“The planet will never return to gold/silver money as a base.”
That isn’t the point. Individuals will always accept gold and silver in exchange for goods and services.
At this point, I would suggest purchasing bags of silver quarters, and (if still possible) owning actual gold coins whose value has been assayed and vouched for by some third party. Silver for the small transactions; gold for the large ones.
By the way, it woulnd’t be enough for governments to return to a gold standard. Ideally, they would have to pass legislation requiring banks NOT to engage in fraud; i.e., requiring banks NOT to practice fractional-reserve lending.
As Murray Rothbard wrote in his classic pamphlet “What Has Government Done To Our Money?”, when a bank lends out more money than it has gold reserves on hand (the essence of fractional-reserve banking), the bank is IN FACT insolvent and bankrupt. It’s bankrupt from the get-go. When customers doubt the solvency of the bank, they simultaneously demand their money back (a “bank run”). This bank run merely makes apparent an already existing state of bankruptcy. It doesn’t cause the bankruptcy.
Rothbard also insists that a system of “free banking” would work better than a government monopoly over the creation of money. Under free banking, banks themselves would be responsibile for minting their own coins, as well as creating “warehouse receipts” (i.e., paper currency) for their storage. The market would decide which banks were trustworthy; third-party “consumer report” companies would rate banks and their coinage, keeping consumers alert as to which banks might be devaluing their own coinage by printing and distributing more receipts than they have gold to back them up.
Rothbard claims (rightly) that “money” is (and must begin its existence as) another commodity; unlike other commodities, however, it is demanded for its ability to exchange for other things rather than demanded for itself; aside from that, however, the same market forces that apply to other goods and services apply to money. Rothbard cites some examples of successful free banking in Scotland in the 18th century.
Not happening. Buy uranium. By 2014 production of uranium will not meet demand for uranium and the Russian warheads will also have been recycled.
Do not take delivery of uranium as storage is too expensive.
In essence, is this just an argument for lots of smaller banks operating under the same philosophies we have in place now? I can choose from dozens of "banks" internationally, and I can obtain the information just the same on their worthiness.
Due to the "product" being sold, ultimately you'd still end up with monopoly banks, just not government run. Now, that's certainly an argument to have, but it's hardly the stuff of revolution. And the irony? The government would have to intervene once the monopolies succumb to their tendencies.
And if you think monopolization of privatized "free" banks is not inevitable, I think you are sorely underestimating the power of the public to accede to herd mentalities, and overestimating their willingness to tolerate multiple currencies among proximate locales.