The "gold standard"? Not bloody likely as we don't have any gold. Or at least not much.
8233 metric tons to be exact, that's 197 billion dollars, or a tiny percentage of the money that's out there. We SHOULD be on a gold standard, but, we are not and neither are any other countries.... nor are they on any standard. Money is fiat, worthless, just printed paper or bits in the binary system of computers. Without any standard to make money valuable, its just paper and its only worth what we are convinced by the various governments that it is worth. The credit of many countries is shakey at best, so their money is really worthless, like the Tanzanian Shilling... it takes 1,135 of them to make one tiny little US Dollar, practically worthless.
The currencies vary in value as we perceive the credit of the country. Canada is doing well, New Zealand and Australia are okay, the US Dollar and the Euro are not so good. Watch out for the Chinese Yuan and the Japanese Yen, both, are set to fly.
Gold is sitting around $800/troy ounce and bouncing about 3% up and down each day and the gold traders make about 90% per month and never risk a thing. The US government could do the same and reinvest the funds into gold to stabilize our economy and guarantee our currency, but, I guarantee there are no politicians who will ever allow this to happen.
The US Dollar is in such disregard that it is possible we will no longer trade oil, gold or diamonds in our currency, but, in Chinese Yuans or Euros, with the world dropping us like hot rocks.
I'm certain that your little recognzied "dark side" will be morally satisfying to you, but, you should just as well vote for Ross Perot for all the good it will do... by letting Obambam or the Hildebeast into office... remember Ross, he made it possible for the Comrade Clinton to take office and we had to put up with that incredible embarrassment for eight years... wanna do it again? I hope you see the light.
Interesting, very interesting... I think I've made an insight.
Fiat currency is valuable because it's the only medium the government allows taxes to be paid in. So long as there's a government, and so long as there is an economic population that has to pay its taxes, fiat currency will be in demand and thus have value. That's why the US Dollar has been the world's currency of choice. The US Government has the singular ability to levy taxes on the American economy, thus placing the Dollar ahead of all the world's currencies in terms of ability to retain demand/value.
So here's the insight: Libertarians favor the gold standard because under their system of no taxes and no obligation to the state from the business world or the private individual, the currency loses its value. No taxes mean no reason to hold or use the currency, and the fiat falls apart. So that's why we need to switch to the gold standard so badly.
We use our gold to trade with other poor saps in other nations that are still subject to the anachronism of taxation. Them poor Japs and Chinamen still need to pay taxes, so they'll still need their Yen and Yuan. But
we won't, so we're free to trade in whatever pretty lumps of metal we like.
Freedom is awesomeness. And coolness. Both at the same time!