Let me put it this way:
Think of the CPI, our measure of inflation, as this "breadbasket" of everything we spend money on. When inflation goes up, the CPI goes up (obviously).
Silver has gone up in price at roughly the same pace as everything else. But gold has risen in price five times as fast as everything else, largely because speculators, goldbugs and investors have turned it into an investment instrument, taken it out of circulation and driven up the price.
The sheer scarcity of gold would mean a return to the gold standard would shrink our money supply to a fifth of what it is, basically making it five times harder to buy anything. All of a sudden, a $4 gallon of milk would cost the same amount of your paycheck as if it cost $20. That goes for everything else.
That's more than a pinch, that would be a complete and total economic crash that would make the Great Depression look like a brief downturn.
So are what you saying is that goods, services are inflated to such an extreme that they would out pace the value of gold because of the lack of physical gold to back our economy regardless of the amount of gold we currently hold?
The Feds are simply printing money out of thin air.
When Nixon took us off the gold standard they also confiscated holdings of monetary gold and the dollar could not be redeemed for gold...so after that took place, did that not in fact eventually create the increase in individuals holding actual physical gold, thus driving up the value of gold?
Gold is a tangible asset. The dollar is paper. It has value as long as the printing presses keep running and banks are allowed to loan money that really doesn't exist. As you are aware a good example of printing money out of thin air is what happened during COVID -- people were told to stay home, people needed money, so, they printed money and more money meanwhile the production of goods and service greatly diminished -- as a result -- inflation -- higher gas prices, skyrocketing grocery prices, and cost of living. IIRC the consumer price index is not reflective of the rising cost of food (I may be wrong).
When have you known the cost of living to go down? Prices may come down somewhat but never returning to the prior level before inflation took hold. When is the last time we had a balanced budget?
IF our economy was backed by gold, in a free market, investing capitol would then lead to the ability to produce more goods, therefore driving the prices of goods down and the value of gold up?
Inflation would cease and the printing presses and our rising debt would no longer be an issue.
I do understand that with your scenario returning to the gold standard would be nearly impossible.
Anyhow, it's a question I threw out there for discussion and you have made me think further on the issue (also I am now tired and need some sleep).
