A closer look
Oceans contain an estimated twenty million tons of dissolved gold suspended in the seawater, representing a staggering fortune that completely dwarfs the entire global economy by a ridiculous margin. If humanity could figure out a way to extract it all, there would be enough precious metal to hand every single person on the planet roughly nine pounds of solid twenty-four karat gold. Unfortunately, the concentration is so microscopic that filtering it out costs significantly more money in energy and equipment than the extracted gold is actually worth, thoroughly frustrating marine prospectors for decades. We are literally swimming in unfathomable riches every time we go to the beach, but capitalism ensures that we are completely unable to profit from it without instantly bankrupting ourselves in the process!
