Why is Gold so valuable?

[Coito ergo sum]

Most of the gold ever mined is gathering dust locked up in bank vaults because it's too valuable to use for making things.

So it's only valuable because "everyone else thinks it's valuable".

That's the only reason anything is valuable.

[Coito ergo sum]

(I wasn't pretending to have a watertight argument. But hey, we've always done it this way, so why change anything now...)

That seems to be it. Gold has always been valuable, ergo it's still valuable. But how can something that doesn't get used be so valuable? It's downright silly IMHO.

Gold costs what people are willing to pay for it.

[Coito ergo sum]

Yes, but: It's rare - so what? If enough people/countries just decided they didn't want it, the value of gold would plummet.

Rare things are perceived as more valuable because there are fewer of them: i.e. supply is low. Lower supply tends to increase prices, all else being equal.
If people decided they didn't want it, then ...demand would be low. Lower demand tends to decrease prices, all else being equal.

And, chicks like shiny things with which to adorn themselves. Men want chicks. You do the math.

[Atheist-Lite]

Yes, but: It's rare - so what? If enough people/countries just decided they didn't want it, the value of gold would plummet.

Rare things are perceived as more valuable because there are fewer of them: i.e. supply is low. Lower supply tends to increase prices, all else being equal.
If people decided they didn't want it, then ...demand would be low. Lower demand tends to decrease prices, all else being equal.

And, chicks like shiny things with which to adorn themselves. Men want chicks. You do the math.

It's usually the cheaper chicks what adorn themselves to excess. The math ain't so simple.

[klr]

Most of the gold ever mined is gathering dust locked up in bank vaults because it's too valuable to use for making things.

So it's only valuable because "everyone else thinks it's valuable".

That's the only reason anything is valuable.

Yes, but it would be a very short thread if we left things at that, wouldn't it?

(I wasn't pretending to have a watertight argument. But hey, we've always done it this way, so why change anything now...)

That seems to be it. Gold has always been valuable, ergo it's still valuable. But how can something that doesn't get used be so valuable? It's downright silly IMHO.

Gold costs what people are willing to pay for it.

That doesn't really advance the discussion very further either. See above again ...

Yes, but: It's rare - so what? If enough people/countries just decided they didn't want it, the value of gold would plummet.

Rare things are perceived as more valuable because there are fewer of them: i.e. supply is low. Lower supply tends to increase prices, all else being equal.
If people decided they didn't want it, then ...demand would be low. Lower demand tends to decrease prices, all else being equal.

And, chicks like shiny things with which to adorn themselves. Men want chicks. You do the math.

In which case - again - why does so much gold end up being hoarded? I go with Morticia's explanation above ...

[Pappa]

In which case - again - why does so much gold end up being hoarded? I go with Morticia's explanation above ...

Does it though? People invest in gold bonds, and banks traditionally invest in gold because it is so secure. But other than buying gold jewellery that they may 'hoard' in a jewellery box, do many people actually hoard gold for financial/status reasons?

[Coito ergo sum]

In which case - again - why does so much gold end up being hoarded? I go with Morticia's explanation above ...

How about: men want pussy. women want gold/jewels. Having lots of of gold and jewels, and being able to dole it out to women gets men more pussy. Therefore, gold and jewels are valuable?

[Atheist-Lite]

Women like to wear the gold teeth of their tribal enemies in a necklace. It means their menfolk have killed kings.

[mistermack]

At least gold and diamonds have an intrinsic value.
The bigger mystery is why a daub of paint by Andy Warhol is worth so much. Or an Adolf Hitler autograph.
The answer is that there are an awful lot of people who have vast amounts of money in the bank, and you can only eat so much food, drink so much drink, only drive one car at a time etc.
Lots of people are so rich, they genuinely have trouble spending the money in a normal life-span.
So the price of rare stuff goes up and up. There is far too much money in circulation, and it has to find a home. Gold, diamonds and paintings can be bought and sold with little overheads, are relatively cheap to keep, and have obvious bragging qualities.
.

[Coito ergo sum]

At least gold and diamonds have an intrinsic value.

Nothing has any intrinsic value.

The bigger mystery is why a daub of paint by Andy Warhol is worth so much. Or an Adolf Hitler autograph.

That question is no more, or less, of a mystery than the value of gold. Those things are of value, because people subjectively value them, and they cost what someone is willing to pay for it.

and have obvious bragging qualities.
.

Bragging qualities are not innate. They are subjective value judgments, pure and simply.

[Svartalf]

Nothing has intrinsic value? that's playing on words.

While a gold nugget likely had no value back in the devonian (I suspect that in later eras some animals might have wanted the shiny for nest adornment), it found value as soon an humans discovered it.
Food has no intrinsic value? Unless it's going to rot before somebody wants to eat it, I disagree with you.

and sorry, but gold has more intrinsic value, due to various properties beside prettiness, than a painting. if only because a painting that doesn't get stored in favorable conditions will deteriorate, gold won't. and gold is universally regarded as nice and desirable, whereas a warhol painting is subject to despite even in the culture it was made.

[Coito ergo sum]

Nothing has intrinsic value? that's playing on words.

While a gold nugget likely had no value back in the devonian (I suspect that in later eras some animals might have wanted the shiny for nest adornment), it found value as soon an humans discovered it.
Food has no intrinsic value? Unless it's going to rot before somebody wants to eat it, I disagree with you.

No, it isn't. Intrinsic value means that something by its very nature has value. Intrinsically, nothing has any value. Value is somethings humans make up in their brains.

The fact that gold didn't have value in the Devonian but "found value" as soon as humans discovered it is the same thing as saying that some humans gave it subjective value based on what some humans liked. It's as like as not that the first people who ran across gold saw no value in it.

Food has a use, and we need it to live. Value - what something is worth - is not intrinsic to the food, it's extrinsic to the food. We value it. It doesn't "have" value. Some folks don't value meat at all as a food. Others do. What's it's "intrinsic" value? Nothing. It's "extrinsic" value is what a person values it.

[Svartalf]

Reg ate my cogent answer and I can't be assed to reformulate and retype it, so let's just say that you're a specious poopie head.

[mistermack]

No, it isn't. Intrinsic value means that something by its very nature has value. Intrinsically, nothing has any value. Value is somethings humans make up in their brains.

That's 24 carat contradictory codswallop.
Of course value is bestowed by humans. There are no prizes for stating the bleeding obvious.

But if you accept that, then it's obvious that some things are intrinsically valued by humans. Gold can be melted down, powdered, made into rings or death masks. But the GOLD has an intrinsic value to humans, irrespective of what it's made into. Same with diamonds.

If you say intrinsically nothing has any value, you are saying nothing is valued by humans for what it is. That's just silly.

[Coito ergo sum]

Reg ate my cogent answer and I can't be assed to reformulate and retype it, so let's just say that you're a specious poopie head.

No, I think it's that your conflating "extrinsic" with "intrinsic."