gold_dredger,
If you want to apply taxes and inflation then apply it to all investments. Still, you will see that stocks beat gold, real estate, bonds, CDs, etc in the last 40 years (I accepted the convenient start window of 1966 that you chose when gold started to rally). Also, in those 40 years, the US economy has weathered an energy crisis or oil imbargo,rampant inflation,few blown up recessions, terrorist attacks, a fierce industrial competitor like Japan (similar to China now) and it wasn’t really the smooth ride that you paint it to be.
