That’s not preserving wealth, though, that’s risking it. It’s an important and valuable thing, to be sure, but there should be some way of being able to hold on to what you’ve earned without risk.

Why? Value isn’t static. Think about pre-currency economies running on barter. Cows are still the primary means of exchange in a lot of east African communities. How do you preserve the value of a herd of cattle? You can’t just lock them in a pen for as long as you want, they’ll die and begin to rot. You’ll have to care for them yourself, or lend or sell them on to someone else in return for something else, such as a contract for future goods or services.

There’s no good reason that anyone should expect currency-based economies to function any differently at a fundamental level. Trying to lock up wealth into no-risk hoards is a recipe for stagnancy at best, and we’re all be better off with the vitality of constantly fluctuating credit markets. Yes, there is uncertainty and risk from having to invest your savings, but that’s simply a reflection of the nature of life and reality, the world around us is constantly changing and we could all die tomorrow. At the moment, the best we can do is pretend that some assets are risk free, such as with insured deposits. But the truth is that such schemes merely move the risk around so that it’s borne by other parties, such as governments or private insurers. Even precious metals aren’t risk-free, you’re counting on other investors and metal brokers to keep up the price for you.

Without that ability, we are all but indentured servants.

Indentured to our own need for scarce resources in order to survive, perhaps. But there’s no financial scheme at all which can hope to solve that, it’s the fundamental economic problem. There’s just no way out until our production becomes unlimited.