#econ

The tweet being quoted is of course obviously wrong: the fact that the current market price of gold is ~$3,000 per ounce is contingent on gold maintaining its current rarity, and the market price of gold would be considerably lower in a world where gold was more abundant.

But the person who has showed up to dunk on this tweet is wrong in a more subtle (and more annoying) way: gold being abundant would not make it "worthless."

We intuitively understand that many types of mineral are useful for things. For example, iron useful as a construction material (especially if you make steel out of it). And titanium offers a similar strength at less weight, making it useful if you're trying to build spaceships.

If the earth suddenly gained a huge amount of iron, this would not cause iron to become "worthless." Ditto for titanium.

If we had a magic machine that could instantly create more lithium and cobalt, that would not be a "worthless" invention: we would use the machine to create minerals that we could use to make batteries; we could make more of the grid solar, energy would be more abundant, and that would have the effect of making us all richer (in tangible ways, like cutting the price of your energy bill, and in other less-immediately-obvious but still tangible ways).

Adding more resources to the world would make the world richer, not poorer, because we could do things with them! This is true of iron, titanium, and cobalt. It is also true of gold.

Gold is useful! It has a bunch of unique properties that allow you to build useful things out of it!

If you've ever installed a CPU, you're probably familiar with this sight:

Intel did not put a gold top-coat on your CPU pins because they were expecting you to display them to ostentatiously broadcast your wealth. It used gold because that's the best material for the job!

Gold has low electrical resistance, and it doesn't tarnish, which means that properties like resistance won't change over the lifespan of the chip. Palladium-nickel is too porous and prone to cracking; silver tarnishes too easily, platinum is harder to solder.

The Intel chip in your PC has gold because in a counterfactual world where they instead had to use a different material, your CPU would be worse at doing the the things that it's supposed to do.

In fact, there are a lot of applications where gold is just straight-up better than copper, aluminum, tin, and nickel, but we end up using those (worse) materials anyway just because gold is too expensive. If price were no object, you'd really rather wire your house with gold than copper, but we use copper because it's less than 1% the cost. If gold were more abundant, we wouldn't have to settle for second-best!

But there is another way in which the annoying tweet is wrong that people would remain poor even if we accept the false premise that "gold would be worthless": those suffering under the resource curse of gold could be considerably better off!

A world where gold is valuable is a world where dictators who control a limited supply of gold have a major source of wealth that is mostly decoupled from human capital. A country whose main export is gold has considerably less incentive to do things like "build schools" and "ensure that children aren't malnourished" than they would in a world where their main export was microchips or movies or software, because in order to create chips/movies/apps, you need to have a bunch of skilled labor and you can only get that skilled labor by building schools and ensuring that your people's cognitive capacity isn't being diminished by childhood malnourishment. (In case it's not obvious, this point generalizes to many things beyond "just" building schools and getting nutrients into children.)

So, if "gold became worthless," it's quite conceivable that people could be better off: eliminating that specific source of wealth would mostly have the effect of reducing a particular kind of inequality that tends to make a tiny number of people rich at the expense of everyone else.

(That is, of course, accepting the premise that gold would become "worthless," which it wouldn't, because we can do useful things with gold: it can't be worthless because it literally has worth even absent any shared notion of it being a useful "store of value." Gold is like titanium; it's not like a piece of paper with Benjamin Franklin whose usefulness is entirely contingent on constructed factors. If humanity went extinct, aliens would struggle to find useful things to do with $100 bills, but they'd find plenty of useful things to do with all of the gold that they found on earth. This was even the premise of an extremely silly sci-fi movie starring Harrison Ford, Cowboys and Aliens.)

and your linear algebra professor wants to do research with you (a sophomore non-math major)

and both profs are the heads of their respective depts

Neoliberalism sucks for a ton of reasons. From the enclosure of every common, to the commodification of every creation, it feels like a muzzle on humanity that gets tighter and tighter. One of the most underexplored aspects of neoliberalism is the way in which it creates and reinforces isolation. People don’t really have communities outside of consumption or compulsion. This is problematic for a ton of reasons, namely that it prevents us from fulfilling our basic needs. Humans are social creatures. People need to have connections with folks. People may not all need the same levels or intensity of connections, but connections are important nonetheless. To lack in the ability to socialize meaningfully is to ensure worse health outcomes, mentally, emotionally, and physically. But, I don’t mean to freak you out. I think that there are steps we can take to star building community, bridging gaps with the people around us.

Think About What You Want

When folks feel very isolated, it can be easy to accept anything. If we’re in a vulnerable state, that could leave us open for ending up in precarious situations. One way to fight against this is to start from the position of imagining what community looks like. Is the type of space we want to occupy based around interests (fandom, hobbies)? Religions, spiritualities, social issues? If we are able to list the things that excite us, we have a good idea of what to look for, and can focus our efforts towards finding those spaces.

Find the Watering Holes

With the spaces we’re interested in on hand, youcan find where folks gather. Every community has virtual and/or in-person spaces. For example, if you’re a film fan, you can look for indie cinemas, folks putting on screenings, or look into film societies where you live. For activism, I’ve written a whole guide on how to get started. Looking for those spaces will allow you to start getting integrated in the space. Really think about how you can occupy the same physical and digital spaces of people who are into what you’re into.

