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I think he was talking about a small amount of gold. Twenty-thousand dollars worth could fit in your hand and easily be smuggled in clothes, luggage, etc. That'
by dmm 15y ago
I think he was talking about a small amount of gold. Twenty-thousand dollars worth could fit in your hand and easily be smuggled in clothes, luggage, etc. That's pretty handy if you had the flee the country from nazis(or whatever) that have stolen all of your other assets.
Admittedly that's a pretty unlikely scenario.
- cube13 15y agoIt's even more unlikely because you then have to find a buyer that's willing to pay market price for the gold wherever you end up at. You'll be reduced to selling it for whatever people are willing to pay.
- dmm 15y agoGold is pretty easy to sell and even if you got a terrible price for it, you are still better off than without it.
- _delirium 15y agoIn the past it's been mainly useful if you can flee from a region in turmoil to one with more stable conditions. For example, my grandfather fled Turkey for Greece in the late 1910s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_genocide http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_genocide), taking some gold with him that he was then able to sell in Greece, using the money to help resettle.
- mahyarm 15y agoMany wealthy people in vietnam were reduced to nothing when the currency became useless. The few smart people who had gold were able to move their wealth out. The entire world is going to go to shambles at once, that is a very low probability event compared to a region. Even during WW2 there were regions that were relatively untouched by the world war.
- arjunnarayan 15y agoIf we've come to the point where you're fleeing the country from Nazis with only what you can carry in your hand, the only thing that's going to be sustainable is investment in _yourself_ through massive education. That way you're up and working and earning from the moment you're safely away.
- nl 15y agoSince we are talking Sci-Fi scenarios... It makes a lot of sense to try and carry as much value with you as possible. Conditions during the course of your escape are likely to be difficult and the ability to pay for thing (=bribe your way out of trouble) is likely to be much more useful than knowledge of advanced mathematics or Python minutea. (Of course, the most useful way to carry value in an escape scenario is gemstones, not gold, since it is much easier to hide during transport).
- brazzy 15y agoGemstones are not a good value store at all, since there is no liquid market for them and the first-sale price is artificially inflated through marketing. Buy a diamond today and sell it tomorrow, and you'll make a loss of 30% or more.
- nl 15y agoIn the "government collapse and you need to run from nazis" scenario, if you somehow manage to only lose 30% of your value you are doing well. I'd note that Wikipedia says: A high quality diamond weighing as little as 2 or 3 grams could be worth as much as 100 kilos of gold. This extremely condensed value and portability does bestow diamonds as a form of emergency funding. People and populations displaced by war or extreme upheaval have utilised this portable asset successfully.[1] [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamonds_as_an_investment http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamonds_as_an_investment (yes, it says citation needed, but nevertheless it did work in WW2.)