[ShakeZula06]

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If hard currency is such a good idea, why does no one use it anymore and also kick the rest of the world in the butt with their stellar economic performance?

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Perhaps because the US gov't have went after every alternative hard currency I've ever heard of (liberty dollars and E-gold).

Let's turn the question around. If our current monetary policy is so awesome, why does government outlaw competition with it?

This all ignores the obvious point that the government isn't part of the market. Most governments have chosen to use a fiat system doesn't mean that's consequentially the best decision for all the citizens of that government, it just means it was consequentially the best decision for those that make those decisions (ie, the FED, the President, the republican party higher ups, the democrat higher ups, lobbyists, special interest groups etc). The only thing standing in their way is the average uneducated American voter on any issue, and this is made even worse by the fact that politicians rarely talk about monetary policy and the president himself doesn't even know the members of the FED.