[logicalmonster]

Thank you for your response. Based on your comment, you seem to be operating close to the idea that economic value comes from government dictate. If this is the case, I suppose there's no reconciling our respective positions. (And no problem with that, you're entitled to your opinion)

My belief is that all value is subjective in nature. Economic value is not a property of nature: it's just subjective. A thing has value in a trade not because some authority says it has value, but because everybody values what they receive in a trade more than what they give up.

[BjoernKW]

> economic value comes from government dictate

Quite to the contrary. Economic value originates from the benefit a product or service provides, nothing else.

Currency (particularly if of the fiat money variety) on the other hand, has no inherent value: You can't eat it, you can't use it to build something. Its value depends entirely on the trust people have in the issuing authority.