Good As Gold?

Has it occurred to anyone gold is fully vulnerable to market manipulations, just as with any other “money”?

Let’s start at the beginning. Humans have basic needs: water, food, clothing, shelter, etc. For now, the first on that list is not a global problem. But we have to find something we can eat, then we need something to cover us against the climate and conditions, then we need a safe place we can sleep. It’s altogether possible each of us could find a way to provide with our own hands sufficient to get by. But if any one of us becomes particularly talented at one thing or another, we are in a position to trade with others who may have a different talent. We end up both having a little bit more. What matters is the stuff we use, not how we get it.

With more people, we gain a more complex menu of things we can trade. Distribute the various tasks of producing between a larger group and we can get much greater output for the same amount of effort, which equals more stuff distributed between the same number of folks. Add transportation and we extend the size of our trade base. But when direct exchange becomes too complicated and time consuming, we all agree upon some item of exchange. At some point in human history, we adopted gold for that, but just about anything will do if we can convince everyone else to use it.

But before you take it any farther, the point is not the means of exchange, but the stuff we all want and need. We’ve been using paper money and coins which have no intrinsic value, and it has come under a lot of attention as the source of trouble. So we have endless advertisements, sometimes disguised as article, about buying gold, silver and other precious items. But you can’t eat gold. You may believe the historic value of gold, jewels and other high-value durable items will protect from total loss of your accumulations in the coming economic troubles, but the same folks behind the manipulation of the markets and debt can manipulate gold. You’ll still have it, and your immediate neighbors may be willing to accept it at the high value, but only as long as everyone has stuff to exchange. If everyone is scratching for the same small pile of necessities, your gold will lose its value. And if the manipulators suddenly dump a bunch of gold onto the same market, you really will be hurting.

It’s a trap. Gold bugs, knowingly or not, are trying to sucker you into sinking your accumulated wealth into yet one more manipulable medium of exchange. If you are going to buy something compact and high-value, how about arms and ammunition? They at least have a use.

So do tools and various types of hardware and supplies for building, farming, fixing, etc. The most valuable thing you could possess is some skill which can be used as a survival advantage when things are really tough. Writing computer code, analyzing stock trades and writing ad copy won’t be worth much in a world where most people are scratching to eat. Skills first, then the means to employ them, are more valuable than gold.