I just realized an interesting thing about gold prices in 1982 compared to now. If measured by real purchasing power rather than nominal price, gold today is actually 16% cheaper than 44 years ago. It sounds strange, but it’s true because money is printed much faster than gold prices increase.

What exactly is it? In 1982, 1 ounce of gold could buy a small house. At that time, the amount of money in society was not much, so gold was very "expensive" when measured by the monetary scale. Now, gold has risen to $5,600 per ounce, but a similar house has risen to $500,000. See? - the gold price in 1982, when compared to real purchasing power, is higher than today. That is, although the nominal price has increased several times, its purchasing power has decreased.

This is a consequence of money being printed faster than assets increase in value. Those who grasp assets that are sensitive to new money become very wealthy quickly - in Vietnam from the 1990s, real estate was exactly that. But those who only hold gold to preserve value stay still. And those who keep cash are falling behind.

That’s why in a society that is always developing, standing still is also losing. As money continues to be printed, high prices will become normal. A 20 billion VND house will no longer be shocking, a 5 billion VND car will be normal, and gold at $10,000 per ounce won’t be strange. But the danger is wages don’t keep up. The feeling that "everything is getting more expensive" is actually just money losing value, not assets naturally becoming more expensive.

Buying gold only helps preserve asset value, but doesn’t make you better off in this monetary system. You might even fall relatively behind as money continues to expand. To truly escape the "slave system of the dollar," you need to find an asset with more resilience and sustainable growth than gold – something that can not only preserve value but also increase its position within an expanding monetary system. That’s why people are paying attention to Bitcoin.