I can’t speak for all goldbugs but I will answer for myself.
Yes – gold is just another commodity.
There are no currencies currently backed by gold. Actually, there are NO non-fiat currencies on planet earth right now. (this is another trend that will mean-revert – ie, we WILL have a precious metals backed currency again)
I don’t claim that gold is money or that gold is tied to any monetary system. What I do point out is that human beings have chosen silver and gold as a store of value for thousands of years. It is also worth noting that governments remain small when a gold standard is used and warfare is limitted and local.
I don’t have to be able to buy anything with silver or gold. Under the current US laws, I can trade silver and gold for US dollars any business day of the week. The transactions are not reportable to the IRS or government as long as certain thresholds are not crossed. I recently traded some silver bullion for a stack of Benjamin Franklins. At some point this summer I will be trading Mr Franklin for silver bullion.
And you actually can make purchases with silver today although it wouldn’t make any sense. If you were willing to spend your 40% or 90% US silver coins at the store you could do so – they are legal coins minted in US mints. A 1963 or earlier silver half is worth 50 cents at the grocery store and about 4 dollars at the coin shop. I’ll take mine to the coin shop.
So, we are in agreement – gold is not money today.
Here’s some pieces of the bigger picture that I see:
> there will be a precious metals backed currency again – it will probably be China or an Asian bloc and it will likely be introduced this decade
> silver and gold don’t change in value – fiat currencies fluctuate in value relative to the precious metals – an ounce of gold in 1910 is still an ounce of gold today – in 1910 the ounce of gold was worth 20 US dollars – today the ounce is worth about 640 US dollars – the gold didn’t change
> Western countries have been sold a load of goods by central bankers – the dishonest monetary system that the banking cartel introduced is starting to fall apart – as the decay becomes more obvious people are moving into the precious metals – look at the upleg gold had from March when the US Fed stopped publishing the M-3 money aggregates – do you think this timing is a coincidince? – this movement into silver and gold will increase in the next few years
> the US dollar is being rejected as the world’s reserve currency
> commodities are in a secular bull market that will run until at least 2011 and probably much longer
> gold will be at least $1650 an ounce before the commodities bull is done
