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Message:: [QUOTE="Cloudsweeper99, post: 780322, member: 3011"]Your calculations fail to take into account that the vast majority of people fail to match the averages in the stock market, that for much of that time period the tax on dividend income was at ordinary rates that were much higher than today, that significant capital gains taxes would have had to be paid on the stocks along the way to match the changes in the components in the DJIA, that commission rates for much of the period were far higher than today, that dividend yields were generally much lower than the rates you suggest, that in the late 1960's before SIPC was created, many investors lost there stockholdings when numerous brokerage firms went bankrupt, and that large holders of gold have earned a yield on their holdings about equal to short term bond rate by basis trading, which is probably equal to or more than the dividend yield, but I excluded both for simplicity. I think those factors are at least a wash with the dividend yield.  Life is never as easy as many of the simplistic statements make it sound.  Most anti-gold authors don't really want to discuss the true picture.  It is much easier to make a statement that stocks are always superior, and hope that nobody checks. But my basic point isn't that gold is the best investment [because it isn't].  It is that the case against gold is far from clear when you check the record.[/QUOTE]