If we took all the gold owned by the US government and distributed it evenly would this be a positive thing to do?

submitted by x0x7 from self.AskSaidIt

Is this a good thing to do or a bad thing to do?

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[–]GuyWhite 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

No. The sudden availability of large quantities of gold would probably crash the gold market. So many folks would just sell their gold so they could buy a Cadillac.

[–]HiddenFox 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Did they not do something like this at the onset of the pandemic, giving everyone free cash? And how was is spent? Was is cherished and used to pay down existing debts? Saved for tough times? Nope, meme stocks and Bitcoin! Then inflation. It's a terrible idea.

[–]Zapt 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

A lot of it was used to pay off personal debt, but the instant it ran out, people starting going into debt again because they got used to spending, plus you know, having higher cost-of-living due to inflation caused by the $$$ giveaway.

[–]HiddenFox 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I agree, I was being a little sarcastic.

[–]wlh0242 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

No, because what little is left backing the US dollar, would cause the dollar to completely crash.

[–]x0x7[S] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

The US dollar is backed by jail time for not paying taxes. The dollar is a don't go to jail for having a productive life token. Hence it doesn't need gold to back it. And in fact gold doesn't back it because you can't exchange a dollar for a fixed value of gold from the dollar's issuer.

[–]Rah 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Why?

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Stealing from the jews sounds swell, but what percentage of that gold is owned by private non billionaire investors? Some. This sounds less Fight Club and more pure communism.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Ok ok you said govt owned gold. It should be used to pay down the national debt.

https://mises.org/mises-wire/does-united-states-government-need-gold-reserve-no

[–]RedditButt 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Then we would go about business as normal despite everybody having a few ounces of a nifty coveted metal.

[–]F-R-O_G 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Unless you are a jeweler or into specialized electronics, gold is simply pretty. What are you going to do? Sit and admire the smooth sheen and deep color? It used to be that printed money was "backed" by gold; but this is not a thing anymore. Now, paper money is not really worth the paper it is printed on, other than that the powers in charge of such things declare it to be so. The reality is that paper money -even money displayed electronically in your banking app; is pretend money. As long as everyone plays by the rules set forth by the authorities, we can all get along, more or less.