I wouldn't agree that gold has no real value, Carol, except in this sense: you can't eat it.

The reason that gold has been highly valued since the most ancient times is:

1. It doesn't tarnish! It completely defies the ravages of time. No other natural metal can do that. Gold is symbolic, in fact, of immortality for that very reason.

2. It's highly workable, thus is ideal for making fine jewelry, etc.

3. It looks very beautiful.

4. It's relatively rare and hard to acquire...it takes a lot of work to recover gold from the earth.

Anything that possessed those 4 qualities would be seen as highly valuable and desirable in any moderately developed culture, and that's why gold has always been so sought after and valued.

Ron Paul is quite correct that money should be based on (backed up by) real things that it can be redeemed for such as gold and silver, for example. If it was (as it once was), it would still be real money.

*****

Rapaire, I found this statement of yours quite striking: "I feel wealthy because I'm not in want; you might only feel wealthy if you had six yachts and the trophy boys or girls to go with them."

Dead right! I feel wealthy if I have enough of what I actually need to survive decently (car, clothes, food), and an okay place to live in, and one good guitar, and still enough money left over to have a little fun, go to a restaurant, see a movie, that sort of thing.

On the other hand, my Dad only felt wealthy if he had a Mercedes, a Jaguar, a Porsche, a Japanese minivan, an airplane, a sailboat, a big powerboat, a huge house on the waterfront with a dock, and considerably more money than 95% of the other people in his community. That was "wealthy" to my Dad, and it was what he sought all his life. At a couple of points he had as much as 2/3 of the above list at any one time, but he never got it all, and it never lasted when he did get it.

He spent his whole life chasing that rainbow...never caught it.