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Right now the dollar IS backed by gold in practice. Anyone wishing to exchange a dollar as value for gold is free to do so.

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You might as well say the dollar is backed by the services of prostitutes (anyone wishing to exchange a dollar for said services is free to do so), or peanuts or speaking appearances by Bill Clinton or other forms of torture. In other words the dollar according to your words is backed by everything and therefore backed by nothing. It is fiat money any way you cut it and its only value is what people are willing to give it. I am not allowed to print my own money but the government can print any amount they wish even though therir money has no more actual value than what I might print. Whatever trials and tribulations might have resulted from using gold and silver as money pale in comparison to the results of issuing paper backed by nothing more than the hot air of political speech.

Whatever trials and tribulations might have resulted from using gold and silver as money pale in comparison to the results of issuing paper backed by nothing more than the hot air of political speech.

Really? Are you claiming that inflationary and deflationary swings have been more severe since we left the gold/silver standard?

"Whatever trials and tribulations might have resulted from using gold and silver as money pale in comparison to the results of issuing paper backed by nothing..."

What "trials and tribulations" are you talking about? Since leaving the gold standard, inflation peaks are half what they used to be, and deflation has virtually stopped altogether. We've not had a single depression.

Again, money is credit.

Later in my post I tried to deal with your objections. The problem is that the modern system of money began because it allows manipulation of money supply growth. The 19th Century U.S. gold standard came under intolerable political pressure and was scrapped for the Federal Reserve central bank system. Recollect William Jennings Bryan "Cross of Gold" speech. The modern "liberals" arose in that era and forced the abandonment of cold base money. They then found the joys of "dirigisme" irresistible.

The English began the modern world by basing money on government credit with the Bank of England. Probably the biggest reason the Stuart Monarchy was deposed and the Battenburgs begun is to be found in the Whig Magnate class' need for less expensive bank loans. Less expensive borrowing costs made industrialization possible.

The situation is unfortunate as a catastrophic chaotic collapse of dollar based credit is eventually certain. In the mean time various arbitrage plays are possible. Devil take the hindmost. Sigh.