more like 0.2% of its actual COST. His point is that he thinks cost and value are out of sync.
actually, wouldn't the cost be the marginal cost to pull gold out the earth? I thought that was around $500/oz.
That's ridiculous. Gold is far more valuable as a mammalian decoration than as a conductor.
Gold is a very significant part of electronics manufacturing, especially high end/high rel work. A couple of examples are plating on connectors and switch contacts (corrosion resistance) and ENIG PCB finishes, but there's a lot more where those came from.
So while you may feel its value is higher as jewelry etc., its utility is still quite high in electronics.