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.
You must log in or register to comment.
Gold is only as valuable as people deem it to be. It’s a solid investment because it doesn’t suffer from things like inflation or short sellers. Gold is like a treasury bill in that you’re not going to make a bunch of money short term, but you can be relatively sure you won’t lose you investment long term. I heard something about a decade ago which still holds true: as long ago as the Roman empire, an ounce of gold was worth enough money to get you a top quality outfit including top quality sandals (shoes) and still leave enough for you to get a top quality meal. Will you get those things with gold in an apocalyptic situation? Nah, but assuming human civilization continues to survive, you can expect the value of gold relative to products and services to stay strong while currencies lose value.
Would you trust this guy’s advice?
Societal collapse? No gold won’t save you. Tools and how to use them will.
Maybe during hyperinflation though.
Gods not a terrible investment but it doesn’t have a short term ROI just a REALLY long term one.
I hate Bitcoin but its probably a better investment (and just as useful) than gold.
I’m a fudd though and ONLY buy stable stocks that yield reliable dividends though. ETFs, S&P stuff.
The thing about gold is they are always mining more of it, not great for long term value
If they ever get around to capturing an asteroid to mine, your hoarded gold will suddenly be worthless.
In a societal collapse your best investment is between your ears. If you can build/grow/… things you don’t need to worry about losing value.
If you invest in gold that is not physically in your posession, then yes.
If society breaks down, who is going to honor that piece of paper that claims you own gold in some banks vault? You don’t even know where that gold actually is…
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?
Gold has utility. Every circuit board uses gold.
Same with germanium.
And boron.
…I was gonna say I wouldn’t want a giant cube of boron. But actually, I kinda do?
only a complete bidiot or bignoramus wouldn’t
I feel like you could still do very well in life if you controlled literally all the gold in the world, but also he is Warren Buffet and my current wallet is one that I found on the ground, so I am willing to defer to the experts here.
(NB, the wallet was empty, I’m no savage)
Gold is not going to save you. I’d we get to the point that gold becomes currency again, that will be the least of your worries. Those are just prepper fantasies.
If you are considering investing in gold as an asset, sure that’s legit.
There was a video essay by Folding Ideas (From “the line goes up” fame) about a weird documentary narrated/hosted by Idris Elba, and If I am remembering it right it was basically a propaganda/ad film targeting people like peepers and that are skeptical of the government and such. So I believe there is at least a push to make gold more marketable and in fashion, like De beers did for diamonds.
I don’t know if I am allowed to link to outside content (because the rule of no reposting outside content) but in any case it should be easy to find for anyone interested.
Linking to outside content is good. How else could people cite their sources?
There are a lot of delusional people in here posting about their personal shower-fantasies of what they would do in the apocalypse. You can safely discard all that. If it gets so bad you need guns and tools and… blacksmithing supplies? you are so utterly fucked that gold and bartering will be the last of your concerns. People will be fucking eating each other. You simply cannot run to the woods and start living off the land, you will starve and die without acres of ready land already producing food. Real-life isn’t like a survival video game, there is no tech-tree that you can climb and start producing food.
Read some Cormac McCarthy for a more realistic view of the end of the world. (Then have a therapist on hand for the after-effects.)
For a financial collapse, gold would probably retain value, a society still needs something to base the value of its trading on, we can’t just all carry around sacks of grain. How much value gold will retain is very hard to predict, but people have been using it for so long that it’s already survived several widespread disasters and is still in use.
I remember reading Walden and thinking that even many many years ago this dude failed to be entirely self sufficient and still had to head back to town for random shit. It’d be so much harder nowadays.
In case of complete societal collapse ? Yes.
But if you have to flee from your homeland, gold is a universal currency.
How are you supposed to get it out of your homeland?
All investing is potentially a scam. That’s why they warn you about securities trading.
In the event of a collapse like you describe, I’m going to need something I can eat or wear, something tangible I can trade. If you can get enough people together that agree gold is a valuable bearer instrument then you’ve got a government. That’s not really a collapse.
Absolutely. Invest in silver instead. It’s prettier.
If that’s the sole qualifier, I’m investing solely in bismuth
