collecting gold

one can't help but notice that amazing rise in the price of gold during our recent economical upheaval. So there occurs a total economic collapse of the world economy what good is gold? I'm thinking that hoarding Spam makes more sense. It's a "food" product and has a shelf like of something like 300 years. Why aren't people hoarding Spam?

Why aren't people hoarding Spam?

dyslexia wrote:

one can't help but notice that amazing rise in the price of gold during our recent economical upheaval. So there occurs a total economic collapse of the world economy what good is gold? I'm thinking that hoarding Spam makes more sense. It's a "food" product and has a shelf like of something like 300 years. Why aren't people hoarding Spam?

One wonders... If the relative value of gold is going to continue to rise, why do these people so desperately want to trade their precious gold for my worthless paper money??

I've been thinking about that very thing.

Lets see; the agricultural commodities are valuable because they can ultimately be eaten or woven into fabric; fuels can be burned for energy; metals (other than gold) have industrial uses. Gold seems to be traded and hoarded because it has value based on someone else's desire to own it. That is, it has value because it has value, which at least sounds like very circular reasoning.

I very much suspect that if one person acquired all the world's gold reserves, there would be no market, and we would suddenly realize the emperor was nekkid.

Alright, it makes shiney jewelry that doesn't make your skin turn green, but if it were as cheap as brass it would be quickly out of style.