What's For Dinner?
As of this morning, one still cannot eat gold… at least not to fill your belly and satisfy the bodies nutritional needs.
Imagine finding yourself lost in a desolate desert for three days with no means of transportation, 1,000 miles from civilization and you have had no food or water to consume during that time. Not only are you hungry, you are quite thirsty and dehydrated from the heat and sun exposure. After three days without water, you may possibly be near death ( for some people ).
Along comes some barefoot someone with a bag full of gold who would trade you an ounce of gold for your shoes.
With him is another barefoot individual with a gallon of water who would trade you an ounce of water for your shoes.
With them is yet another barefoot individual who would trade you an ounce of hundred dollar bills for your shoes.
Your shoes are the only things each of these three desires from you in exchange for what they were willing to trade you. With which barefoot individual would you be trading your shoes with?
Now think about ‘values’ of the items according to the ‘market’ or ‘society’ before you answer:
An ounce of gold sold at retail in the open market as of the writing of this scenario would be ‘valued’ at $1,305.00.
The water in a modern community where all things are typical would be ‘valued’ at $.008 ( 128 ounces in a gallon with a gallon of water today costing $1.00 ).
The paper money that is accepted far and wide by the civilized world and used to buy things would be ‘valued’ at $2,835.00 ( each bill weighing approximately a single gram and 28.35 grams in every ounce ).
Now remember, you’re in the desert, there is no transportation, no shops or bus stations nearby. You’ve been lost in the desert for three days and are dehydrated and possibly near death.
How valuable is that gold or that paper money to you when what you ‘need’ is water ( and food )?
Substitute the water for fresh bread of a near meal in this same scenario, does anything change?
What good is the paper money if a caravan of traders were to come along ( a possible rescue scenario ) and they would not accept the paper money for that money is no good to them in their society, for they deal in real items of value and not perceived value?
What good would the gold be since the folks on the caravan realize that gold cannot be consumed for food and other than looking fancy, is of no practical and real use to them or anyone they know?
Something to ponder:
If you happen to be in a societal situation where inflation is running rampant and the price of everything was rising exponentially daily, the ounce of water could very well cost you nearly $3,000.00 ( this is what happened in Germany almost a century ago, look it up ). The same hyper inflation happened in Zimbabwe just five short years ago when their funny paper money inflated to grandiose proportions. In these two real-world scenarios, gold eventually found its way out of the hands of the needy for real things of value and into the hands of the wealthy, for historically gold has long been the currency of kings, while everyone outside of that circle had only their labor and other things to deal with.
I wonder what good the stockpiling of gold would be to those who are not growing their own food in times of trouble. I also wonder how far a pile of paper money would go when there is nothing of real value to be traded outside of the perceived value in such paper.
I’m sure some reading this are scoffing at the notion I have that gold is truly worth nothing in real terms other than a perceived fictional value people have created in their minds ( just like the paper money ), but ask yourself this: When you have nothing but gold and are without food or water, and your neighbor who does have food and water to spare will not accept a piece of metal in exchange for their provisions no matter how fancy it looks or the ‘story’ behind it, will you end up eating that gold for dinner?
Imagine finding yourself lost in a desolate desert for three days with no means of transportation, 1,000 miles from civilization and you have had no food or water to consume during that time. Not only are you hungry, you are quite thirsty and dehydrated from the heat and sun exposure. After three days without water, you may possibly be near death ( for some people ).
Along comes some barefoot someone with a bag full of gold who would trade you an ounce of gold for your shoes.
With him is another barefoot individual with a gallon of water who would trade you an ounce of water for your shoes.
With them is yet another barefoot individual who would trade you an ounce of hundred dollar bills for your shoes.
Your shoes are the only things each of these three desires from you in exchange for what they were willing to trade you. With which barefoot individual would you be trading your shoes with?
Now think about ‘values’ of the items according to the ‘market’ or ‘society’ before you answer:
An ounce of gold sold at retail in the open market as of the writing of this scenario would be ‘valued’ at $1,305.00.
The water in a modern community where all things are typical would be ‘valued’ at $.008 ( 128 ounces in a gallon with a gallon of water today costing $1.00 ).
The paper money that is accepted far and wide by the civilized world and used to buy things would be ‘valued’ at $2,835.00 ( each bill weighing approximately a single gram and 28.35 grams in every ounce ).
Now remember, you’re in the desert, there is no transportation, no shops or bus stations nearby. You’ve been lost in the desert for three days and are dehydrated and possibly near death.
How valuable is that gold or that paper money to you when what you ‘need’ is water ( and food )?
Substitute the water for fresh bread of a near meal in this same scenario, does anything change?
What good is the paper money if a caravan of traders were to come along ( a possible rescue scenario ) and they would not accept the paper money for that money is no good to them in their society, for they deal in real items of value and not perceived value?
What good would the gold be since the folks on the caravan realize that gold cannot be consumed for food and other than looking fancy, is of no practical and real use to them or anyone they know?
Something to ponder:
If you happen to be in a societal situation where inflation is running rampant and the price of everything was rising exponentially daily, the ounce of water could very well cost you nearly $3,000.00 ( this is what happened in Germany almost a century ago, look it up ). The same hyper inflation happened in Zimbabwe just five short years ago when their funny paper money inflated to grandiose proportions. In these two real-world scenarios, gold eventually found its way out of the hands of the needy for real things of value and into the hands of the wealthy, for historically gold has long been the currency of kings, while everyone outside of that circle had only their labor and other things to deal with.
I wonder what good the stockpiling of gold would be to those who are not growing their own food in times of trouble. I also wonder how far a pile of paper money would go when there is nothing of real value to be traded outside of the perceived value in such paper.
I’m sure some reading this are scoffing at the notion I have that gold is truly worth nothing in real terms other than a perceived fictional value people have created in their minds ( just like the paper money ), but ask yourself this: When you have nothing but gold and are without food or water, and your neighbor who does have food and water to spare will not accept a piece of metal in exchange for their provisions no matter how fancy it looks or the ‘story’ behind it, will you end up eating that gold for dinner?
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