It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.

Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.

Thank you.

 

Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.

 

Gold And Silver... It’s True Worth Is Alluding Me.

page: 2
12
<< 1    3  4 >>

log in

join
share:

posted on Dec, 19 2017 @ 11:17 PM
link   
a reply to: Hazardous1408

Gold and silver, especially silver are used in abundance in electronics and several other industries. I believe nearly half if not more of total annual demand for silver is used for industrial and/or manufacturing, not stockpiled. Gold not nearly as much, but it's pretty, so a lot of the gold demand annually goes into jewelry.



posted on Dec, 19 2017 @ 11:18 PM
link   
Wow. Thanks for all the responses people.
I didn’t expect that many opinions.

I should say that I was aware of the technological advantages of gold and silver...
But I’d like to elaborate on why I do not find that as a true measurement of value, on a large scale at least.

In my opinion, the majority of people will never have enough gold or silver to take advantage of this to mass produce these technologies...
So to the average man/woman/zir, this advantageous purpose of the precious metals will never really be an option.
Or should I say used to the full potential of the metals that will benefit them long term.
Make sense?

I’ve just realised though, those in possession of gold and silver can find value in them when exchanged with someone who wishes to use them for the technologies, and scarcity means it does provide a worth because those who must have it will be willing to offer a good price for it.

I guess that provided a value measurement to it for the common man/woman/zir.



Thanks again everyone, your very interesting perspectives have give me things to think about.

PS: Honourable mention to burdman, I like the convenience argument you made.
That is definitely something that I had bypassed in my original reasoning.


Peace.
edit on 19-12-2017 by Hazardous1408 because: Blah blah blah!!!



posted on Dec, 19 2017 @ 11:22 PM
link   
a reply to: Vector99


...so a lot of the gold demand annually goes into jewelry.


See, I’m pretty much an anti-materialist...
& to me that just seems like an aesthetic value rather than one could be deemed useful, or at least what I would deem useful.

I’m no authority on “usefulness”, so people may disagree with that assessment.



posted on Dec, 19 2017 @ 11:26 PM
link   
a reply to: Hazardous1408

Same, all the gold I own is in the form of 1/2 oz ingots.

Silver is pretty relevant though, lots of things require silver.



posted on Dec, 20 2017 @ 12:41 AM
link   
a reply to: Hazardous1408

Economics 101 - Supply and Demand

If a supply is limited for a desired commodity, it results in demand. Demand creates a market. A market defines the value since a commodity is only worth what someone else is willing to pay for it.

The global gold and silver supply is limited and there is an industrial demand for both, therefore they both have value in their respective markets. Regardless if someone has massed a large enough supply to utilized them industrially, their ownership of gold or silver makes them part of the market that gives each a value.

At the end of the day, you do not need gold or silver to survive, so to many, they may be nothing more than shiny paperweights. But as long as there is a market, they will have value to someone.
edit on 12/20/2017 by scojak because: (no reason given)



posted on Dec, 20 2017 @ 01:04 AM
link   
a reply to: Hazardous1408

There is a good argument that money didn't get it's value from being gold, but that gold got its value from being money.

Good was a good way of making coins and other stores if value as it doesn't degrade, difficult to counterfeit, had limited supply and was fungible.

Plus its shiny which has to count for something.



posted on Dec, 20 2017 @ 01:08 AM
link   
a reply to: scojak

I think the question is what generated the demand. Practical applications due gold (other than as money or jewellery) are relatively recent.

Yet gold has been valued higher than pretty much by other metal for as long as we have records.



posted on Dec, 20 2017 @ 01:31 AM
link   
When the s# hits the fan, your precious things with be worthless to all but the heartiest fools, if they're not already dead.

Tools will be the only things of real value--specialized instruments of high utility to the common man. Sure, copper or gold would be of high value to an electrician, but who's going to spin it into wire?

Without the infrastructure present to convert raw materials into useful products, precious metals are little more than pretty rocks.

Again, if you're concerned with your rock collection when the SHTF, you're doing that prepping thing all wrong and you're going to die quickly.



posted on Dec, 20 2017 @ 01:42 AM
link   
a reply to: Hazardous1408


Except for the fact that I don’t see it as less valuable than gold and silver like I have before.

I now pretty much place them at the same level.

That's the main point. Every civilization needs commonly accepted ways to trade goods, services, and value across city, county, and national lines. That's the whole point in currencies/money, regardless of what form they take.



What makes it “valuable”, really?

