“If, & it’s a big if, granted, 1929 were to happen again, which would you rather have? A gold coin, or a loaf of bread? By far — a loaf of bread.”
Not sure of your logic. Under those circumstances a gold coin can buy many loaves of bread as well as other more durable things. After you eat the bread, what do you have?
Can it? Why would a starving man trade you a loaf of bread for your yellow coin?
If the price of a loaf of bread is the amount of gold that you have in your hand, you are going to wind up in the same spot.
There it is. You caught my irony. My response is that the immediate need might be to survive the day, retail (a loaf of bread); but the yearning of my spirit is to THRIVE many days, wholesale (the gold coin).
You are right. The gold coin buys many loaves, more than I could ever eat before it goes mouldy. Same problem as the farmer, only different. My job with those many loaves is to turn around and sell them to the demand of my neighbors (while still fresh as possible), for which they are willing to give up something of value. I am going to insist on something durable and portable: gold, silver, diamonds, emeralds. And so I thrive. Rinse and repeat.
Yes, I should have answered, "The gold coin, by far"; but first things first; and you not only got my point, you made it.