If ever there was an area in which to do the exact opposite of that which government and the media urge you to do, that area is the purchasing of gold.
You can have a strong government and a weak people, or strong people and weak government, but you cannot have both.
The American Dream was not about government's taking huge sums of money (under the label of "taxation") from citizens by force. The American Dream was about individualism and the opportunity to achieve success without interference from others.