Gold doesn’t always glitter

The current rush to acquire gold is difficult to understand from any rational standpoint. Gold has value only when society is functioning, goods and services are being produced and money, banking, credit are in full swing. Yet many think that a stock of gold assures smooth sailing through anything and everything that might lie ahead.

The delusion is akin to believing homeownership makes one invulnerable to financial catastrophe. Stupidity got us into this economic jam, but I doubt more stupidity will get us out.

Fancy yourself lost at sea on a raft of wreckage. A school of sharks circles the raft, which rides lower in the water every hour. You have a foot-square brick of the finest, purest gold. What earthly bit of good will it ever do in that scenario? Can you feed, bathe or shelter yourself with it? Not likely, I’d say. I see only one practical use for the gold (aside from maybe busting a shark on the nose): You could hang it around your neck and drown yourself. Considering the circumstances, that just could be the most consummately sensible thing for you to do.

Dennis P. Roberts

Spokane