I meant "burst your bubble" as an idiom, not as an insinuation that there is a bubble in economic terms.
That said, gold's price is determined by supply and demand, just like for any other good. Certainly part of the price is supply, which is determined to some extent by mining costs, but there is also the demand side of the equation. You will find demand for precious metals greatly diminished during a recession or any kind of economic hardship. They are a luxury good. Toilet paper, on the other hand, is an inferior good whose price will not be affected by any economic hardship. In fact, it may even increase during such a crisis.
I lived through severe economical crisis in 1980s in communistic Poland that included food shortages and hyperinflation. Also read a lot about hyperinflation in Weimar Germany and role of gold during WW2. I think you are right. Toilet paper, cigarettes, alcohol, even toothpaste are luxuries and can function as money during hardship. For the poor. Rich at that time buy production assets on the cheap using gold. Did you know that the only way out of Aushwitz was to bribe guards with gold? That was the only thing so valuable that they let someone go. At the peak of hyperinflationary period in Weimar Germany gold price went down tremendously. True. Still the price of all the Mercedes-Benz equity was just about 600 ounces of gold. It's not that gold gets expensive. No, you're right. Toilet paper, food, guns, will be relatively much more expensive. The point is that production assets will get so cheap that you can get them easily for few ounces. You could probably trade them for food too. The thing is the food goes bad, and isn't practical for trade. Gold, you can shove up your ass and run away leaving your whole life behind.
So, I'd say, it's more like poor will be using cigarettes, alcohol, etc. to trade just to survive while wealthy will use gold and silver as the currency. Because if you're this guard in Aushwitz, how do you know if Germnay wins the war. Or the US? You don't. That's why you'll prefer currency gold to national currencies.
That said, gold's price is determined by supply and demand, just like for any other good. Certainly part of the price is supply, which is determined to some extent by mining costs, but there is also the demand side of the equation. You will find demand for precious metals greatly diminished during a recession or any kind of economic hardship. They are a luxury good. Toilet paper, on the other hand, is an inferior good whose price will not be affected by any economic hardship. In fact, it may even increase during such a crisis.
Buy toilet paper.