Gold is a good conductor of electricity, but has few other practical uses. As end of civilization currency it's worthless, (at least to me.) I'll barter you some food for ammo, but certainly won't accept Gold in exchange for anything.
As end of civilization currency it’s worthless, (at least to me.) I’ll barter you some food for ammo, but certainly won’t accept Gold in exchange for anything.
1. People with spare food or ammo in a crisis will gladly be taking gold for some of their spare supplies. Because...
2. While gold might not help you survive a crisis (though it can, as point one illustrates) it has ***always throughout human civilization*** helped wealth survive a crisis.
Also, there has never been the time when gold did not buy the affection of beautiful women.
Also, don’t fall into the straw-man rhetorical trap of implying that those who advocate some precious metal investment are counseling it as an alternative to buying food and other tangibles necessary to life.
Also try to avoid the bad logic of those who argue from the false (or improbable) premise that no food exists, therefor gold won’t save you. (If no food exists, then nothing will save you.)
When you change your mind, and you will eventually, will be about the time we gold bugs should sell.
Silver is a much better conductor for electricity. In fact it’s the best. Great bar bet factoid.
Gold has all kinds of practical uses but not at 1500 bucks, that’s the problem. Silver is interesting because it has unique properties that don’t allow for substitution with less costly materials. Aerospace applications, plastics production, water purification, certain burn creams, etc.
“but has few other practical uses”
That is a rather short sighted viewpoint. You need to see a bigger picture rather than a nerdy technical one.
Gold, diamonds, and other earthly materials of rare supply are storages of labor as you cannot make these things out of thin air. They must be had through labor intensive efforts. Labor is a storage of wealth as labor is life. Life is time. Labor, time and life cannot be made out of thin air.
Hence, gold is a storage of wealth. Not because it has some nerdy technical usage but because it has the practical value of storing labor, time and life. You can’t cheat it by creating it like a dollar bill or a like a digital database can have zeros added at will. You can hold it, unlike digital dollars. You can trade it, exchange it, and anyone who has more of it earned it as it took great pains to get it out of the ground.