Forgive me for being stupid. But what is it with gold?
Lately, with all the "change" rhetoric from the White House and the economic problems which seem to ensue, there appears to be this influx of ads to buy gold, as though gold is going to be the only way to buy anything after Obama gets done with this country.
Supposedly, the world is about to end or the sky is going to fall or something like that, and our only hope for survival is to own gold. Not the kind in your teeth, not the kind in your wedding ring, the kind in little ingots and coins.
Which is where I get lost.
I can’t quite understand how, in the event of social collapse or famine or blizzard or a Republican return to power, owning gold does me any good.
Follow me on this.
Something happens so that the normal course of life is disrupted. Your job goes away or the supermarket runs out of food or there is a nuclear winter or something like that. Money has no value, the necessities of life are not available, the proverbial crap has hit the fan.
And gold coins are supposed to help me? I don’t get that.
Don’t get me wrong, while I doubt any sort of calamity is around the corner, I do believe it is wise to be prepared. Seriously, I think that everyone ought to be prepared in case things get really, really bad.
I would point out, however, that every previous prediction of the end of the world has been wrong. Forecasting doom and gloom has, thus far in human experience, always come up empty. But history and my faith teach me that, hey, you never know.
So I am prepared, and trying to get more prepared all the time.
That’s what I think the gold buyers are trying to do. My problem is, I’m too stupid to understand their thinking.
My thinking is that if something bad happens, all that’s going to matter is keeping my family fed, warm and safe. We are going to need to eat, we are going to need to stave off the winter cold, we are going to need to make sure that nobody comes and does bad things to us.
I figure that, if things get really bad, a can of beans is going to be more useful to me than a Krugerrand.
One other thing that strikes me is cost.
An ounce of gold costs $1,000 plus whatever fees the various gold companies are going to stick you with.
For that same $1,000, you can buy enough basic food to supply two people for an entire year. Or, if you want fancy freeze-dried stuff that tastes good, your $1,000 will buy a year’s supply for one person. And the truth is, if you’re smart and willing to do some work, $1,000 can get together enough essentials to keep a whole family going for quite a while.
As I look at my $1,000, I have to ask myself: Do I want an ounce of gold or 12,000 pounds of wheat? In the event of a true emergency, which is going to be more useful? I can pick up a little bauble, or I can store enough food to keep me and my family from starving to death.
I figure that if the currency system fails – if the dollar loses all value – I’m going to be more concerned with preserving my life than with preserving my wealth.
So we store extra food when we can. Our local grocer here puts on a sale about twice a year called the "Case Lot Sale" where they sell various staples and food supplies by the case at great prices so we pick up a case or two of what we actually eat on a daily basis. We live on some of it and save the rest. Now that makes sense to me. I am pretty sure that when the going gets tough, our extra storage purchases will start coming in very handy - probably more than a few gold coins.
We’ve also got extra clothes, blankets, sleeping bags, a tent, a water filter, bathroom supplies and basic medicines.
Maybe I sound like a nut, but I think my approach makes a lot more sense than buying a shiny bit of metal.
My mind isn’t closed, however. If somebody can show me a recipe for gold, or a way I can make it heat my home, I might reconsider.
