I think you’ve misunderstood me. Gold has its niche applications where you need a malleable and nonreactive metal (like dentistry). If this was the only use

I think you’ve misunderstood me. Gold has its niche applications where you need a malleable and nonreactive metal (like dentistry). If this was the only use for gold, it would still be at least 800-900USD an ounce, because it that’s what it costs to extract. The market cap for gold would be like 1 billion USD, rather than 11 trillion USD. Ironically in a world where gold wasn’t ‘lusted’ after, it might even be more expensive because the market would be illiquid. And a small oligopoly of suppliers would be able to gouge buyers. This is what happens in the rare earth metals market.