit is often mistaken for economic growth, as spending and business profits grow and frequently there is a rapid growth in equity prices.





In the long run, however, the economy tends to suffer much more by the following contraction than it gained from the expansion in credit. This expansion in credit can be seen in the Debt/GDP ratio. It enslaves the people with an endless cycle of debt, In most cases, a fiat monetary system comes into existence as a result of excessive public debt. When the government is unable to repay all its debt in gold or silver, the temptation to remove physical backing rather than to default becomes irresistible.