system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: If the Earth can be used to ground charged objects, why is dirt not a good conductor?

And where do the electrons go, if dirt doesn't conduct electricity?
gpt
A one-inch cube of dirt will not conduct electricity very well. In technical terms, it has a high resistance. By comparison, a one-inch cube of iron, copper or gold will have a very low resistance.

However, resistance doesn't just depend on the material - it depends on the size of the object. In particular, the higher the cross-section area of the object, the lower the resistance. A 2-inch-thick copper wire, for example, has much lower resistance than a quarter-inch-thick copper wire.

The Earth is not useful for grounding because dirt is a good conductor in general, but because the Earth is huge.