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collecting gold

 
 
Fri 11 Jun, 2010 09:35 am
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?
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Type: Discussion • Score: 8 • Views: 3,196 • Replies: 12
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roger
 
  1  
Fri 11 Jun, 2010 10:46 am
@dyslexia,
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.
Cycloptichorn
 
  2  
Fri 11 Jun, 2010 10:49 am
@roger,
Gold has a wide variety of industrial applications that ensure it's value will remain rather elevated compared to all other metals, despite it's desirability for jewelry and other frivolous uses. It is also sufficiently rare, that it cannot be 'watered down' in any meaningful way as a currency.

This is probably the reason that it has been the primary 'wealth metal,' along with silver, for about 3000 years now.

Cycloptichorn
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Pemerson
 
  1  
Fri 11 Jun, 2010 10:53 am
Books were written on investing in gold and platinum during the 1980s recession. The idea being nobody would have any money at all, so gold would buy you what's out there for sale to eat, wear, live in. Then, I think gold was $100/ounce. !!

Doomsday books, doomsday thinking. Sure would have been smart to invest in gold, then, considering the price of the stuff now.
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DrewDad
 
  2  
Fri 11 Jun, 2010 11:22 am
@dyslexia,
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??
DrewDad
 
  1  
Fri 11 Jun, 2010 11:23 am
@dyslexia,
dyslexia wrote:
Why aren't people hoarding Spam?

Spam, a good well, and bullets.

0 Replies
 
Cycloptichorn
 
  1  
Fri 11 Jun, 2010 11:26 am
@DrewDad,
DrewDad wrote:

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??


Because they need the money NOW more then they need a possible rise in their investment LATER. I know you were joking a little, but it doesn't disprove their initial idea...

Cycloptichorn
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edgarblythe
 
  2  
Fri 11 Jun, 2010 11:30 am
Yes, I walled in a room full of Spam. Used Twinkies for bricks. As god is my witness I will never go hungry again.
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Irishk
 
  1  
Fri 11 Jun, 2010 11:56 am
Haven't tried Spam yet. Probably have to drown it in Tabasco to be tempted.
edgarblythe
 
  1  
Fri 11 Jun, 2010 12:02 pm
@Irishk,
Obviously, you are no Hawaiian.
0 Replies
 
Finn dAbuzz
 
  2  
Fri 11 Jun, 2010 01:57 pm
@roger,
roger wrote:

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.


It's been highly valuable for a long, long time and so there must be something enduring about its shiny beauty and relative softness.

The problem for current gold hoarders though is whether or not Post-Apocalyptic mutant cannibals will appreciate the esthetics of gold
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Roberta
 
  1  
Thu 24 Jun, 2010 05:19 pm
Dys, bubbele. You can't wear Spam. Well at least not well.
0 Replies
 
A Lone Voice
 
  1  
Wed 21 Jul, 2010 09:05 pm
Gold is simply a hedge to preserve wealth.

It's not a good investment, although it has increased in value recently. But barring an economic collapse (when you would be better off with Spam) gold will help one weather inflation, or as in the case of other countries throughout history, retain value when currency is recalled and new currency issued.

Some here crack me up, thinking the U.S. will never suffer hyperinflation or a currency meltdown. Same people who object to the thought of American exceptionalism think our economic system is bulletproof...
0 Replies
 
 

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