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I suppose I should mention a data point that might go against my own thesis: the performance of gold. While gold has some legitimate uses in jewelry and technol

I suppose I should mention a data point that might go against my own thesis: the performance of gold. While gold has some legitimate uses in jewelry and technology, its price in recent years seems to be driven mostly by financial speculation, the same "store of value" theory that drives crypto. I think this theory is nonsense but it's true that if enough people believe it, it can become sort-of-true for a while, until it's not anymore.

imtringued 5y ago
It's nonsense because if you sell your potatoes for gold, why would you be able to get those potatoes back 30 years later? The sad answer is population growth. The optimistic answer is that the person ate the potatoes which gave him the strength to harvest potatoes in 30 years. The realistic answer is that you should have no expectation that you ever get any potatoes back as the potatoes have spoiled and nobody is exerting additional energy to counteract the loss.