While corrupt ratings agencies control prices for things like the price of Gold or silver etc, the system would not work except in the favor of the rich.

Every object that you can touch has some value! Take our five cent coin? It costs six cents per coin to make! So it is likely undervalued.

Gold costs real money and sometimes lives to dig out of the ground then process into the precious metal! And matters not what some half arsed moron wants to pay for it, can't have it if he can't meet the basic cost of mining and processing or otherwise, recovering it!

Moreover, when a gold coin is minted, the mint decides the face value of the coin, which given the workmanship inherent in metal objects, is usually more than the metal content; which nonetheless, retains some inherent intrinsic value as melted metal!

Depending on how rare it is and just how useful it is, will always have some inexhaustible inherent intrinsic value! And just as true for recycled aluminum cans!

I have heard that there's (par excellent conductors) precious metal to be had in E waste? and for a lot less outlay than traditional mining and recovery!?

And our first fifty cent coins had considerably more than fifty cents worth of silver in them; and the reason the early round ones were all withdrawn from circulation!

There's a lot of folk who just don't want to return to the sanity that was the gold standard, and because the value of all precious metal can't be arbitrarily manipulated!
Alan B.

Alan B.,
If every object you can touch had some value, there would be no dumps because everything would be recycled. BTW you're right about ewaste, though not all ewaste does contain precious metals, some does.

Our 5c coin's value is 5 cents; just because it costs more to make doesn't mean it's worth any more than that.

I think you're wrong about early 50c coins, but centuries ago in England they were stupid enough to make coins out of precious metals worth more than the coins themselves. People illegally shaved them and sometimes just melted them down. Making them from something cheaper would have made them far more suited to their purpose.

Fortunately few people are stupid enough to want to return to the insanity of the gold standard. It's EXTREMELY bad for the economy, but hypothetically even if it were good for the economy then it still wouldn't be worthwhile because acquiring the gold has an opportunity cost that would be better spent on things that improve the living standards of the population and things that make businesses more competitive.

David L.
Congratulations on again becoming the only non-fascist in Parliament: a breath of fresh air.

Ignore Aidan. He's operating at the sub 6 year-old level.

Aidan
What if the 5c coin cost $500 to make? Would that still mean it's not worth any more than 5 cents?

Your theory of money is wrong, simple as that. You don't understand what you're talking about.

Jardine,

It is those who idly dismiss comments, instead of engaging with them, who operate at a sub 6 year old level.

"What if the 5c coin cost $500 to make? Would that still mean it's not worth any more than 5 cents?"
Costing more to make does not itself increase the value of a product. However if they were that expensive to make, it's likely that so fe of them would be made that they'd gain some numismatic value.

"Your theory of money is wrong, simple as that. You don't understand what you're talking about."
Funnily enough, that's exactly what I think of yours. You think you understand how things work, but your understanding is simplistic and includes many false assumptions.

Fiat money, by definition, takes its (monetary) value (as opposed to commodity value) from the stamp of the authority impressed on it, okay, fair enough? Do you agree with that?

That's why you're saying the value of a 5 cent coin does not go up or down with the market value of the commodity - piece of nickel or whatever - that is used to bear the stamp of the authority - the Royal Mint - denominating its value as 5 cents?

Yes? You agree with that, don't you? I'm not misrepresenting you am I?