Should I get a 401K or invest in Gold?

[Original_Intent]

Personally, I don't think any kind of market investment is wise. From what I know about it (which isn't much) it isn't a real thing anyways. I want something I can hold in my hands and put in my tummy. I keep thinking about the scene from "It's a wonderful life", where the citizens make a run on the bank. Just because my bank account says I have 2000 dollars in it doesn't mean it's really there. The minute I deposit it it's put into some investment that the bank is doing at the time. It's so other people can borrow it, or the bank can make a profit off of it in the markets. The value of my dollar to me is still a dollar no matter what the value against the US dollar is, but that's not how the system works. And when the system fails, only the barter system will work providing the government will let you do that (NWO - mark of the beast). As for gold, I do find it weird that there are all these commercials about putting your gold into an envelope and sending it somewhere for cash. Does anyone have an idea why this is cropping up lately? Do we have a shortage?

Let us just say there are people who want to accumulate gold right now but they do not want to buy it on the open market, as it would raise the price. The cash for gold schemes help them accumulate gold without affecting the market price.

[Jason]

If you are going to invest in precious metals, there are a lot of reasons to go with silver over gold.
If your 401(k) is in the stock market, you are speculating even if it is for retirement. I have everything out of the 401(k) that I legally can without quitting my job (and got it out before things crashed).

Some reaasons to go with silver over gold. (My opinions)

Silver is both an indiustrial metal and has been a historical monetary metal.
Silver comes out of the ground at a rate of 16 oz of silver for every 1 oz. of gold, and over the long term, silver has always been about 1/16th the value of gold. Currently the ratio is around 70:1, meaning a huge upside for silver in relation to gold.
Certain silver bugs claim that silver reserves around the world are almost gone, and almost all the silver being traded is paper only with no physical metal backing it up. If this unwinds, (and if it is accurate, I don't know) this would cause a huge move in silver.

In a "crap" hits the fan scenario, bartering with an ounce of silver is a lot easier than bartering with an ounce of gold. Other than for large purposes, gold is almost too valuable to be a good medium of exchange, it is hard to make change, etc.

Definitely food storage, and other preps before PMs, but a little PMs I think is a lot wiser than 401(k)

How exactly do you barter with silver (or gold for that matter) when the proverbial "crap" hits the fan? How do you establish value? Authenticity? Purity? Etc.? ....in such a scenario?