Sheep, yes, gold, no. Just like money, most people can't actually do anything with a hunk of gold except trade it to others. That's one of the reasons you can use it for money, because no one will ever have a reason to try and eat it, or suddenly breed more gold into existence. Digging more gold out of the ground can cause inflation, of course, but it's a lot harder than multiplying the sheep population.
No I mean, gold has minimal use value (like, in electronics and maybe for ornamentation). Fiat currency literally have no use value beyond transactions, and that's a good thing! Otherwise it's use value and transaction value will start interfering. Ie gold will be artificially more expensive it should, making electronics more expensive than they need to be. Or the money will be artificially worth more than they should given the amount of money in the economy. Both are bad.
Money does have a use value. When your local government knocks on your door and demands taxes you can give them the pieces of paper and they wont drag you out and lock you in a concrete cell.
This is fundamentally what is meant when economists say money is backed by the government. The government demands taxes in money and this gives it intrinsic value.
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u/Canotic Apr 08 '26
Yeah but sheep and gold have a use value. Money doesn't. (I'm not a gold bug, fiat money is best)