I just realized an interesting thing about gold. If you compare the gold price in 1982 with the actual purchasing power today, gold is actually not as high as we think.

How exactly? In 1982, 1 ounce of gold could buy a small house. At that time, the amount of money in circulation was not much, so gold was truly very valuable. But now, although the gold price has risen to about $5,600 per ounce, a similar house now costs around $500,000. This means that 1 ounce of gold today can buy about 16% less than when gold was priced in real purchasing power in 1982.

Why is that? Because money is printed faster than gold prices increase. When measured in nominal USD, gold has risen sharply. But USD is printed even faster, so the real purchasing power of each ounce of gold decreases. In other words, if measured by the scale of money in society, the gold price in 1982 was higher than today.

What is the consequence of this situation? When money is printed faster than assets increase in value, asset owners sensitive to new money will get richer quickly. Those who only hold gold to preserve value will stay still, not progress. And those who keep cash will fall behind.

In a constantly developing society like this, standing still means losing. As money continues to be printed, "high" figures will become normal. A house worth 20 billion won will no longer shock, a car costing 5 billion won becomes everyday, and gold at $10,000 per ounce is not unusual. But the danger is wages do not keep up. The feeling that everything is getting more expensive is actually money losing value, not assets naturally becoming more expensive.

Buying gold only helps you preserve asset value, but does not make you better off within the dollar monetary system. You might even fall relatively behind as money continues to expand.

So, what is the way out of the "slavery of the dollar"? You need to find an asset that has both resilience and more sustainable growth than gold. It not only preserves value but also increases its position within the expanding monetary system. In Vietnam, that was real estate from the 1990s, and now it seems that Bitcoin is playing that role. As money continues to be printed, assets with these characteristics will be smarter choices than just holding gold.