The dollar you now own is just someone else's debt.

By definition yes, but it's more than that in effect. It is also people's savings. While this "savings" is not a real asset, people currently believe that it is. That belief is important in how people will react. It is also the effective measure of a persons work. It is the measure of the trading value of other real assets. In order to transition without war, or mass suicide, or mass murder, you can't create a system that effectively takes assets from people, or otherwise make it so that those who hold other assets (such as gold) gain so much buying power that the entire economy collapses, by in effect transferring huge amounts of assets, real or imagined, to those few people.

If you had side by side systems the good money system is the one people would flock to.

Yes, but the transition needs to be done in a measured fashion or again, the drastic change in assets would cause war (Civil and world wide).

What would happen if the BRIC's started a gold based system that American's could easily trade within?

It is entirely possible that people will be given a choice as you suggest, but it must be something that everyone knows about and is available to everyone, with enough time to make a transition that the vast majority of people will accept and not feel screwed. It can't be something like, "Surprise! Everyone who owns a few ounces of gold are economic gods, and everyone else is fucked!"

The dollar you now own is just someone else's debt.

By definition yes, but it's more than that in effect. It is also people's savings. While this "savings" is not a real asset, people currently believe that it is. That belief is important in how people will react. It is also the effective measure of a persons work. It is the measure of the trading value of other real assets. In order to transition without war, or mass suicide, or mass murder, you can't create a system that effectively takes assets from people, or otherwise make it so that those who hold other assets (such as gold) gain so much buying power that the entire economy collapses, by in effect transferring huge amounts of assets, real or imagined, to those few people.

If you had side by side systems the good money system is the one people would flock to.

Yes, but the transition needs to be done in a measured fashion or again, the drastic change in assets would cause war (Civil and world wide).

What would happen if the BRIC's started a gold based system that American's could easily trade within?

It is entirely possible that people will be given a choice as you suggest, but it must be something that everyone knows about and is available to everyone, with enough time to make a transition that the vast majority of people will accept and not feel screwed. It can't be something like, "Surprise! Everyone who owns a few ounces of gold are economic gods, and everyone is fucked!"

The dollar you now own is just someone else's debt.

By definition yes, but it's more than that in effect. It is also people's savings. While this "savings" is not a real asset, people currently believe that it is. That belief is important in how people will react. It is also the effective measure of a persons work. It is the measure of the trading value of other real assets. In order to transition without war, or mass suicide, or mass murder, you can't create a system that effectively takes assets from people, or otherwise make it so that those who hold other assets (such as gold) gain so much buying power that the entire economy collapses, by in effect transferring all real assets to those few people.

If you had side by side systems the good money system is the one people would flock to.

Yes, but the transition needs to be done in a measured fashion or again, the drastic change in assets would cause war (Civil and world wide).

What would happen if the BRIC's started a gold based system that American's could easily trade within?

It is entirely possible that people will be given a choice as you suggest, but it must be something that everyone knows about and is available to everyone, with enough time to make a transition that the vast majority of people will accept and not feel screwed. It can't be something like, "Surprise! Everyone who owns a few ounces of gold are economic gods, and everyone is fucked!"