Check out how $100 put in bank deposits or S&P500 have done versus gold over the last 50 years. You will find that these do not generate real returns when measured against sound currency either.

I'm not sure how you reached this conclusion. I did as you suggested. $100 invested 50 years ago into gold would be worth $3000 today. $100 invested into the S&P500 50 years ago would be worth $6870.

https://www.macrotrends.net/2324/sp-500-historical-chart-dat... https://www.macrotrends.net/1333/historical-gold-prices-100-...

$100 put into S&P 500 in 1975 would be about $7500 today, or about $1250 in 1975 dollars.

$100 put into gold in 1975 would be about $2600 today, or about $440 in 1975 dollars.

S&P 500 would have had 3x the returns of gold.