Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

Basing dollars on gold to prevent the printing of money is called monetarism: the idea is that there is only so much gold in the world which represents all the wealth in the world: get all the gold, have all the wealth. This misguided and superficial concept of money is easily debunked; for example, every time a bank makes a loan, money was essentially “printed,” no gold involved. Still, uncomprehending people often think a gold standard is a good idea because they don't know or don't care that monetarism leads to an aristocracy. Let me provide a simple explanation:

Consumables are goods that disappear: food, services, entertainment, throw away products, etc. These goods are still produced, they just aren't durable. Most people are consumers, almost everything they purchase, they consume. If there is a gold standard, someone receives gold for food or whatever, but the gold is still around after the food is gone. Eventually, a few people end up with all the gold, and everybody else has nothing because they consumed it. Fiscal economies don't have this problem; they "print" money to equal the production of goods and services on a continuing basis. The amount of money can increase indefinitely as long as supply equals demand, but it does dilute the existing money as an equivalent to wealth, which is why the aristocrats who want to own everything, prefer gold.