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 kadakuda
The Great"Green".......East
Registered: 05/21/04
Posts: 6,972
Loc: Asia
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 Re: Why Is Gold Valuable?  [Re: DieCommie]
#10470668 - 06/08/09 02:22 PM (3 years, 11 months ago) |
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nope. i am from the west....but lets face it "modernized" or "western culture" as its coined now adays are the ones that care. be it in asia, europe or americas.....only rich countries seem to care. i don't see many starving people striving for ounces. food > gold
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The seeds you won't sow are the plants you dont grow.
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ChuangTzu
starvingphysicist
Registered: 09/04/02
Posts: 2,942
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Re: Why Is Gold Valuable? [Re: kadakuda]
#10472459 - 06/08/09 07:52 PM (3 years, 11 months ago) |
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Quote:
kadakuda said:
nope. i am from the west....but lets face it "modernized" or "western culture" as its coined now adays are the ones that care. be it in asia, europe or americas.....only rich countries seem to care. i don't see many starving people striving for ounces. food > gold
An example I throw out kinda often is what happened in Cambodia during the reign of the Khmer Rouge...
The entire society was thrown back into the dark ages. Economic output came to almost a complete stop. Cities were vacated, factories and hospitals shut down, national currency abandoned, and the entire population sent to work out in rice fields with people in charge who didn't have any knowledge of farming and had a disdain for any kind of technology whatsoever. The entire population was plunged into starvation. In this environment, gold became the de facto medium of exchange because it could be more easily concealed from the authorities--but the value of gold relative to food fell by a factor of 100 (a gram of gold would trade for 1/100th the amount of rice as before the shit hit the fan).
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kadakuda
The Great"Green".......East
Registered: 05/21/04
Posts: 6,972
Loc: Asia
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Re: Why Is Gold Valuable? [Re: ChuangTzu]
#10475133 - 06/09/09 02:55 AM (3 years, 11 months ago) |
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interesting, know of any good books on that?
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The seeds you won't sow are the plants you dont grow.
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ChrisB7
Stranger
Registered: 05/07/09
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Re: Why Is Gold Valuable? [Re: ChuangTzu]
#10475556 - 06/09/09 05:17 AM (3 years, 11 months ago) |
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Yeah, it's upsetting stuff man. My dad once went through that whole area, he told me he saw kids ripped in half by mines, kids shooting at eachother with machine guns and plenty of other nasty shit.
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xFrockx
Registered: 09/18/06
Posts: 9,618
Loc: Northeast
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Re: Why Is Gold Valuable? [Re: ChrisB7]
#10477185 - 06/09/09 03:15 PM (3 years, 11 months ago) |
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To OP: Mostly because of women I'd imagine.
Edited by xFrockx (06/09/09 03:15 PM)
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ChuangTzu
starvingphysicist
Registered: 09/04/02
Posts: 2,942
Last seen: 10 hours, 28 minutes
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Re: Why Is Gold Valuable? [Re: kadakuda]
#10479271 - 06/09/09 10:29 PM (3 years, 11 months ago) |
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Quote:
kadakuda said:
interesting, know of any good books on that?
I'm sure there are plenty. The one that I read is a first-hand account written by Haing Ngor called Haing Ngor: A Cambodian Odyssey. Haing Ngor is the Cambodian guy in the movie The Killing Fields. It's not the most academic book on the subject but he was an educated man (a doctor before the Khmer Rouge came to power) and lived through most of the regime's hold on Cambodia before escaping to Thailand and then emigrating to the U.S. I'd like to read it again, but sadly I seem to have lost my copy.
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LvMkngFlwrChld
Stranger
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Re: Why Is Gold Valuable? [Re: Silversoul]
#10499101 - 06/13/09 12:30 PM (3 years, 11 months ago) |
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yeah man, and why is cash valuable yo? its just paper!
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 Silversoul
Holon
Registered: 01/01/05
Posts: 22,562
Loc: Mostly harmless
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Quote:
LvMkngFlwrChld said:
yeah man, and why is cash valuable yo? its just paper!
It's valuable because we agree that it is. Same with gold.
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zneocide
Miscellaneum et cetra
Registered: 04/02/06
Posts: 150
Loc: Does it matter?
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Re: Why Is Gold Valuable? [Re: apt403]
#10525022 - 06/17/09 07:01 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
apt403 said:
...I've heard that aluminium, even though it's cheap as hell now-a-days, was once quite valuable. To the point bars of it where exhibited with the French crown jewels, and Napoleon III provided his most esteemed guests with aluminum cutlery, while everyone of less importance used silver.
The capstone of the Washington Monument is pure aluminum, because at the time it was worth more than gold.
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GabbaDj
BTH
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Posts: 19,286
Loc: By The Lake
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Re: Why Is Gold Valuable? [Re: shroomzey]
#10571672 - 06/25/09 05:18 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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I was thinking about this thread today and I can totally see why gold became to be valuable and eventually worth money. But will it stay that way?
With gold being much more abundant than our ancestors thought and with its limited uses, will we some day see gold as just another shiny rock? It seems to me that the closer we get as a world, the more gold is going to have to rely on vanity for its value.
