hi doma,
gold as a store of value - yes. gold as currency - no.
using gold as a currency has always ended up in failure due to debasement of the coinage. the corollary of that is harsh law to stop people doing what they do. the human condition is that people will devise methods if they think they can get away with it, and so long as the counterfeiting is doable.
paper has also had its share of counterfeiters, of course. but the level of sophistication of the security features pushes the bar fairly high for folks who want to beat the system.
central banks are not the only issuers of paper. i am surprised there is as little news as there is about stock certificate fraud. maybe they hush it up.
plastic money also suffers from considerable difficulties, which we pay for in card transaction fees.
i agree that it makes sense to develop strong security for virtual money.
for myself, i think a better way to think about the value of money over time includes the interest or the dividends. the money in circulation doesn't diminish fast enough to be a worry and the amount of money in circulation and in checking accounts is, i seem to remember, relatively small. so if you are thinking long run, you need to compound the interest on the principal.
i think your theory of mind control would be more persuasive if you read what these folks have to say and thought about it and explained why what they say is wrong.
as it stands, the mind control thing looks an awful lot like a shield against actually trying to understand what they are saying. and an attempt to stop anyone from assuming a different position for fear of the scary label. Limbaugh does it with his "liberal" and "socialist" thing as well. regardless of your characterisation, i guess i don't feel insane for thinking what i do!!
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