As Umair points out, Europe is doing much better. We also have fiat currency, like every single country in the world.

Commodity-based currencies are inherently deflationary.

Given there's only so much gold in existence, and production is predictable and limited, if your currency is gold then the best strategy is always to hoard it, as it will be worth more later.

Worse, what happens if there's a sudden huge discovery of gold in, say, Russia or South Africa? Suddenly that country becomes insanely wealthy and everyone else's money becomes worth significantly less - for no good economic reason.

There's a very good reason that every single country in the world is on fiat currency now - it's that commodity-based currencies have never worked. If commodity-based currencies worked, why wouldn't one country use them and win?

I welcome a polite argument here, using reasoning, facts, even mathematics, showing me I'm wrong.