The US Dollar is a Terrible Store of Value
Comedic political youtuber Nathaniel Abbott did the math and determined that robux, the currency of the children’s video game, Roblox, increased 14.5% in value compared to the US dollar from 2007 to 2017.
That math checks out: Over that period of time, the robux was legitimately a better store of value than the US dollar. While this sounds comical on the surface, it does highlight the worrying trend that basically any other asset is a better investment than the US dollar.
Cryptocurrencies, while often maligned for having “unstable” value, have, in the long term, been a better store of value than the US dollar, and it’s not even close. At the beginning of 2015, a single bitcoin was worth $315. As of April 27, 2022, one bitcoin is worth more than $39,000, a growth rate far outpacing even this inflation. And while there are large variants in peaks and troughs, the general trend overtime has been a massive increase in value.
Gold, the material previously used to back the dollar, has increased from $1,184 at the start of 2015 to $1,906 per ounce. This is a 61% increase in value. And, unlike cryptocurrencies, gold is not a new asset and is not subject to the same price instabilities that crypto is.
These are just two examples of investments worth more than money. In a time when the average savings account interest rate is .06%, there is virtually no reason for a person interested in saving for the long-term to put their money into a savings account. There are numerous other assets that consistently increase in value over time, while savings yields are nowhere close to inflation rates. Financial institutions must adapt to this reality.
