Gold is real money. Dollars are not. In the history of the world, they estimate that 145,000 tonnes of gold have been pulled out of the ground. If gold is 1,000$ per ounce that means that all the gold that exists in the world is worth 4.6 Trillion dollars. We are in debt more than twice that. Let me say that in another way. We have created a debt so large that if we had all the gold that ever existed in the world, it would not be enough to pay off even half our debt. Those of you that have read the wealth of nations know that the value of a mans labor is supposed to be paid in a medium for which he can exchange that medium for whatever he has occasion for. As we are now a global economy (so they say) it becomes more evident that some mens labor are being underpaid while others are being overpaid. I.E. the chinese sweatshop worker vs the GM UAW employee. An imbalance like that cant not be sustained forever. As investors tell me...When you see a stock where costs are exceeding revenue, is it a good idea to buy that stock? No...you short the shit out of that stock. When you see a stock where costs are way way under revenue do you short that stock? No...you back up the truck and buy as much as you can. The US economy will equalize with the rest of the world and it will be an extremely painful transition. There is a saying that making a million dollars and then losing it is so much worse than never having had it in the first place. We are a country of excess. So much excess that even people in poverty in this country are fat. Dont worry though...thats going to be cured REAL soon.
A little off topic here, but I wish a gold bug would explain to me how we divide 145K metric tons by the world's wealth. I mansion would be worth an ounce of gold and six bars of gold would buy the new Yankee stadium. The gold standard worked just fine pre-industrial revolution, but how could that system work now? A realize a fiat currency, especially in a complex economic system like ours, is difficult to conceptualize and requires a lot of abstract thought, but I've yet to hear a convincing argument for a return to the gold standard. ...And yeah, you're right. We owe a lot of money. And I don't think all the world's gold is worth 4.6T, so we're probably in debt four or five times the value of the world's gold supply.
Actually, there is as much money as the government decides it wants to print. Since going off the gold standard there is nothing backing up our money other than the "full faith and credit" of the U.S. Government. That just means if you don't like your money they can print you some new money. Currency is, in reality, not worth any more than the paper or metal blank it is printed on. The only reason it has any value at all is because we need to have a medium of currency and the government keeps telling us it is our medium of value. Assets are the only real value we have. I suggest you don't think about this too hard or you will start to wonder why you keep working or trading for money and why would anyone want to save it.