My concern is that if the dollar flops then the government will try to round up all the gold and silver from people who’ve been buying it as a hedge.
Just like FDR did in the 1930’s.
It might try that, but most of the people are a great deal less trusting of the government and its intentions than in the 30s.
More likely would be that the feds would make any kind of transactions with gold/silver to be illegal in an attempt to make PMs worthless in a practical sense. Which I don't think would fly.
I suspect that if things got that critical, we would see armed confrontations between citizens and whomever the feds used to enforce their edicts.
Gold was never “rounded up” by the gov’t. It was made illegal to own for a period of time. A whole lot of people “forgot” to turn theirs over.
Back in the 1930’s people trusted the government, they (including Republicans) felt if president Roosevelt believed that by turning in their gold it would help the country get going again, then by golly it is their patriotic duty as Americans to turn it over.
Very few people (not even Liberals) would feel the same way today if Hillary or Bernie gave such an order. Unless Gold went to $10,000+ an ounce, it would cost more trying to track everybody’s gold down that it wouldn’t be worth it.
Plus, today there is a much bigger, more tempting target for the government to go after that FDR only wishes he had. 401Ks