With the recent downturn in the economy and the stock market closing down almost daily, gold and other precious metals are closing at all time highs. Gold closed down today just a little shy of $1,800.00 an ounce. Lots of investors are selling their stocks and giving up their cash to buy gold because everyone believes it will continue to go up. I have always been puzzled why gold is so sought after. Why, as a society, did we ever all agree that gold be the most valuable and guaranteed method of payment for goods and services? If the stock market collapses, and there are no jobs and pure pandemonium in the streets, I would consider an ounce of gold to be worthless. You cannot eat or drink gold, you cannot wear gold for clothing, although Mr. T would probably disagree with this point, and you cannot live under a nugget of gold. I would much rather have livestock, material for housing, a gun with ammo to hunt with as well as protection, a clean water supply and maybe even some oil or gasoline for my ATV to allow me to gather wood for warmth and hunt animals for food. The more I think about the value that is placed on gold, the more it makes less and less sense. Lots of people will argue, “Yeah, but you can buy all those things with gold!”, but to that I argue, “If my family is going hungry and we’re going to have to survive a long harsh winter or nuclear fallout and someone offered me a semi-truck load of gold for my farm and resources that are available to me, I wouldn’t even consider it, but if I did make the trade, I would surely die a rich man.”