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kush23
Stranger
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Re: Why Is Gold Valuable? [Re: GabbaDj]
#10642106 - 07/08/09 04:12 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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well gold is 1 of the compunds to make a bomb i know that
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ChuangTzu
starvingphysicist
Registered: 09/04/02
Posts: 2,942
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Re: Why Is Gold Valuable? [Re: kush23]
#10649073 - 07/09/09 08:53 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
kush23 said:
well gold is 1 of the compunds to make a bomb i know that
That's a drink.
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Wizard_of_Odds
slumdawg 'illionaire
Registered: 06/14/09
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Re: Why Is Gold Valuable? [Re: ChuangTzu]
#10649465 - 07/09/09 10:00 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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Goldschlager?
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Wiccan_Seeker
gold foil hat admin
Registered: 02/06/02
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Re: Why Is Gold Valuable? [Re: kush23]
#10649685 - 07/09/09 10:38 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
well gold is 1 of the compunds to make a bomb i know that
True. If you surround a (thermo)nuclear bomb with a gold casing, you will get greatly magnified fallout radioactivity in the first week or two.
Natural gold is 197Au. The nuclear explosion causes it to pick up a neutron forming 198Au which is stupendously radioactive. 198Au releases half its contained radioactivity in just 65 hours. Compare this to over 24000 years for weapons grade plutonium and almost 704 million years for weapons grade uranium. Because its millions to billions of times more radioactivein the first days, it causes a lot of radiation sickness.
Basically gold is used for a "dirty bomb" that uses an actual nuke. (A "salted bomb")
So, not an urban legend.
The movie Goldfinger comes to mind. Goldfinger's plot wouldn't work though, because the gold won't stay "hot" for long. In a month's time, radioactivity would have decreased over 2000-fold.
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kush23
Stranger
Registered: 05/17/09
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i think that is why there trying to buy every1s
gold back on all those commercials
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LayYouIn
Taurus
Registered: 09/28/06
Posts: 4,402
Loc: Organ
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Re: Why Is Gold Valuable? [Re: GabbaDj]
#10659972 - 07/11/09 09:23 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
GabbaDj said:
I was thinking about this thread today and I can totally see why gold became to be valuable and eventually worth money. But will it stay that way?
With gold being much more abundant than our ancestors thought and with its limited uses, will we some day see gold as just another shiny rock? It seems to me that the closer we get as a world, the more gold is going to have to rely on vanity for its value.
i read on the shroomery(cant remember who wrote it) that in india, during weddings, gold is a tradional gift and given in large amounts. I also read that india is going through a population boom.
I read today that india is right under china as far as economy goes...meaning they are in a good position.
.....unless i read wrong...
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Mr.Al
Alphabet soup
Registered: 05/27/07
Posts: 5,185
Loc: N.S.A. D.C.
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Re: Why Is Gold Valuable? [Re: Silversoul]
#10688518 - 07/16/09 04:46 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
Silversoul said:
Quote:
LvMkngFlwrChld said:
yeah man, and why is cash valuable yo? its just paper!
It's valuable because we agree that it is. Same with gold.
Not exactly.
Gold has intrinsic value because it is useful. It is a commodity that has recognizable value. Besides it's utility it can not be counterfeited easily. It is easily divisible into different units of weight. It does not degrade, so you can readily store it away.
That's what a lot of people don't understand. Paper as money sucks because there is always a temptation to counterfeit the money. Government does exactly that today, except they have established for themselves a monopoly on said counterfeiting.
Which would you rather have; a kilo of gold or a kilo of paper? Don't forget there's also platinum, palladium, silver, and even copper. These precious metals all have useful applications that contribute to their value!
EDIT
I forgot to mention their inherent scarcity... Using paper for money is sketchy because the paper money can become as abundant as toilet paper.....
Edited by Mr.Al (07/16/09 04:49 PM)
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Mattplusness
Stranger
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Re: Why Is Gold Valuable? [Re: Silversoul]
#10689231 - 07/16/09 07:10 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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Back in the 60s there was an act known as Bretton Woods, which set the standard of gold to be set at one price by the united states with out vast amount of it, the economists of the time though it would be a good idea to control the money by controlling the gold market. Soon enough, emerging nations would buy gold since it was a guaranteed positive return, the US sold almost half their gold, and Bretton Woods was deemed a failure since the price never rose
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Quit smoking cigarettes August 23rd, 2008.
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Mr.Al
Alphabet soup
Registered: 05/27/07
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Loc: N.S.A. D.C.
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Recall that Nixon ended Bretton Woods in 1971 when he took the dollar completely off the gold standard. Attempting to control the market should be remembered as a Keynesian "idea". There are economists (from the Austrian school) who strenuously disagree with central economic planning and manipulation of the market. It should be obvious that fractional reserve banking is the culprit of the monetary shenanigans we've seen both past and present.
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Mattplusness
Stranger
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Re: Why Is Gold Valuable? [Re: shroomzey]
#10705637 - 07/19/09 09:04 PM (3 years, 9 months ago) |
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Well think of it like this? Why is this green cotton paper worth the number it says? It's the same material, same process, probably the same damn machine the prints them! Money is worth what the government says it is, and it is so labor can be traded fairly, and efforts from our labor get rewarded based on the effort we put in (in a sense).
So why is gold valuable? The same reason those bills in your wallet are valuable, there is intrinsic value in both, and the price is set by what we are willing to pay, and what is available in the market (supply and demand).
You could ask the same question about why is anything valuable, it's all supply and demand along with iconic value from what consumers say it is worth.
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Quit smoking cigarettes August 23rd, 2008.
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