I know people out there who have invested a lot in gold under the belief that in the event of like complete societal collapse or hyperinflation, they could use it for purchasing.

I have the hunch it’s a scam, but I haven’t learned enough monetary theory, business, or economics to understand why.

  • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    3·
    11 months ago

    if society does collapse, it will absolutely retain its value

    Why? It’s not inherently valuable beyond a handful of industrial/electronic uses. If society collapses, people are going to be trading in food, water and medicine, not worthless shiny metal.

    • Ex Nummis@lemmy.world
      2·
      11 months ago

      Even at the basest level of society that we might fall back to, there will be a need for stores of great value in order to make larger trades. You can’t effectively trade large scale without it. Which might not be relevant right after a full system failure, but definitely afterwards.