Probably, if it’s not too late. I’ve wondered if we could ever find a way to convert to some kind of currency based on “energy”. That is, horsepower, kilowatts, BTUs or any other way that we produce and consume energy. Granted, the “value” of energy changes over time, too, depending on how it is produced, stored, distributed and consumed. And it’s a thing that we both produce and consume, which would make it an unusual basis for a currency, to be sure. What we have now is going to fail on a massive scale, however. It’s just a question of when and how badly.
Fiat money has always failed in the past, and there’s no reason to think that it won’t fail again. When the US currency failure mode moves to hyperinflation (which is always one way out of some debts) the entire world will suffer and we will lose, probably forever, any position of world leadership that we ever aspired to. What’s worse, the long term bonds in our Social Security system will survive the hyperinflation period (since they can’t be paid off early), meaning that we can’t just inflate our way out of debt.
After we come out of the hyperinflation period (and so far, from what I’ve read, Brazil’s period of 20 years of hyperinflation was the worst ever in the modern world) the 75-year bonds in Social Security will still be there with their overhang and debt obligation. That’s when we’ll default, and carry the world into the pit with us. (That is, if the Europeans don’t pull us into the pit with them first. We’re sort of on a race to default with them.)
No one seems to understand money any more, on a macroeconomic scale. It’s surprising that the system hasn’t already failed, frankly.