Gold, the prized commodity. But why? Why do people value gold?
To get a better understanding of how people perceive gold, I interviewed two different women from different social and ethnic backgrounds and asked them a set of questions. I will refer to the 1st person I interviewed as Interviewee 1, and the second as Interviewee 2. Everyone has a different perception of gold, but I wanted to find commonalities between the answers given from the interviewees. The 1st question I asked was why do people value gold? The 2nd question was when you think of the word gold what comes to mind? The 3rd was when you see people wearing gold jewelry what do you think about them and what do you think it says about them? The last question was what is the role of gold in a society and economy?
When asked about why people value gold, Interviewee 1 stated that they personally didn’t see the value of gold outside of its uses for jewelry. They did mention how historically, people valued it because it was a symbol of wealth and how in the Bible it is seen as valuable. Furthermore, when Interviewee 1 thinks of the word “gold”, they think of gold jewelry, gold bars, and wealth. Also, when this Interviewee sees someone wearing gold, they stated how if they are wearing one simple chain or necklace, that looks elegant. If they see people with multiple chains or necklaces, it looks like they’re trying to show off or brag about how much money they have. Lastly, when asked about the role of gold in a society or economy, Interviewee 1 mentioned how in the past, gold was used for currency and for trading, but nowadays it is hard to see the value of gold because of how much people use credit and debit cards.
Interviewee 2 stated that people value gold because it’s viewed as a luxury and because it makes them feel superior to others who can’t afford objects considered to be so valuable. When they think of the word “gold”, they think of the words “expensive” and “wealthy.”. Also, when they see people wearing gold, this Interviewee thinks that the person is wealthy and that they place a high value on material possessions. Lastly, when asked about the role of gold in society and economy, Interviewee 2 stated that it functions as a symbol that differentiates the upper-class citizens from the rest of the population. Additionally, they mentioned how gold has a purpose of making money.
Keep in mind that these are only the responses of two people, and their answers don’t represent how everyone in the population perceives gold. Regardless, these views serve an important purpose in that they provided insight into how some people may view gold. Stay tuned to a further discussion of this on the Cultural and Sociological Connections page.
So let’s briefly assess the commonalities and dissimilarities in the answers of these two interviewees. Both interviewees mentioned the word “wealth” multiple times and how gold is equivalent to wealth. Moreover, while gold has many forms and uses, both interviewees were working on the supposition that gold’s crucial function is to be used in creating jewelry. A more holistic view would be where gold is seen as a metal mined from the ground, that serves many roles in society today. Also, I thought it was intriguing how Interviewee 1 thought wearing too much gold was seen as a premise for bragging rights, but Interviewee 2 thought it meant that a person valued material objects. This just affirms the aforementioned point that the perception of gold can vary based on an individual’s social, ethnic, and economic background. In conclusion, regardless of one’s perception of gold, the value of gold can ultimately be determined by the market rate. Let’s see what the actual price of gold is today. To see the live price of gold click here.