Gold has always been valued because it has some important attributes that few, if any, other substances have.
It won’t tarnish or oxidize, so it will look just as shiny and beautiful a thousand years from now.
It is extremely malleable, easily crafted into any shape. It can be hammered thin enough to be a foil, or drawn into a wire as thin as a human hair.
It has a relatively low melting point, making it easy to cast.
It is extremely conductive, and is the conductive material of choice when price is no object.
There are other unique properties, but the point is that much of Gold’s value derives from being significantly, even uniquely, different from most other substances, giving it an intrinsic value beyond its monetary value.
How many things relevant in your life are made out of gold? I guess jewellery, computer and phone. Real things that matter to people the most are completely unrelated to gold.
The fact that it is a material that does not degrade makes it a good choice as a vector for value. It is good to be used as money for that reason. If you use iron as money it will eventually rust out and leave you broke.
The other properties of gold are quite irrelevant to the fact that it has been selected (over and over again through history) as a value vector.
I really don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m sorry, I am not American and I do not know who Bannon is.
I hope full control of the media won’t be a thing, but how is this related to gold?
Indeed, that is out of question. The matter of discussion is that the value of gold is attributed and not intrinsic, since gold does not really cover any fundamental human need.
Besides, gold is not strictly required to make computers.
… Which is why historically it is used as currency… kinda burying the lede there.
Bottle caps (fallout franchise), cigarettes, ramen packets (prison), sea shells (aka wampun in some Native American Cultures), salt (early scarcity) and gold are “valuable” because they are used as currency, where they are given value in excess of their actual ability to be used.
These attributes are not specific to gold alone, many other metals, jewels also share the same attributes of being able to used as currency due to their ease of division, relative scarcity and not rot aka “ability to store value” as the egg heads say.
Suffice to say, gold isn’t valuable because it is gold (I can eat a ramen packets, smoke a cigarette) it isn’t valuable because it is backed by. the government (we explicitly use it because it isn’t fiat) but rather it is valuable because IT WAS MONEY, because carrying 500 cheese wheels isn’t a thing irl.
I can point you to further reading, but just about all MacroEcon text books will cover this in the first chapter.
I was understand ALL of that, but the point is that Gold carries a significant value over and above its monetary value, and that’s part of the reason that it has remained among the most desirable, and most popular, precious metals throughout history.
Gold has always been valued because it has some important attributes that few, if any, other substances have.
It won’t tarnish or oxidize, so it will look just as shiny and beautiful a thousand years from now.
It is extremely malleable, easily crafted into any shape. It can be hammered thin enough to be a foil, or drawn into a wire as thin as a human hair.
It has a relatively low melting point, making it easy to cast.
It is extremely conductive, and is the conductive material of choice when price is no object.
There are other unique properties, but the point is that much of Gold’s value derives from being significantly, even uniquely, different from most other substances, giving it an intrinsic value beyond its monetary value.
How many things relevant in your life are made out of gold? I guess jewellery, computer and phone. Real things that matter to people the most are completely unrelated to gold.
The fact that it is a material that does not degrade makes it a good choice as a vector for value. It is good to be used as money for that reason. If you use iron as money it will eventually rust out and leave you broke.
The other properties of gold are quite irrelevant to the fact that it has been selected (over and over again through history) as a value vector.
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I really don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m sorry, I am not American and I do not know who Bannon is. I hope full control of the media won’t be a thing, but how is this related to gold?
Sorry, that post was an answer to a different question. I don’t know how it dropped here.
My computer and my phone are preeeeeeeeeetty important to my life, though.
Indeed, that is out of question. The matter of discussion is that the value of gold is attributed and not intrinsic, since gold does not really cover any fundamental human need. Besides, gold is not strictly required to make computers.
… Which is why historically it is used as currency… kinda burying the lede there.
Bottle caps (fallout franchise), cigarettes, ramen packets (prison), sea shells (aka wampun in some Native American Cultures), salt (early scarcity) and gold are “valuable” because they are used as currency, where they are given value in excess of their actual ability to be used.
These attributes are not specific to gold alone, many other metals, jewels also share the same attributes of being able to used as currency due to their ease of division, relative scarcity and not rot aka “ability to store value” as the egg heads say.
Suffice to say, gold isn’t valuable because it is gold (I can eat a ramen packets, smoke a cigarette) it isn’t valuable because it is backed by. the government (we explicitly use it because it isn’t fiat) but rather it is valuable because IT WAS MONEY, because carrying 500 cheese wheels isn’t a thing irl.
I can point you to further reading, but just about all MacroEcon text books will cover this in the first chapter.
I was understand ALL of that, but the point is that Gold carries a significant value over and above its monetary value, and that’s part of the reason that it has remained among the most desirable, and most popular, precious metals throughout history.