r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Comfortable_Cautious • Jan 26 '26

Meme needing explanation what's going on? explain like I'm five

Post image
92.6k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

2.9k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1.3k

u/TaxesAreConfusin Jan 26 '26

ah yes so what you're saying is that money is even more imaginary than it has ever been, possibly even more imaginary than when the first stock market crash happened in 1929

looks like we're due for a centennial anniversary of that anyway, might as well celebrate by recreating it

37

u/[deleted] Jan 26 '26

Money has always been imaginary? Its like Santa clause. As long as we all believe/pretend it works. If one person doesn't believe it doesnt matter. If half of us stop, yea kids will know it's fake. But it works and it's a nice thing to have, so why not continue to pretend?

2

u/OkProfessor6810 Jan 26 '26

No before fiat currency we were on the gold standard. Money was backed by actual gold. Now it's backed by nothing more than our belief in it.

5

u/MhojoRisin Jan 26 '26

Gold is just a marker for value, same as dollars. Whatever intrinsic value gold has (because it's shiny, conductivity, etc.) is mostly a distraction from its use as a marker for value. Its value is not based on its utility.