Go Meet Folks

Now, this may be difficult, depending on your disposition. The quickest way to meet folks is to put yourself out there. It’s always vulnerable to put yourself on the line in this way, but it’s super necessary. When you’re in spaces with similar folks, you have talking points built in! You don’t have to worry if the folks around you will like movies at film club. If you are enjoyable to be around, through being nice, interesting, and/or being an active listener, you’ll be making connections in no time. If you’re not willing to talk to folks, it’ll be hard to make connections. Being open is an asset towards the end of getting connected. At the very least, consistently go to events and spaces in your interest area(s). Maybe you’ll bump into an extroverted person that can show you the ropes.

Be the Change You Want to See

As you get out there, think about how you can start catalyzing community. Maybe you host a dinner for neighbors. Maybe you start a book club. Or even a neighborhood garden, or cleanup event. In this way, you’re flipping the issue on its head. You’re creating the space to meet folks yourself. It’s like being a magnet, drawing others to you.

Be aware of scams.

If you get a letter from anything like "Negotiations Department" but there is no company name listed anywhere obvious, it's from a company like Debt Advisors of America (DAA). They will tell you that the credit companies are giving them your information because you've a) reached a threshold of difficulty making payments or b) your credit score drops significantly over 90 days.

This is bullshit. DAA and other "consulting" firms PAY for your credit information and get it using services like TransUnion and other credit reporting agencies. They buy it like you buy cheetos. Credit card companies do not want to lose money, and these "advisory" and consolidation companies promise you just that by lowering your debt in a "settlement."

Anyone with more than a 30% debt threshold (30% or more of your total credit is used) gets bought by these companies, and they send you forms that are worded as if there will be some form of extra fee or punishment from the credit companies should you not use their services. The letter will have something like **Failure to Respond** on it in bold letters. That is a trick to scare you. Nothing bad will happen if you continue making your monthly payments without using these companies.

They tell you that they will consolidate your debt. Sure! For a price, because they are a company that wants to make a profit. They buy excess debt for a low price and charge you double for it. And you end up paying MORE for that monthly price than you would pay by continuing to make separate payments as you have been.

For example, if you have 3 credit cards and pay 3 separate payments totaling $700 a month, your new consolidated price will be something like $779 in one simple monthly bill, because these companies are out to make a profit. Sure, your monthly payment to the credit companies is now only $609, but you still owe the advisors for their "service" of buying your debt.

Remember: debt consolidation and other "debt help" agencies are for people who are looking down the barrel of bankruptcy, not just people who have debt and are making regularly scheduled payments. This is for when you have almost no other option, not just for when times are hard.

Do not let them fool you. You deserve better.

When it comes to debt:

Making the minimum payment will cost you at least twice as much as the initial debt. On your statement, there is a box that tells you if you make the minimum payment it will take you X months to pay off X debt. Right above that it shows you that if you pay the minimum plus the monthly interest, you'll pay a third of that and be out of debt faster.

Your credit score is a snapshot of how you manage your debt. You can have relatively high debt and still have a good credit score if you never skip payments, never have a late payment, and maintain credit lines for several years. Don't open and close new accounts regularly.

You have to have debt in order to have a credit score. If you pay off your credit cards BEFORE the statement comes out, your credit score will not go up.

When you can, keep your total credit debt to 10% of your whole credit limit. If all you have is a Home Depot card with a $500 limit, keep your monthly statement debt at $50 or less as much as you can. Once you pass the 30% or higher threshold, you will start getting letters like these and your credit score might drop.

If you HAVE to file for bankruptcy or use a debt consolidation service, your credit score will drop significantly and it will take years to build it back up. Remember that both of these options are last resort.

If you are having financial trouble, there are several ways to help yourself and to get help:

Please remember to pay your rent/mortgage FIRST, because there are significantly fewer programs in most countries to help with those.

Utility companies can be haggled with, especially if you've been a long-term customer. Sometimes a simple phone call with "hey, times are hard, and I only have a third of my bill, pls help" is enough to get you on a lower payment schedule.

Food banks are BEGGING people to use them. It does not matter what your income is, if you have kids or not, or if you're disabled (but especially if you're disabled), it's free food. Use it. The average American costs the local food bank $4-$10 per visit, and you get 1-3 weeks worth of food.

And yes, even credit card companies can be haggled with to a point. The best way to snag a lower interest rate is to have a history of making full payments on time. Late and missed payments look really bad on a credit report.

Live within your means. This does not mean cut out coffee and avocado toast from your weekly expenses. This means that if you make $1,000 per month and pay $900 per month in bills, do not go out and get a new car with a $600 monthly payment. That leaves you a net negative every month. Be aware of what you have available.

And if you are in a position to help other people:

Donate to your local food bank. They get food wholesale and tax exempt, so their budgets go further.

Buy medical debt. Organizations like Undue Medical Debt can buy $100 in someone's medical debt per every $1 donated.

Be aware of programs and organizations in your area that help people with debt, cost of living, food, or housing. Most local organizations accept private donations that are largely tax deductible.

Just finished writing an answer on tariffs