So essentially, my recent thinking leads me to the conclusion it’s as equally valuable or worthless as the cash we currently use...
Does that make sense?

You're underselling gold's intrinsic value. Unlike most other metals, gold is very soft and malleable. Because of this, it can be easily pounded into various shapes.

If you were the last human on Earth and you stumbled across a huge gold deposit, you could make golden cups, plates, bowls, eating utensils, masks, jewelry, basic work tools (though the malleability would cause them to become distorted), etc. If you had enough time, you could pound that gold flat until it was like a thick foil then use that like a thick canvas. You could roll it until you made thick "strings" from it, and then make baskets and other things from it. And if you found large enough chunks of it, you could pound them into golden bricks to make walls.

Gold also doesn't rust. In fact, it barely reacts to anything at all. So anything you made from it would be much more durable than things made of wood or metals that rust.

These are just some of the basic reasons civilizations throughout time have valued gold (as well as because of its unique color and its use as jewelry & trinkets). And unlike many other forms of stored "value", gold's softness and its heavy weight make it easily verifiable by common people. It's almost a built in anti-counterfeiting measure.



But even if that is true, what good is that to the average Joe?

This says more about today's "average Joe" than anything else. Almost anyone who makes crafts, cares about social standing and social status, or wants a portable & easily verifiable way to store their wealth can appreciate gold's intrinsic value. Remember that business isn't just about what you know; it's also about who you know and how you can make the most of your business relationships.

And no matter how we glorify it, "normal" humans will treat another human much better if he/she has higher social status, more wealth, more jewelry, etc. People love any display of wealth like fancy diamonds & gold jewelry, luxury cars, ownership of private jets, the presence of adoring sexually attractive models, etc. In this crude but completely real situation, gold has proven to be the epitome of social status for at least several thousand years. There's a reason why royals throughout history have always hoarded their society's most coveted precious metals, minerals, fabrics, trinkets, etc.

So if the "average Joe" is oblivious to this facet of social power, whose fault is that?
edit on 20-12-2017 by enlightenedservant because: "whose" not "who's"



posted on Dec, 20 2017 @ 01:56 AM
link   
a reply to: ScepticScot

The questions were pretty clear. The OP even emboldened them for clarity:

-What makes it (gold and silver) “valuable”, really?
-Does that make sense? (The OP's opinion that it's only real value is through trade)
-But even if that is true (industrial uses of gold and silver), what good is that to the average Joe?

All were addressed in my post.

To answer the question you posed though, gold is one of the easiest metals to obtain and work with. Other metals require processing and smelting, whereas gold can be found in an almost pure state. This makes it likely one of the first metals used for crafting. It also does not corrode or tarnish, traits which definitely give it value.

Many cultures associated gold with divinity, so of course it would have value to those cultures.

Power and adornment have historically gone hand-in-hand, so it aesthetic appeal also gave it value.

Gold also has (or was at least believed to have) medicinal uses. True or not, snake oil was an easier hundreds of years ago.

And potentially the source of the demand for gold, the Annunaki. They supposedly created humans to mine gold for them so they could replenish the gold in their atmosphere.

...take your pick.
edit on 12/20/2017 by scojak because: (no reason given)



posted on Dec, 20 2017 @ 02:16 AM
link   

originally posted by: scojak
a reply to: ScepticScot

The questions were pretty clear. The OP even emboldened them for clarity:

-What makes it (gold and silver) “valuable”, really?
-Does that make sense? (The OP's opinion that it's only real value is through trade)
-But even if that is true (industrial uses of gold and silver), what good is that to the average Joe?

All were addressed in my post.

To answer the question you posed though, gold is one of the easiest metals to obtain and work with. Other metals require processing and smelting, whereas gold can be found in an almost pure state. This makes it likely one of the first metals used for crafting. It also does not corrode or tarnish, traits which definitely give it value.

Many cultures associated gold with divinity, so of course it would have value to those cultures.

Power and adornment have historically gone hand-in-hand, so it aesthetic appeal also gave it value.

Gold also has (or was at least believed to have) medicinal uses. True or not, snake oil was an easier hundreds of years ago.

And potentially the source of the demand for gold, the Annunaki. They supposedly created humans to mine gold for them so they could replenish the gold in their atmosphere.

...take your pick.

a reply to: scojak

Saying supply and demand doesn't really answer the question unless we understand what generates the demand.

Gold has always been overvalued relative to its practical applications.

The fact that it does not tarnish or is easy to work with does not give it value unless there is an advantage to that.

