As the holiday season unfolds, what could be more delightful than indulging in Christmas movies and songs? Picture iconic tunes like “Silver and Gold,” performed by Burl Ives in Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer. And let’s not forget the ambitious Yukon Cornelius, forever hunting for silver and gold. But if these metals are so spectacular, why don’t we use them for everything imaginable?
Silver boasts the highest conductivity for heat and electricity. So, why aren’t our homes wired with it? Why not craft electric stoves from silver? And gold? While it’s less conductive than silver or copper, it has unique attributes: it’s incredibly ductile, easily fashioned into the thinnest wires, and resists corrosion and tarnishing. Plus, it’s aesthetically pleasing, which is why Burl Ives croons about how “Silver and gold/Mean so much more when I see/Silver and gold decorations/On every Christmas tree.”
The matter of conductivity serves as a reminder of the vital role prices and monetary calculations play in our decisions. It also sheds light on why most Christmas tree decorations made of silver and gold are, in fact, faux. The “best” material for a task is often context-dependent. A quick search reveals several reasons why gold might not be ideal for connections that require frequent plugging and unplugging. Despite its conductivity, ductility, and tarnish resistance, gold is softer than metals like chromium, nickel, and tin. Thus, it may not be the most suitable choice for making plugs for USB-C cables or vacuum cleaners.
Occasionally, I encounter objections to the argument that increasing labor costs through minimum wages and other regulations might drive companies to adopt superior technology. But what constitutes “best” is heavily influenced by pricing. Take a look at your office: is there a top-tier supercomputer on every desk? Certainly not, as you don’t require the Frontier system at Oak Ridge National Laboratory just to check emails or create spreadsheets—or for that matter, for McDonald’s or Dollar General to manage self-checkout kiosks.
Ultimately, we confront a variation of the Great Economic Problem. The market operates as an ongoing dialogue among thoughtful, emotional agents, rather than a mere computational challenge. When Ludwig von Mises and F.A. Hayek critiqued the issues surrounding economic calculation in socialist systems, they were making an epistemic argument: rational economic calculation—perhaps regrettably defined and described—cannot be resolved by even the most powerful computer, including the Frontier system.
Resources have alternative uses, and the interplay of competing bids and offers in free markets empowers us to leverage widely dispersed knowledge in allocating those resources. The optimal metal for electrical connections depends on societal perceptions regarding jewelry and cookware production. If we were to discover significant gold reserves—perhaps through the marvels of asteroid mining—then who knows? We might someday witness a future where robots prepare meals in pots and pans crafted from gold and silver, right before they dress our Christmas trees with silver and gold ornaments.
