I’m clearly no economist so maybe I’m missing something obvious, but I cannot wrap my head around why so many believe that the market is just some sort of fundamental, unchangeable property of the universe that is and always will be. Why do we assume that the dollar will always be valuable?

I could be incorrect, but it seems like there is no guarantee that there will be a rebound after a crash (see: 2008). It more so just seems like parts of capital crumble and become inaccessible to people who once had access, thus causing complete inaccessibility for all who come after.

So, boom and bust seems like the greatest misnomer of all time.

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Why the fuck do people call gold a tangible asset. It’s just some dumb metal.

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10 points

I mean it is a tangible asset (aka you can touch it).

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The tangible part isnt heat bothers me it sthe ‘asset’ bit. Gold is only useful ina. Civilization that values shiny shit. If things collapse, shiny shit will not keep its value. Ammo will tho.

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Gold’s used regularly for electroplating stuff, and is used to solder the ends of wires. It’s a good conductor and there’s a fair chance that whatever device you used to compose this message has gold circuitry in it.

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7 points

No argument there. Although I could imagine partial collapse scenarios where gold retains some relevance, ammo will always be better. Funny thing is though, gold is only becoming more important due to increased central bank purchases. This is mostly being driven by central banks trying to diversify away from the dollar.

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9 points

Because its touchable but hard to get large quantities. Aluminum is just a dumb metal but I could fill my backyard with it in short order.

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It also likes to stick around without reacting with stuff. Leave aluminum around too long and it starts to turn into dust.

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4 points

It is totally nonreactive and is the most tensile and ductile of all metals. It has value outside of its looks.

But it’s shiny, and people like shiny. People’s feelings are quite real.

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