The Glade 4.0

That's it, I'm done debating.

No? Investing in gold doesn't grow the economy? Gold mining doesn't involve new technologies? Jobs aren't created around extraction, research, marketing, and supply lines? There is no demand for gold?

Nice job of completely not addressing any of Rynar's points. FAIL.

Yeah, except the "Broken Window Fallacy" is only appropriate when breaking windows is applied as a method of economic stimulus as its purpose; you know, like the whole "Cash for Clunkers" debacle? Destroying things with a positive value in order to create stimulus is beyond foolish. Buying things with a positive value is how the economy works. Clear enough for you?

All of which doesn't even begin to address your outright denial of Rynar's points, and subsequently admitting that everything he said was true.

You're telling me that if, for example, a group of people decided ordinary dirt had a high degree of value to them, and started paying people to dig up dirt and deliver it to them, these actions would help the economy?

You're telling me that if, for example, a group of people decided ordinary dirt had a high degree of value to them, and started paying people to dig up dirt and deliver it to them, these actions would help the economy?

The point is that new techniques and technologies developed to do something wholly unproductive don't help the economy. I'm not ignoring what Rynar said.

I would debate that gold actually has a positive value anywhere near that currently ascribed to it, most of its value comes from what people believe it's worth - exactly the same as paper money.

Gold is highly valuable for more tangible reasons, as well. The facts that it is easily alloyed with other metals and cannot oxidize, combined with its malleability and conductivity makes it extremely useful for many very practical applications.

..and the supply for Gold is now, and always will be, miniscule.

No. Demand will drop (because humans won't be here anymore) long before the rate of supply increases. Gold in the universe is not going to become more concentrated as entropy increases.

Gold

The artificial production of gold is the age-old dream of the alchemists. It is possible in particle accelerators or nuclear reactors, although the production cost is currently many times the market price of gold. Since there is only one stable gold isotope, 197Au, nuclear reactions must create this isotope in order to produce usable gold.
[edit]Gold synthesis from Mercury
Gold obtained by mining has copper and silver impurities. Gold of higher purity can be made through the photoneutron process:
Mercury 198 + 6.8MeV gamma ray 1 neutron + Mercury 197 (half-life 2.7 days Gold 197 + 1 positron)
These energy levels allow a more efficient neutron source than the Spallation Neutron Source.
[edit]Gold synthesis in an accelerator
Gold synthesis in a particle accelerator is possible in many ways. The Spallation Neutron Source has a liquid mercury target that will be transmuted into gold, platinum, and iridium, which are lower in atomic number.
[edit]Gold synthesis in a nuclear reactor
Gold was first synthesized from mercury by neutron bombardment in 1941, but the isotopes of gold produced were all radioactive.[3]
Gold can currently be manufactured in a nuclear reactor by irradiation either of platinum or mercury. Since platinum is more expensive than gold, platinum is economically unsuitable as a raw material. Only the mercury isotope 196Hg, which occurs with a frequency of 0.15% in natural mercury, can be converted to gold by neutron capture, and following electron capture-decay into 197Au with slow neutrons. Other mercury isotopes are converted when irradiated with slow neutrons into one another or formed mercury isotopes, which beta decay into thallium. Using fast neutrons, the mercury isotope 198Hg, which composes 9.97% of natural mercury, can be converted by splitting off a neutron and becoming 197Hg, which then disintegrates to stable gold. This reaction, however, possesses a smaller activation cross-section and is feasible only with un-moderated reactors. It is also possible to eject several neutrons with very high energy into the other mercury isotopes in order to form 197Hg. However such high-energy neutrons can be produced only by particle accelerators.

we may get better at it, but it will cost many times more than gold does now. In order to generate gold in a particle accellerator, they are essentially replicating energy states found in an exploding supernova, albeit on a very small scale. A colossal expenditure of energy gets them a few stray gold atoms.

No, it doesn't. The gold does not have any practical value, and even if it did, it's being stored as bullion in a vault or cellar so it cannot be used for any kind of practical application. Buying gold to hedge against inflation doesn't help the economy any more than someone who buys insurance to hedge against a thief breaking his windows.