I hear some economics arguing that currency should be pegged to gold as a way of ensuring that its value isn’t arbitrary / volatile but I don’t understand how this would solve the problem. I understand that gold is a scarce resource that is difficult to mine but is it this alone that gives it intrinsic value ?
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Almost all people who promote the idea of going back to any sort of gold standard are people who invest or trade in gold. Its a purely self serving position.
You don’t need to be an economist to understand there is no difference between the perceived value of gold and the perceived value of currency. Backing one with the other does not make either more “real”. They are both worth what people think they are worth.
A carpenter can buy some food from a farmer and the farmer can buy furniture from the carpenter with currency whether there is gold in some vault somewhere or not. The work done and the value created doesn’t depend on gold existing and it is converted to currency which then holds that value. It does not need anything beyond that to prove its worth.
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