People never question or accuse the investors of gold as being stupid or hoarding.
Let's see. 8 years ago a fella could buy 5 pounds of R19 for $75. That same 5 pound keg today would cost you $150. Double the dollar or a 100% return on every dollar spent. Sounds like a pretty good investment.
Gold five years ago was around $1100/ounce if I remember correctly. It is worth 1195.10/ounce as of today. That's roughly a 9.5% return on every dollar spent.
Math say that if you earn a dollar profit for every dollar you invest, you have done very well and, a lot better than if you earn 9.5 cents per every dollar spent. Who's stupid or being neckbeards now?
Poor little whiners. You complain of capitalism as it's best. Don't like it? Prepare for it or move to North Korea. Your idea of common sense is why you are being held victim. Remember the gold, powder analogy the next time you lay down your version of what smart and sane people do. Instead of being mad at the hoarder and neckbeards, you might ought to ask some of them to show you how to invest your dollar. God Bless
Not that it's important to the argument, but your gold example is a compounded annual rate of return of about 1.7%. If my investment guy was getting me 1.7% on my money he'd be my EX-investment guy before the end of the day. (The powder example, on the other hand, is more like 15%, which is more like it.)
Regarding your analogy, however, I think the difference is that for the average investor the supply of gold, like the supply of equities, is essentially infinite. So, my deciding to buy up a lot of gold and sit on it doesn't prevent you from doing the same, or, if you have a hobby that requires a steady supply of gold, doesn't prevent you from enjoying your hobby. Not the case with powder (or .22 ammo, etc.), which, as we know, is available in limited supply and is intended to be used to support a hobby and, when used as an investment vehicle, prevents others from enjoying that hobby.
That's only a criticism of the analogy, not the larger point, which is that free people in a free society ought to be able to spend their money on whatever they want, as much as they want, and then do whatever they want with what they purchase. On that we agree 100%.