An argument which ignores the concepts of correlation and causation is insufficient evidence to say that gold has intrinsic value, simply because people like shiny things.

Gold s likely a good and even smart play, particularly considering eight hundred years of economic obsession with the metal – however not because it is an absolute. You cannot eat gold, nor can it till your fields. It is not a store of value any more than any other indivisible, intangible, or inapplicable quantity (such as a derelict building, collectibles, paper currency, good intentions, or “hopes and dreams”) in a unit- or community-based economy.

Only those items which have direct and explicit economic consequences can maintain value. The value of Gold, like any other commodity which is not put to work, is contingent on demand by the pool of greater fools.