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> This isn’t true. Gold has about kept the same value, adjusted for inflation. Yes, and how is the equity in your local shoemaker or blacksmith doing? > The e
by darawk 5y ago
> This isn’t true. Gold has about kept the same value, adjusted for inflation.
Yes, and how is the equity in your local shoemaker or blacksmith doing?
> The economy grew enormously since medieval times. Anyone managing to keep reinvesting since then would be enormously rich.
By "keep reinvesting" do you mean "always correctly escaping the industries that died into the ones that kept growing all the way up to the present"? Because if so, you're right. But that's not a particularly good way to think about how returns compound.
- graeme 5y agoYou said the medieval equivalent of an index fund, which tracks the economy. The economy grew faster than gold. Obviously there was no index fund, but no one in medieval times tried to get rich by buying gold and sitting on it. They used other methods.
- darawk 5y ago> You said the medieval equivalent of an index fund, which tracks the economy. The economy grew faster than gold. Yes, but they still own shares in specific companies. Investing in an index fund is not the same thing as investing in GDP. > Obviously there was no index fund, but no one in medieval times tried to get rich by buying gold and sitting on it. They used other methods. The point is that simply maintaining your wealth from pre-modern times to the present would be an incredible feat, that someone who simply hoarded gold would have achieved.