The best use of gold seems to be the one it was used for centuries which to make currrency. Now that that is no longer the case, is its current value based on new uses (of which there are quite a few) or based just on history and belief in its value.

Even its use as jewellery is not a sufficient answer. Do people use gold as jewellery because it's looks good or because it's an expression of wealth?



posted on Dec, 20 2017 @ 02:24 AM
link   
a reply to: Hazardous1408


At the basic level, what good is gold and silver? What makes it “valuable”, really?


Healing and Purification is the only value silver and gold has. People have been reduced to things, owned by Corporations who value their souls only by the amount of Currency they can consume from them.

The new/old Slavery is Currency, be it paper, gold, silver, or bitcoin; and all Freedom comes at a price. Unfortunately, most people have given up their free-dumb for cel phones, intelligence and self respect.

edit on 20-12-2017 by Sapphire because: (no reason given)



posted on Dec, 20 2017 @ 07:12 AM
link   
Gold's true value is in its scarcity and its use in modern electronics as an excellent conductor. It's also a precious metal used in fashion.

Others hypothesize we are an engineered species that was put here to mine gold for an alien species. I don't know about that one though.

Intrinsically though, nothing has value until a human is willing to trade something else for it. So I'm sure you are quite right in your ideas of how any sort of value is construed at the end of the day.



posted on Dec, 20 2017 @ 07:14 AM
link   
a reply to: Sapphire

No. Gold has many uses in electronics and sciences. This is simply wrong to suggest it has only healing and purification properties and that is why it has value. Colloidal silver is great if you want to turn into a blue person. Otherwise there are much much cheaper ways to heal purify and disinfect. It makes zero economic sense to use something hundreds of times more expensive to do the same job.

Using gold or silver for that is every snake oil salesmen's dream. A new mark to bilk.
edit on 20-12-2017 by hombero because: (no reason given)



posted on Dec, 20 2017 @ 07:22 AM
link   
a reply to: enlightenedservant

How can you talk about the value of something by positing a scenario of the last man on earth, when value is now moot as there is no trade.

If I was the last person on earth, do you really expect that I'm going to go seek out a gold mine and use what little calories of energy I can muster to mine gold or what? Are you aware you don't simply just pull huge chunks of solid gold out of the ground, that it takes a refinery to get it to a state where one can take advantage of its malleability?

Even if I went and looted a bunch of houses for all their jewelry... Those are good alloys. Purposefully hardened by the inclusion of other metal (s). Now I have to find a way to extract just the gold.

At that point you'd be starving and simply steal some rope (not pure gold since we both know how soft it is
...), The plate, some utensils, and maybe a cup. Oh and food. And then I'd say EFF gold!

Come on.

edit on 20-12-2017 by hombero because: (no reason given)



posted on Dec, 20 2017 @ 07:24 AM
link   

originally posted by: hombero
a reply to: enlightenedservant

How can you talk about the value of something by positing a scenario of the last man on earth, when value is now moot as there is no trade.


I was literally talking about the multitude of things that can be done with gold even if there were no other humans around. That destroys the idea that gold only has value as something to trade or as a form of currency. Get it now?



posted on Dec, 20 2017 @ 07:27 AM
link   
a reply to: enlightenedservant

Making tools from a super malleable material is silly. Try boiling water in a gold pot.



posted on Dec, 20 2017 @ 07:32 AM
link   
a reply to: hombero

Don't be stupid. There are plenty of tools that can be used without being placed in/on a fire, such as mealing stones. The whole point is that gold has uses even if you're the last human on Earth, which disproves the whole idea that it is useless and only has value as currency.

ETA: Also, have you ever actually worked with gold? It's only "super malleable" in relation to other metals. You make it sound like it's play dough lol.
edit on 20-12-2017 by enlightenedservant because: (no reason given)



posted on Dec, 20 2017 @ 08:21 AM
link   
a reply to: olaru12




ask yourself, why is Russia and China are buying so much gold.


Perhaps they see something coming in terms of the global financial system and/or dollar hegemony?



posted on Dec, 20 2017 @ 08:24 AM
link   
a reply to: hombero


Yeah ok you're right. It does have electronic properties. So now, what are you going to do about it? How are you going to create something useful from it, using gold slash silver? Do you have a plan for that?I mean crap.. if you do, lets # do it. We could create an Empire!
hurry.. the money on my car is running out i've got like 6 minutes left till i have to zip.



new topics

top topics



 
12
<< 1    3  4 >>

log in

join