Yeah, it is not generally looked upon as a good idea to devalue your currency.
And the US is one of the few countries that's never done it. Once upon a time, a dollar would buy you a week's lodging at an inn, with meals. Recently enough that my dad can remember it, five bucks would feed a family of four at MacDonald's. Recently enough that I can remember it, a dollar would buy about 1.3 gallons of gas.
Inflation is a fact of life, and even if it's running at a fraction of a percent, that adds up over time, It's not an accident that the US dollar and the UK pound are the closest thing we've ever had to a global currency. Or that the dollar and the pound are the most counterfeited. They're trusted. They won't go away tomorrow. They're a piece of the rock. And while they might be worth less in the future, they'll never be worth nothing.
I don't think any sane person has ever said, "it's okay -- I've got a suitcase full of lira."
— the same denominations as today, but worth ten times as much. That would make the cent worth what it was 60 years ago.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
In reality, I would say MAYBE forty years ago, certainly not sixty.
Issuing new dollars, with a nominal value 10 times greater than today’s nominal values wouldn’t be devaluation. Devaluation usually refers to the deliberate lowering of the value of your country’s currency relative to another’s. Consider the recent changes in the relative value of the U.S. dollar against the Canadian dollar, or the Euro. Those changes are real, not just nominal.
I recognize that issuing “newbukz” wouldn’t be easy — that’s why I said that it wouldn’t occur any time soon. However, all that it would be doing is recognizing the effects of decades of inflation, and depreciation of the value of the dollar.
In Canada, we converted the dollar bill to a coin about 20 years ago, and more recently the two-dollar coin was issued. (BTW, a two dollar bill was a lot more convenient than you might imagine — in my lifetime it was worth what a twenty is today.) Now, there’s serious talk of a 5 dollar coin. In my father’s youth, 5 dollars was a good day’s pay — now, it’s about to be reduced to pocket change.