re: #96 goddamnedfrank

Say what you will about gold, it will at least still be tangible. That’s an incredibly important criteria when otherwise surrounded by uncertainty.

True, gold (and other precious metals, like silver and platinum) are indeed physical, tangible things, but their value still depends on what other people are willing to trade for it.

In the typical SHTF scenario that the survivalist goldbugs love to game for where modern civilization just falls apart, food, water, and shelter are going to be more at a premium than a bunch of shiny rocks whose primary value is that they’re shiny (and scarce). Hell, guns and ammo (along with bows and arrows) would be worth much more than gold, because you at least hunt food and defend yourself with them (or have the leverage to take others’ food, water, and shelter from them, if it came down to it).