[TtC]

What I find odd is that most people think gold and silver is worth something as well. There is a general flawed premise behind this.

1. Yes, gold has been used as a means of exchange for the last several millennia, but if you noticed during September and October, the price of precious metals was artificially manipulated. There was little if any physical metal to be found yet the price dropped like a rock.

2. Gold jewelry in America is usually 10Kt or 14kt; that is 42% and 58% respectively. Most people don't carry around a scale and a calculator or have access to the spot price readily unless they are near a computer. If they don't wear it or it's broken, let them sell it. Besides, you can almost never make a profit on jewelry selling it for the metal content unless it was bought a long time ago.

3. If the economy crashed substantially to the point that fiat (paper) currency was no longer usable, how long do you think your gold is going to last? How many Maples or Eagles do you have stashed? And if you're going to buy anything, do you really want to lug that all around? The stuff is heavy.

4. If the powers that be want to be really nasty, they can pull a Roosevelt like they did in 1933 and confiscate all the gold before the impending crash. But if they do that, they would have to alter the second amendment so they wouldn't be prying it from the "cold dead fingers" as so many gold bugs like to say.

5. If something drastic happens, how do you know that anyone is going to take it as a means of exchange? I, personally, would rather have a bag of beans or rice than a hoard of gold. You can't eat it remember, nor can you take it with you.

6. It is only worth something because you say it is. Think what would happen if an entire state stopped using the US dollars one day and instead started using buttons. Your paper is now worthless and you have to go out of state to buy things, unless of course you have a stash of buttons for just such an emergency. If everyone decided that the US dollar was no longer what they were willing to trade overnight, it would become worthless. Same scenario is applicable for gold. Once again, you can't eat it and it won't keep you alive.

I can understand where you are coming from, but this seems, whether you wish to acknowledge it or not, one more post half-way based on fear and not on what you want. Remember: life is temporary. Everything you see around you will eventually return to nothingness.