• yboutros
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    7 months ago

    End of the gold standard.

    Before, if you didn’t get a raise, the minimum wage would at least keep up with inflation since it was tied to gold

    • TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee
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      7 months ago

      Before, if you didn’t get a raise, the minimum wage would at least keep up with inflation since it was tied to gold

      That’s…just not true at all. Commodity based currency is just as prone to inflation as fiat, the only thing it does is introduce volatility to your currency if the commodity market faults.

      Gold does not have a definitional inherent worth, meaning if the government wants to “print” more money while on the gold standard, they just change the monetary value of gold, as Roosevelt did in 33’

      In the United States, prior to 1933 for example, $1 meant 1/20th of an ounce of gold. In 1933, in the depths of the Depression, President Roosevelt redefined $1 to mean 1/35th of an ounce of gold. That is, a $1 bill was now worth less gold, about 60% less. In other words, the government was able to expand its supply of paper bills by 60% without changing its reserve of gold. This single act resulted in a significant decline in the purchasing power of paper money and shows how it is possible to generate inflation even under a gold standard.