erikmartin

Gold is Money - And Nothing Else

"Gold is a commodity that functions as money (i.e. a store of value). So, gold is money."

Gold is not a store of value. Its value is subject to a very volatile speculation market. There are at least 3 or 4 times in just the last 30 years when gold has lost over a third of its real, inflation-adjusted purchasing power. Comparatively speaking, a stock in a large blue-chip company is a far better store of value. Or if using a commodity as a store of value, chose one that is less subject to speculation, and one in which nations don't hold enormous reserves of, which, if they sold them would destroy the value of your investment. For example, a combination of a number of non-precious metals, lead, zinc, aluminum, etc, would be a better store of value than gold.

Gold is Money - And Nothing Else

"The comment that gold is not a currency because it can’t be used in the local supermarket would mean that the Euro is not a currency. Think of gold as a foreign currency that has to be exchanged into the local currency to return value."

For this to be valid, there would have to be a country where gold is legal tender. In that case gold would be backed by the GDP of such country or countries. The Euro is backed by some portion of the GDP of the EU. The USD is backed by the GDP of the US. As it is, gold is backed by nothing except the moment-to-moment BELIEF in its value.

Gold is Money - And Nothing Else

"Gold has value. Nothing else matters. If you invest in gold you can not go wrong it will always be worth something, exchange it, save it."
Wood pulp has value. Nothing else matters. If you invest in wood pulp you can not go wrong; it will always be worth something.

Salt has value. Nothing else matters. If you invest in salt you can not go wrong; it will always be worth something.

Salt, in fact, has a much longer history of being used for money than gold; so for logical consistency, maybe it would be better to transfer all your investments to salt.

Gold is Money - And Nothing Else

"AHHHHHHH! The brainwashing is nearly complete. Gold is not money? Read your constitution! The founding fathers said our money was to be coined in silver and gold, nothing else."

The brainwashing is INDEED complete. The Constitution says NO SUCH THING! It says that STATES may not issue currency -- only the federal government can do so. The states are allowed to make their own gold and silver coins for payment of debts, but the Federal Government is allowed to issue CURRENCY -- that is money that is OTHER than silver or gold.