[ozim]

Gold standard fetishist forget that if there is a food shortage even tons of gold won't help them.

In scenario where financial system collapses only real currency is skill - if you can make food from something available locally or be helpful like being a medic.

Why would I trade a chicken that I can eat for piece of gold when I can trade chicken for sewing my wounds after being bitten by a stray dog.

[zarzavat]

There is a spectrum between everything going smoothly and complete government collapse. Most people worry about a Turkey or Argentina where the currency loses most of its value but the government still functions.

Even in failed states gold maintains value. For example in Somalia’s recent past, not only was gold still fully exchangeable but the existing Somali currency continued to work with counterfeit currency filling the vacuum.

What stops gold exchange is not non-existent government but any particularly strong and draconian government that decides that alternative forms of money are a risk to the regime (e.g. North Korea).

[koalala]

My grandfather who lived through the Dutch famine in world war 2 did fine buying food with gold while people were eating flower bulbs and grass, so in that case at least it worked.