Message to the Republicans. After all is said and done---

[BigBearJohn]

[longship]

1. And gold has little good except as paving stones.

[DetlefK]

2. Nope. Tooth-fillings. Because dental care is no longer a thing.

People in ancient times had great teeth because their diet contained very little sugar. Nowadays, every pre-made drink or meal has sugar added for taste. That's why our teeth are crap unless you really take care of them.

In a post-apocalyptic world where toothpaste no longer exists but sugar-enriched canned food is still a thing...

[longship]

3. Well, I have two gold crowns.

However, if civilization collapsed and some dude drove into my driveway with a load of gold bullion and asked me for food, I would respond, "Fine! I'll take the gold to pave my driveway. Other than that it is worthless to me. And if you want to stay here you will work your ass off, just like the rest of us." There would be no negotiations on these matters.

Actually pretty simple.

[DetlefK]

4. Gold is too soft for that.

I would rather use the gold to make wires. Too soft for nails, but gold makes really good wires.

And if you find somebody who wants to set up some kind of industry for rebuilding society, gold makes excellent dishes for chemical reactions, because it's chemically almost inert (except for sulphur-rich compounds), like glass.

[longship]

5. Yeah! You're right.

But I would really love to pave a driveway with some entitled douchebag's gold bricks when he came on my self-sustaining property where everybody was working to collectively survive and he offered to pay to live.

I would not even care if they were good paving stones. The utter horror that I would use them that way and his realization that wealth means nothing in the new world would make it worth it.

Call it what you will. Karma. Justice. Whatever.

[sweetapogee]

6. there are exceptions

"Tooth decay was low in pre-agricultural societies, the growth in farming society about 10,000 years ago correlated with an increase with the rate of cavities."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dentistry