> There was no deal, except maybe initially the promise to exchange for gold that the government defaulted on.

Gold came into the "money" game quite late. The earliest forms of money we have are with credit, on tablets dating back to Ur III (>3000 BC); gold came later (Lydians in 700 BC).

Credit has been part of many societies, even that had gold/silver floating around (because for most of the folks who were near the bottom, they didn't have enough to lay claim to any precious metal):

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt:_The_First_5,000_Years

Even the much-vaunted Gold Standard was only really a thing for ~50 years:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_standard

And it's not like it provided price stability:

* https://archive.is/https://www.theatlantic.com/business/arch...

In some circumstances the use of gold as the base of currencies caused problems:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1857

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Depression#Causes_of_the_...

We've gotten sidetracked somewhere. I replied to this:

>but we decided it's 2.5"x6" paper with ink on it.

It was clearly referring to USD, not whatever the David Graeber of the IWW was saying happened 5000 years ago while talking about "everyday communism."

Since ~1792 up until, depending on when you want to argue, some time in the 20th century USD was backed by or defined by gold or silver.

Price stability has gone down the toilet since the 70s when the government defaulted on its gold backing. Prices were remarkably more stable under the gold standard. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/50060e33c4aa3d...

As for gold standard an 50 years or some such (IDK about those numbers, but lets take in on face for a moment), sure but it was a direct drop in for silver standard which lasted "from the Sumerians c. 3000 BC until 1873." [0] The idea there was a precious metals backing, not that the PM has to necessarily be gold.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_standard