For much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the worth or value of many currencies was pegged to the value of gold held in reserve by the governments of the various nations that practiced this economic policy. Although inflation did still occur, it was somewhat tempered by the fact that every dollar printed had to be backed up by a certain amount of gold. The explosive economic growth over the last 50 years has made the gold standard impractical - there simply isn't enough money in the world to back up all of the wealth out there - however, since we've abandoned the gold standard, it does give the Treasury the ability to more or less print as much money as it wants which can definitely lead to spikes in inflation. We might say that for much of our history, our society had something of a gold standard of values, the golden rule not being the least of these. There were clear, well-defined, solid core beliefs, morals and values for what defined individual identities, rights, responsibilities, and obligations. But just as there has been an inflation of currency in circulation, there has been a proliferation of morals and values in the last half century. It seems like anyone can generate their own social currency by inventing their own unique set of values and morals, and the general consensus is that we ought to give equal credence to the relative merits and worthiness of each and every proposition. But whatever the rest of society decides to do, we can still peg our own sense of worthiness and value to the Gold Standard that Jesus Christ established two thousand years ago - Love God with all of our heart, mind, and strength and love our neighbor as ourselves. If we adhere to this golden standard, then we will find that our individual worthiness will not be devalued by the hyperinflation of moral relativism and the dissolution of truth. I know that if we always anchor our worth on our Savior Jesus Christ, we will never feel our value diminish.
