1) Distinguish between government and individual use of value-tokens. For individuals, money can be traded for silver at many shops, and silver for money at some of them. Of course, there are probably better stores of value than either USD or shiny metal (I might suggest productive working capital in the form of equipment, education, stocks/bonds, or other investments).
2) Anyone who uses the phrase “intrinsic value” is at least 50 years out of date in their microecon thinking—http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marginalism is a good intro to a more modern (and in fact more true—it fits actual data a lot better) theory.
1) Distinguish between government and individual use of value-tokens. For individuals, money can be traded for silver at many shops, and silver for money at some of them. Of course, there are probably better stores of value than either USD or shiny metal (I might suggest productive working capital in the form of equipment, education, stocks/bonds, or other investments).
2) Anyone who uses the phrase “intrinsic value” is at least 50 years out of date in their microecon thinking—http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marginalism is a good intro to a more modern (and in fact more true—it fits actual data a lot better) theory.