I know people out there who have invested a lot in gold under the belief that in the event of like complete societal collapse or hyperinflation, they could use it for purchasing.

I have the hunch it's a scam, but I haven't learned enough monetary theory, business, or economics to understand why.

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[–] 16 points 11 months ago* (6 children)

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: Yes. Tune all of that nonsense out… But don’t fret if you own a tiny bit, either.

I kind of like Warren Buffet’s ramblings on it:

Gold gets dug out of the ground in Africa, or someplace. Then we melt it down, dig another hole, bury it again and pay people to stand around guarding it. It has no utility. Anyone watching from Mars would be scratching their head.

You could take all the gold that's ever been mined, and it would fill a cube 67 feet in each direction. For what that's worth at current gold prices, you could buy all -- not some -- all of the farmland in the United States. Plus, you could buy 10 Exxon Mobils, plus have $1 trillion of walking-around money. Or you could have a big cube of metal. Which would you take?

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  • [–] 13 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    Gold has utility. Every circuit board uses gold.

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  • [–] 9 points 11 months ago* (2 children)

    Same with germanium.

    And boron.

    …I was gonna say I wouldn’t want a giant cube of boron. But actually, I kinda do?

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