On Mar 30, 2008, at 7:13 PM, Richard Prosser wrote:
> And there I was, thinking that the US dollar was based on oil

A currency based on energy would make a certain amount of sense.   
It's been used in a couple of SF novels/stories, I think.

The problem with based currency on any particular commodity is that  
it doesn't really make any sense.  With most commodities, the total  
quantity available is both variable and unknown.  Changes in supply  
due to new discoveries or methods affect supply in ways that ought to  
be unrelated to currency, not to mention encouraging bad behavior in  
the acquisition (eg, the discovery of "the New World.")  And even if  
the commodity IS fixed in its quantity, there isn't really any reason  
to suppose that "wealth" should be a zero-sum game.

Arguably, you want wealth to be based on some sort of labor- 
equivalence, but you have to get awfully politically incorrect to  
come out anywhere near what the free market seems to have reached  
("why yes, an experienced PIC programmer IS worth 20 to 50 burger  
flippers.")  Previous efforts along these lines have not worked well.

BillW

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