[bholdr]

If you really take the time to thiink about it, there is nothing in the world, even land, that has an intrinsic value that isn't dependant on a general consensus aggreeing to ownership and the belief that that thing is valuable, and also the need for a system to handle the exchange of goods and services.

If everyone in the world decides tommorow that gold is worth 10c a pound, well, it would be worth ten cents a pound. of course, market forces and the scarcity of useful recources would soon correct this... but if the people with the power (guns, mostly) decided that your money belonged to them, then geuss who owns what?

gold has been used for milennia as the worlds primary international monetary standard because it is rare, attractive, usefull, and it does not corrode.

so it isn't really gold, and never was, it is the general consensus that a thing is valuable, and that things are valuable in proportion to oone another, that holds ecomomies and monetary standards together, we've (since coming off the gold standard) simply admitted that.

Another intresting thing to think about is how 90% of the wealth in the U.S is digital... that is, abstract- with absolutely nothing, not even paper bills, backing it up... yet, the system works, because of consensus and the necessity of a monetary system to handle the exchange of goods and services.