This thread is becoming such a cesspool... why are we arguing...

This thread is becoming such a cesspool... why are we arguing over semantics. Cash is a better medium of exchange than gold, no one is going to carry and lug around gold in 2020. When we were on the gold standard, we used paper bills as a quality of life improvement. But the paper wasn't the money, the gold was. Your example on bonds is different since bonds has never been a medium of exchange independently, unlike gold which independently was a medium of exchange for thousands of years. No one is saying we should return to lugging around gold and paying groceries with gold. We had a good solution, to use paper bills as the medium of exchange backed by gold which was the money. I really don't understand your point @eztrang, like you said money is much more than just being a medium of exchange.