Fiat’s value is maintained not only by the demand for fiat to pay taxes (which I think is actually a small and insignificant factor these days) but also and more significantly due to the fact that the government says it’s the only legal tender for contracts enforced by the courts. If you make a contract denominated in gold, the contract can’t be forced to be paid in gold. The payer can also choose to pay in legal tender, else the contract is invalid. And more over the value of fiat is because everyone has confidence that it is the most liquid money. Liquidity is a self-fulfilling phenomenon but it is also created by a deep, liquid sovereign bond market. The USD has the most liquid Treasuries because there’s no restrictions on who can deal in them (unlike for example Japan which requires approval from the Finance Ministry) and the dollar has never been cancelled unlike all the European currencies (even the UK recently cancelled some pound notes and India also did recently). This combined with the USA being the consumer for the entire world is why the USD is the reserve currency. But this is beginning to shift and will entirely shift by 2032.95. Much of this information originates from Martin Armstrong and I highly suggest you read deep into his blog archives going back years.
There are many factors that play into the confidence of money and you’ve watching too many Bill Still videos. :) I watched them too.
Thanks for your comment and instigating me to write a detailed comment on the issue.
RE: Taxes destroy all of us rich or poor