In your futuristic scenario, won't J.Q. Public be able to afford to buy gold if it's sold by the gram?

I suppose they could, but a cubic centimeter of water weighs one gram and gold is 19.3 times as dense as water, so we're talking 1/20 of a CC. I'd have to put on my glasses to see the thing. I know they are already being sold but I doubt that such sales will ever amount to much volume in the aggregate. Perhaps I am wrong here. I have missed many trends because of my personal outlook. I tend to be a loner and never could have imagined what took place with cell phones. I still steadfastly refuse to own one of the things.

Isn't the conventional wisdom on whether or not to buy gold or gold stocks, answered by the greater leverage (profit) gotten in owning the mine equities rather than the metal itself?

Absolutely! That's why I put my speculative money into them.

But practically speaking the average Joe (or should I make that John to be consistent) doesn't have much in the way of savings and his prospects look to be getting continually worse. He's been laid off or had his salary cut or his kids have moved back in with him or ... or ... and he's now stocking shelves in a grocery store at 3:00 a.m. He has motivation to gamble and the lure of a 100 bagger when he's seen others who have scored 10 baggers is going to be too much. He will hesitate and by the time he finally makes the plunge it will be all over. Overly dramatic perhaps but that is what has happened in the past and could well happen again. J. Q. Public always gets it wrong.

J.Q. Public is still selling their "old" gold at the gold parties, as if the stuff had an expiration date on it. That mistake will soon stop and then we will be solidly in the 2nd phase.

P.