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Originally Posted by jamesqf
I dunno - why can't the Europeans use dollars?
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Well, they use Eurodollars. Which are not quite as worthless as American dollars (yet).
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Indeed, they've got even less excuse for their monetary obtuseness: the gallon was around for a long time before the silly Europeans (actually the Revolutionary French, and you know what wonderful people THEY were) came up with liters, but the Americans simply adopted the existing Spanish dollar (from the Austrian thaler, and from which we get "pieces of eight", quarters being two bits, etc.) from Europe...
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That was based on a gold standard - where you could take a genuine gold coin, cut it into pieces, and it would still hold its value, fractionally: a tangible, indisputable, divisible standard of value.
The American dollar is nothing more than fiat currency. ('Fiat' meaning: not the car, but the equivalent of 'this is now the definition of what money IS'. And the US government ("we the people"?) can always print more of it, if they want to.
It's based upon nothing more than the government's promise to pay; which is about the equivalent of campaign promises, or being the 'Emperor's New Clothing' of currency.
