We don’t just use gold for jewellery because it’s valuable, we also use it for that because it looks good. Better than many other materials we could use.
Now you could argue that we only think it looks good because it’s valuable, and maybe that is how it came about, but I think it’s been embedded into the culture deeply enough that gold as a material looks great to us on it’s own merit at this point.
Aesthetic value is real value, as we can tell due to peoples willingness to pay for artistic objects even if made from cheap materials.
The value of gold being embedded in society is similar to the value a dollar bill derives from being embedded in society. It's valued because it's valuable, which really means it's a reflection of values coming from other sources, and not something on its own.
I am allergic to most metals, and only highest purity surgical stainless steel, surgical titanum, and noble metals can come in constant contact with my skin without generating rashes. I can only wear piercings made of surgical titanum, gold and platinum.
Gold is extremely ductile, malleable, and is very easy to amalgamate, alloy, and mix with other metals.
This and other minor properties, plus the aesthetic factor, is what makes it the best material for jewelry; it's extremely easy to work with, it's safe to use, it won't react under normal circumstances, degrade or get ruined by time.
I don't know any alloy that has similar properties that isn't either super expensive, has a different color, or io hard to worx with.
Furthermore, it's non-industrial value doesn't derive from its industrial use: if industry could switch to something else overnight (like fillings did), gold would still be a value store.
People without access to banks wear their wealth on them. That seems super risky but you see it every day on the street. I suppose they have no alternative.
I have seen in photos that when my parents married my mother was draped in gold, which she never wore again. As a kid I once was with her when she visited her safety deposit box and I picked up one of the bangles which immediately bent out of circularity. It wasn't designed to be worn, or at least to be worn once, very carefully.
Jewelry stores in the US don't seem to sell by weight. I remember jewelry stores always pulling out the scale and calculator to tell you the price -- it must have changed every day.
Gold as an asset reminds me of those NASDAQ-listed companies that assert they will never declare a dividend. Any intrinsic value their stock might have is simply the belief that someday, somebody else will buy it.
Consider: Any value my money has is simply the belief that someday, someone else will accept it in exchange for something else.
Yes of course but cash is quite liquid while a share is not. In other words, that dollar will be accepted by the butcher, baker, or cabinet maker while demand for that share of coinbase fluctuates wildly.
An item can last longer than a lifetime, be passed down generations, melted and reformed into something new whilst being the "same" material. These are astonishing properties. Tulips and currency both rot, but at different rates.
The value of it is relative. In happy times, sure, not worth so much. Bartering to get yourself out of trouble...a Rolex tells the time and opens cell doors.
Gold is most certainly not a Tulip.
The industrial uses made up 81.7 of the 474 tons in Q1 2022 (or 17.2%). That is not a lot.
https://www.gold.org/goldhub/research/gold-demand-trends/gol...
81 tons out of 205,238 tonnes used per year...
rounding error.
financial utility IS utility.
nothing is detached from anything.
gold inlays/crowns are still BY FAR the best dental material. People just don't like the looks of it, but it's still medically the absolute best.
Gold crowns typically outlive the owners.
I'm convinced the great filter has something to do with the availability of gold to a species. There are all manner of gold based alloys that we haven't researched and There are all sorts of technological innovations locked away from us simply because gold is too expensive.
case in point, a boat hull coated in a gold alloy could be non reactive. no more need for antifouling paint or sacrificial anodes.
For a boat the gold coating would need to include all metal parts in contact with the water (rudder pins, prop shaft, etc) and it would be an interesting experiment to learn whether it really prevents fouling (I can imagine that wear and damage to the coating might provide cervices for growth to anchor)
I got it intentionally when I needed a crown on a back molar, to remind myself of where I came from: my grandparent's generation had to sell their gold fillings for safe passage from harm.
That's where but for the grace of an uncaring universe go I.
Gold is malleable, and non-degrading.
It can be readily converted between blocks for storage, and other forms required for function purposes.
It does not degrade - it will not react with water or air (or the water there-in); it is an effective indefinite store (until, that is, it gets stolen).
Absolutely not. Gold has a variety of functional uses in electronics. It's used for its physical properties in a lot of spacecraft. And until dentistry had modern options gold fillings were common (not even that long ago- my own mother has a couple gold fillings).
He also skips over why it's called a Tulip: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania