What is the US dollar backed by?
In: 2582
All this stuff about “belief in the economy” is too vague.
The US dollar is backed by two very specific beliefs:
* if you try to make your own US dollar bills, the US government is going to fuck you up, no matter where you are in the world
* if you don’t pay your US taxes with US dollars, the US government is going to fuck you up
That’s it. Americans need dollars to pay their taxes. People from other places who do business in America need dollars to pay their taxes. People elsewhere, who don’t have to pay US taxes, know that there are plenty of other people who do and will thus be happy to trade for them.
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