gold is scarce and they ain't making much more of it

Listened to a Tucker Carlson interview with a gold expert [1].  It's the usual derping around why is valuable, "instrinsic" use, whatever.  The remarkable thing is, they don't mention, at all, the scarcity of it.  As far as Carlson's concerned, it's completely arbitrary, might as well be anything (from memory, Harari makes similar mistake, "could just as well still be sea shells". No, you can farm sea shells).  They do talk about cost of mining gold, which is related, but not about just how scarce it is.  To a first approximation, it is a fixed quantity, increasing perhaps by 1% a year, and yes that is a function of price, but that's roughly it.

[1] <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxWZO0FEQ1g>

Then looked at this reading [2] recommended by the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America for the third Friday of Lent.  Isaiah 13:12 starts "I will make men more rare than fine gold [..]".  This is apparently a reference to the scarcity of gold. (emphasis not mine.  I can't get blogger to remove the formatting)

[2] <https://www.goarch.org/chapel/lectionary?type=OT&code=71&event=1081&field=ORTHROSOT>



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