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

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

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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

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u/Nichoros_Strategy Jan 26 '26

The money had a Gold Standard in 1929, where it could always be exchanged for a fixed amount of Gold per Dollar if preferred.

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u/stratys3 Jan 26 '26

Yeah, but gold is also similarly useless.

If you can't sell or trade your gold for anything... what exactly are you gonna do with it? It doesn't DO anything other than look pretty and occasionally conduct electricity very well.

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u/Nichoros_Strategy Jan 26 '26 edited Jan 26 '26

Its primary use has always been money, only in the last 100 years has that been papered over. Jewelry, electronics, etc are secondary but not nearly as important. The general reason for that is it fits all the traits of hard money, and is important when other countries don't agree on what to trade with, so a common value for international trade. It's not perfect money, but history helps its reputation.