What will America do when we are all drooling bums?

[find me]

I heard China is making a new currency, made and based off gold. That will in short, trump every other currency like the US dollar for example. What will America turn into when we will be the new Africa in terms of having money not really worth having? I don't know anything about he subject at hand, I just have a few curious questions and maybe someone can post a little knowledge of what might actually happen if China really does succeed in making the best currency.

And just to join the conversation, now I know why there are so many "GIMME YOUR GOLD" ads in America now. lol

[MazerRackham]

The gold standard has been in regular use in countries worldwide since the 16th Century. I'm no expert but I understand it has it's pluses and minuses.

[RearAdmiral]

Now I'm not an economist but isn't gold currently used as a standard worldwide? If so then I don't see how China making a new currency will affect the value of gold which will in turn cause the value of american currency to change. Different currencies' worth in relation to each other is determined by other things as far as I know.

[editline]13th March 2013[/editline]

Exchange rates are dictated by a whole bunch of factors and not just the value of gold. I've yet to read into it properly but skimming a few sources suggests that the idea of using the fixed value of gold as a means of determining the value of currency is a pretty archaic way of doing things now.

The reason you're seeing so many Cash for Gold ads is because the price of gold has skyrocketed in recent years. Again there's a whole bunch of reasons why but it seems to be down to Industrial demand (modern phones now have gold in them for example and IIRC computers do too, gold has some desireable conductive properties. It's the reason why you also see a lot of ads for companies that recycle old phones), market price speculation and just plain old buying and selling habits

[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/Gold_Spot_Price_per_Gram_from_Jan_1971_to_Jan_2012.svg[/img]

tl;dr if the US Dollar is worthless compared to chinese currency then there's a whole bunch of reasons (the economy, debt, inflation, growth etc) and not just because gold.