Jay, I asked my friend Google since you didn't answer: < The total amount of gold mined in the world in the history of mankind amounts to less than 90,000 tons. If this gold were all collected together it would fit into a cube only 58 feet on a side! Total gold production per year in the world is less than 2000 tons of which about two-thirds comes from South Africa, 30% from the Soviet Union, 4% from Canada and 3% from the United States. Perhaps only 40,000 tons of gold remains in the earth yet to be mined.
Five stories below the ground at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York City is an enormous, compartmentalized vault holding some 10,000 metric tons of gold worth $117 billion - the gold reserves of some 50 nations. >
Okay, if 90,000 tons is still around [I guess some has sunk, been lost, my wedding ring for example at the bottom of a lake in Maine] that makes 90,000 x 2,240 x 16 ounces if I have the units correct = 3 billion ounces. Since there are 6 billion people of whom say 3 billion might have some money, that's only an ounce each.
That's only $300. That's not enough. We can't run a world economy on such a piddling little thing. Even if it made sense to dig gold up and bury it again in vaults around the world, there isn't enough of the stuff to run the world's economy.
It would have to go up hugely in value if we all swapped our bank notes and bank accounts for gold. That would cause mayhem in markets and huge efforts to mine the oceans and anything else which might have gold in it. Theft would become very popular. Wearing wedding rings would become too expensive and dangerous for many people.
How much money is there in the world anyway? Should I ask Google?
It's a crazy idea! Even if it could be done.
Much better to simply turn Q into pixels for people to send each other if they want to buy something or thank somebody for something. That would require nothing but some software and a few servers. The assets already exist. No big drama required at all. Negligible expense too, especially compared with digging up mountains to find stupid little bits of gold. Bits and bytes of Q are no trouble.
Mqurice |
