GOLD! If we could make it...then what?

[Jarl]

I want to start a whirlpool of conversation here. Who knows if this will go anywhere.

Here is the subject: What if we could really make gold? And what if it was simple enough for common people to do it for themselves?

Ridiculous? Probably, but what I am after is some dry, reality stricken breakdown of what would happen after the fact. What would happen to wealth, the economy, global relations, farmers, education, government, laws etc etc. Perhaps the closet metallurgists trying to chemically fuse dream with dream get lost in the clouds and aren't prepared to deal with what ramifications gold production would force them into.

Let's devise a scenario, where a nugget grew in a dish or after the reduction of a few select elements and controlled heat one rolled around in the base of a beaker...let's say it was the size of a marble, a big shooter. You sit there in your lab coat with goggles pushed up above your forehead, a-gaze the glimmering creation of countless hours, even years of scientific diligence. It has finally paid off...you did it. Now what?

NOW what

 

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[midnightmoon]

Econ 101: stand in the flow of money and you will be taken out.



Running some cons, gotta get back to my blue bowl now.

 

[Escape]

First I would make myself a nice set of gold teeth then I would ride a train and smile alot.

 

[Davers]

Has this not happened With Diamonds Already.?.
Not easy to make , but the Quality can fool many of the Experts.
And is MUCH cheaper than mining them.

Kinda reminds me of an old Twilight Zone Show I once Watched..(A good one to!)
Davers

 

[Limitool]

ONLY... going by your above scenario of a single person producing a gold nugget I think not much would happen. Now we all know this person is gonna be busy making a LOT OF NUGGETS! But... if this person announces to the world his/hers procedure and it's backed up by "others" then it would be squashed quickly. Diamonds do not have the value of gold. Gold can be utilized in many different applications.

Midnightmoon is right.... "Econ 101: stand in the flow of money and you will be taken out."

 

[Jason in Enid]

Follow the example set by the DeBeers... Fill warehouses with it, don't tell anyone where it comes from, and only release a little at a time to keep the market value high.

 

[Boatlode]

Diamonds do not have the value of gold. Gold can be utilized in many different applications.

Diamond has many, many industrial uses in cutting and drilling. It is the hardest substance.

Gold is useful in electronic applications because it does not oxidize.

 

[fella]

Here is the subject: What if we could really make gold? And what if it was simple enough for common people to do it for themselves?

I've been doing it for 200 years! It's really not that complicated! All you need is some straw and a spinning wheel and I'll hook you up. I'm gunna want your firstborn as payment though!

Rumpelstiltskin

 

[drbecker]

This is what started the magic of Alchemy turn lead into gold. It can be done but you would need a particle accelerator and the power required to do it makes man made gold more expensive then natural. Once made it should be indistinguishable from natural gold since you are rearranging the atom to make it into real gold. It would cost more than one quadrillion dollars per ounce to produce gold by this method with 1980 energy prices is what I find on the web.

 

[Msbeepbeep]

Probably be cheaper to go into space and collect a bunch of space rocks containing gold. Or just do what the Gov does, get some gold and a whole bunch of mirrors! Ta Da!!! Now we have mountains of it...no touching!!!

Seriously if they didn't do you in, gold would become just like paper, you would see it all over the place, and something else would take it's place as a sought after and valuable, and again the people with the power and the money would control it, because it's not about what's valuable or not, it's about control via brainwashing. MHO.

Fella- If your starting classes sign me up because I failed that class!

 

[Jarl]

Good comments everyone.

 

[discn]

Silver will be the next go to metal. Iron would be a close second.

 

[midnightmoon]

Jarl -- your topic reminds me of aluminum.

Up until the late 1800s aluminum was difficult to extract from ore, and pure aluminum was more valuable than gold.

Strange, does not appear any monetary system was based on aluminum. Or old jewelry made from Reynold's wrap. I mean aluminum.

... and today, all of us on this site ... say the lowly pull tab!

 

[Jason in Enid]

Jarl -- your topic reminds me of aluminum.

Up until the late 1800s aluminum was difficult to extract from ore, and pure aluminum was more valuable than gold.

Strange, does not appear any monetary system was based on aluminum. Or old jewelry made from Reynold's wrap. I mean aluminum.

... and today, all of us on this site ... say the lowly pull tab!

Did you know that because of it's value at the time, the very top block of the Washington monument is a pyramid of pure aluminum?