And the question is, WHY?
Yes, it seems to be true historically. People have always accepted gold, because gold can "always" be retraded, because someone else "always" wants it, because they know they can retrade it.
But why? Note that operative word in gold is "retrade" -- i.e. we want gold because it can always be TRADED for something that is actually useful.
In ancient times, Gold was valuable because it was shiny and easy to work, and rare. You could prove how important you were by showing how much wealth you were willing to throw away on a shiny rare metal you could melt and mold around things. Like fancy clothes, or a palace with 10 times the rooms you need.
Nowadays, we can make shiny things with any metal, and the number of people who wear gold bling to show how rich they are by how much they can waste is ebbing some, but not much.
When we are all starving to death, who is going to trade you a loaf of bread for an ounce of gold?
Gold has always been tradeable, and has held constant value. But it appears to be all psychological. The actual use of gold is far outstripped by supply. If one day the world comes to it's senses and realizes that gold has no value on it's own, gold will be essentially worthless.
That day may never come -- but it COULD come. There is nothing that would require people to buy gold, the average person has absolutely no direct use for it, and no law requires anybody to accept gold as payment for anything.
Remember, everything you can collect has great value until the day it doesn't. Like Beanie Babies.
Last lesson. If you bought a DaVinci painting with gold while DaVinci was alive, which would be worth more today -- the same amount of gold, or the painting?
“Nowadays, we can make shiny things with any metal.”
“If one day the world comes to it’s senses and realizes that gold has no value on it’s own, gold will be essentially worthless.”
What use has any metal but what it can be used for, not just a medium of exchange but to make things. Gold is and has always been THE best metal. Other metals rust and disappear, or tarnish, and need to be reshined. Not gold. Gold can be made super thin to be used in wiring or in electronics, it can be made into tooth fillings which won’t disintegrate or rust away, etc.
If metals will always have a value, then gold will always have a value because no metal comes on par to it, except perhaps platinum, which is even more expensive. And I don’t think even platinum could be pulled from the bottom of the sea after a thousand years and be used like it was only yesterday.