Ivory marked by the Royal African Company. International Slavery Museum, Liverpool. Wikimedia Commons.
On August 15, 1971, Nixon ended the dollar's convertibility into gold.
If money is tight, a wage freeze can pause your raise while the dollar underneath it changes.
If you are in the middle, the import tax and the freeze both show up before you understand the gold decision.
If you have savings, you no longer hold a claim that can be turned into metal at the Treasury.
On August 15, 1971, President Nixon ended the dollar's convertibility into gold.
He also ordered a 90-day freeze on wages and prices and a 10 percent surcharge on imports.
The dollar became a currency backed by the government that issued it, not by a vault.
Source: Richard Nixon, address of August 15, 1971; US Treasury history of the gold window.