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.
I assume you’re talking about physical gold.
Yes, it’s generally a scam. Some middle man is going to take a cut of what it’s worth before you enter the market - and they’re almost always going to misrepresent it’s value, especially if it’s not in the form of a stamped bar. Then you basically have to store it and shlep it and secure it and keep it secret, which will further diminish profit. Then you have to sell it, presumably as part of your retirement plan…or leave it to somebody who’s going to lose even more of its value when they want to unload it inefficiently.
If you’re not wealthy in the first place it’s only worth investing in as a hobby…because you have to factor in the value of your time and subtract that from its value, as well.
As far as it being a hedge against the collapse of currency? Bad idea. Skills and land you can defend are going to be the only hedges against that. Even if it had value post collapse…it would just put a target on your head.
The amount of time it would take for a post collapse society to regain enough stability to return to metal being needed for a currency is likely longer then you would be alive to actually benefit from the investment.
Short term only direct barter and labor will be worth anything. You only need a currency when you have a non volatile society.
It’s why the whole post apocalyptic gold value nonsense is nonsense. You NEED an economy to make currency have value. A post collapse society has no economy.
Yeap.
Like…depending on the nature of the collapse you might have a bunch of delusional former MAGA people in a region who all have a bunch of gold so they trade it with each other…but for the most part nobody would want it.