[2013-Jul-07] Genies don't understand economics

Jewlian · Post by **Jewlian** » Tue Jul 09, 2013 2:47 pm

http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db ... 3042#comic
The price of gold wouldn't actually collapse unless the materialized gold hits the market.

Lethal Interjection · Post by **Lethal Interjection** » Tue Jul 09, 2013 2:55 pm

Jewlian wrote:http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db ... 3042#comic
The price of gold wouldn't actually collapse unless the materialized gold hits the market.

What exactly did you think he wanted the gold for?

Fat Fat Fatties · Post by **Fat Fat Fatties** » Tue Jul 09, 2013 5:26 pm

What if he just wanted the gold to build a fortress out of gold and not sell it

I'm sure workers would have been fine with being paid in gold (at the time).

Jewlian · Post by **Jewlian** » Tue Jul 09, 2013 5:47 pm

Lethal Interjection wrote:
Jewlian wrote:http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db ... 3042#comic
The price of gold wouldn't actually collapse unless the materialized gold hits the market.
What exactly did you think he wanted the gold for?

He can easily sell a bit at a time without affecting the market price. The price is only going to be affected if he tries to sell a huge chunk of it at once.

Lethal Interjection · Post by **Lethal Interjection** » Fri Jul 12, 2013 2:41 am

Seems like he could definitely make use of all that gold then, yeah?

Also, I should note that 10 billion tons of gold would not only not be concealable, it wouldn't be ownable.
I mean, imagine I could make leaves currency, somehow claim that they were all mine, how would I begin to control my vast wealth?

Of course the genie could give it all to him in his vicinity, but that would do some interesting things to earth's orbit, methinks.

Oldrac the Chitinous · Fri Jul 12, 2013 3:01 am

Probably not too much. 10 billion tons is about a trillionth of the earth's mass.

Post by **DonRetrasado** » Fri Jul 12, 2013 3:24 am

Oldrac the Chitinous wrote:Probably not too much. 10 billion tons is about a trillionth of the earth's mass.

oh my god oldrac, nobody likes a know-it-all

Kaharz · Post by **Kaharz** » Fri Jul 12, 2013 10:38 am

DonRetrasado wrote:
Oldrac the Chitinous wrote:Probably not too much. 10 billion tons is about a trillionth of the earth's mass.
oh my god oldrac, nobody likes a know-it-all

The earth is actually about 3 billion times more massive than 10 billion tons by my math. Assuming Zach was using short tons (2000 lbs) since he is in the US. The volume of that much gold would be 1683747927 or so cubic feet (469599000 cubic meters). That is about 188 Great Pyramids of Giza or 0.0002 Mount Everests.

Oldrac the Chitinous · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:16 pm

DonRetrasado wrote:
Oldrac the Chitinous wrote:Probably not too much. 10 billion tons is about a trillionth of the earth's mass.
oh my god oldrac, nobody likes a know-it-all

Hey, don't look at me, I just googled it. I don't know squat.
(It's actually closer to 650 billion times bigger than an even trillion, but I rounded up.)

Kaharz wrote:The earth is actually about 3 billion times more massive than 10 billion tons by my math. Assuming Zach was using short tons (2000 lbs) since he is in the US.

Then your math is wrong, son. WRONG!

GUTCHUCKER · Post by **GUTCHUCKER** » Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:48 pm

WROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG!

JTDC · Post by **JTDC** » Fri Jul 12, 2013 6:12 pm

Lethal Interjection wrote:
Jewlian wrote:http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db ... 3042#comic
The price of gold wouldn't actually collapse unless the materialized gold hits the market.
What exactly did you think he wanted the gold for?

You wouldn't have to sell it all at once. You couldn't actually, there is a fixed demand for the quantity.

The owner would, incidentally, become insanely wealthy, simply by selling gold at around 300 dollars a troy ounce--one third current price. Virtually all mining operations would cease, because they would no longer at all be profitable. He'd be the sole supplier of the global market of several metric tons a year. This is a lot of money.

Author doesn't understand economics very well.

Lethal Interjection · Fri Jul 12, 2013 10:23 pm

I tried figuring out the numbers, but then I saw a lot of zeros and exponents and said "screw it, I'll just assume no one will read the post". And I was almost right.

Kaharz · Post by **Kaharz** » Fri Jul 12, 2013 10:31 pm

Oldrac the Chitinous wrote:Then your math is wrong, son. WRONG!

Probably. I don't try very hard and I didn't check it. I'm lazy.

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