"In Civilization the common unit is the unskilled-labor-hour, which is, ideally, adjusted at a pace that changes smoothly over time but ends up tracking the value of an average person spending an hour of their time doing something they have no special training or talent for.  Everybody has that to trade, even if almost nobody should actually trade it, and enough people need it now and then that the market exists."

"There's a debate about whether that unit is actually a good idea, because from one perspective, the value of that unit tends to predictably go up over time.  As technology improves and society gets more productive, the minimum amount you have to pay anybody to work for an hour goes up, in terms of most other goods.  There's an argument that this is bad, since price-setters are more eager to adjust prices upward than downward, because if you're first to adjust your prices downward before others do, you're often relinquishing some portion of gains-from-trade within implicit agreements that take time to renegotiate.  So, the argument goes, we all ought to have a unit of account that's worth 3% less every year, because that way prices will mostly need to adjust upward.  And that way they'll adjust more quickly and naturally than in the current arrangement where we have a Seasonal Repricing Day, four times per year, where all the prices go down at the same time."

"How this squares up with Cheliax's 'gold pieces' concept, I have no idea."

"In Civilization the common unit is the unskilled-labor-hour, which is, ideally, adjusted at a pace that changes smoothly over time but ends up tracking the value of an average person spending an hour of their time doing something they have no special training or talent for.  Everybody has that to trade, even if almost nobody should actually trade it, and enough people need it now and then that the market exists."

"There's a debate about whether that unit is actually a good idea, because from one perspective, the value of that unit tends to predictably go up over time.  As technology improves and society gets more productive, the minimum amount you have to pay anybody to work for an hour goes up, in terms of most other goods.  There's an argument that this is bad, since price-setters are more eager to adjust prices upward than downward, because if you're first to adjust your prices downward before others do, you're often relinquishing some portion of gains-from-trade within implicit agreements that take time to renegotiate.  So, the argument goes, we all ought to have a unit of account that's worth 3% less every year, because that way prices will mostly need to adjust upward, and people will want to be the first in line rather than the last in line to do that.  And that way they'll adjust more quickly and naturally than in the current arrangement where we have a Seasonal Repricing Day, four times per year, where all the prices go down at the same time if they got stuck before that point."

"How this squares up with Cheliax's 'gold pieces' concept, I have no idea."

"In Civilization the common unit is the unskilled-labor-hour, which is, ideally, adjusted at a pace that changes smoothly over time but ends up tracking the value of an average person spending an hour of their time doing something they have no special training or talent for.  Everybody has that to trade, even if almost nobody should actually trade it, and enough people need it now and then that the market exists."

"There's a debate about whether that unit is actually a good idea, because from one perspective, the value of that unit tends to predictably go up over time.  As technology improves and society gets more productive, the minimum amount you have to pay anybody to work for an hour goes up, in terms of most other goods.  There's an argument that this is bad, since price-setters are more eager to adjust prices upward than downward, because if you're first to adjust your prices downward before others do, you're often relinquishing some portion of gains-from-trade within implicit agreements that take time to renegotiate.  So, the argument goes, we all ought to have a unit of account that's worth 3% less every year, because that way prices will mostly need to adjust upward, and people will want to be the first in line rather than the last in line to adjust their prices to match new realities.  And that way prices will adjust more quickly and naturally than in the current arrangement where we have a Seasonal Repricing Day, four times per year, where all the stuck prices go down at the same time if somebody was dragging their feet on minor price adjustments before then."

"How this all squares up with Cheliax's 'gold pieces' concept, I have no idea."

"In Civilization the common unit is the unskilled-labor-hour, which is, ideally, adjusted at a pace that changes smoothly over time but ends up tracking the value of an average person spending an hour of their time doing something they have no special training or talent for.  Everybody has that to trade, even if almost nobody should actually trade it, and enough people need it now and then that the market exists."

"There's a debate about whether that unit is actually a good idea, because from one perspective, the value of that unit tends to predictably go up over time.  As technology improves and society gets more productive, the minimum amount you have to pay anybody to work for an hour goes up, in terms of most other goods.  Which is to say that for other goods, the number of unskilled-labor-hours they're worth tend down over time."

"There's an argument that this is bad, since price-setters are more eager to adjust prices upward than downward, because if you're first to adjust your prices downward before others do, you're often relinquishing some portion of gains-from-trade within implicit agreements that take time to renegotiate.  So, the argument goes, we instead all ought to have a unit of account that's worth 3% less every year, because that way prices will mostly need to adjust upward, and people will want to be the first in line rather than the last in line to adjust their prices to match new realities.  And that way prices will adjust more quickly and naturally than in the current arrangement where we have a Seasonal Repricing Day, four times per year, where all the stuck prices go down at the same time if somebody was dragging their feet on minor price adjustments before then."

"How this all squares up with Cheliax's 'gold pieces' concept, I have no idea."