Are you comparing the U.S. Dollar to the Zimbabwean Dollar in terms of legitimacy?
The "value" of the U.S. Dollar is due to faith that the U.S. government will back up and support the note when used as currency. The "value" of an ounce of gold is due to faith that someone will accept the gold as currency.
Both the U.S. Dollar and an ounce of gold retain value due to the "faith" that people put in it. They are both valuable because people have determined they are valuable.
Screaming "fiat currency" does not change the fact that value in gold is just as "faith based" as value in the U.S. Dollar.
That bet is, in part, going to have to be made on the assumption that for some odd reason, our politicians are better than those of Argentina, Zimbabwe, Weimar Germany, Rome, et. al.
In all those instances of history, gold and silver have held their own and people desired them. Not to mention the fact that the crooked leaders can't surreptitiously steal the sweat of the peoples brow through insipid low level inflation when they're on those standards.
Do you actually understand the concept of
The "value" of the U.S. Dollar is due to faith that the U.S. government will back up and support the note when used as currency.?
The US government is stating there essentially, "don't worry if we print the crap out of this stuff, keep taking it on faith, faith that we can wring the value, no matter how high, out of the suckers that keep electing us to office"...
They could get the same job done by keeping a set mass of metal in a vault to back it, they just wouldn't be able to "expand" the money supply to their liking. They have to be able to expand it at abusive levels to keep giving the ever expanding handouts that keep them in office.