Silver, gold, diamonds vs knives, guns and bullets

[GordonJ]

A family story: I have over 40 cousins, meet 3 of them

Barry, the successful Entrepreneur, with a lot of gold coins.
Jerry, long standing NRA member, hunter, survivalist.
Harry, social worker and gardener.

Barry watches the charts, the graphs, reads Agora, Stansberry, Ron Paul. He KNOWS the market will crash, we're going to free fall into chaos and anarchy, and believes gold is the answer because it has never NOT been worth something. He has a NORMALCY bias toward gold.

Barry has months of food and water in his basement just in case.

Jerry of the NRA laughs at Barry, he sez, "Cuz, when the shiet hits the fan, I'll take whatever I want cause I got the ammo and guns and know how to use them", which upsets and distresses Barry greatly.

Harry says he'll help out at the "camp", the FEMA shelter, or refugee camp as his cousins call it. When it comes, millions will be placed into internment camps, same as Japanese-Americans were rounded up after Pearl Harbor and placed into camps. These, unprepared Americans, with neither gold nor guns will be escorted to "safe" areas and put to work on farms.

If (in this future) you aren't like Jerry, Barry or Harry, you may be like Mary, a "wildling", living with a small group of people in the hills and mountains, best they can.

It is a Mad Max looking future, a possibility due to several factors...including a potential pandemic, a market crash, a nuclear accident or intentional use of nuclear weapons. A drought which effects the food supply, asteroid or Alien Invasion (the kind from outer space...'How to serve man' "It's a cookbook!"...inside joke).

OK, do you have thoughts on the future?

As for gold, when IT (the shyeet) goes down, my opinion: you can't eat gold. I think it is, perhaps, the biggest scam on investors ever perpetrated.

Gordon

PS My late friend, The Boz, and I would target practice out at the ranch, shooting an occasional rattlesnake or skunk (which we quickly buried). He had a reloader and a nice small arms arsenal...which I laughed at, who's going to invade his desert paradise with the black widow spiders, the rattlesnakes, rabid coyotes with his shiny old pick up truck as the prize?

If you want a model of what it will look like when IT hits the fan, I suggest you look at present day Palestine. You can look at it from the political angle if you like and it is proper to look at it that way because politics created the model or you can look at it from being a participant in the model.

I won't go into a long dissertation but if anyone wishes to learn how the participants survive I'll be happy to publish a website or two.

I write this given Gordon's described scenario which has been, and is, experienced by the Palestinian people today. If we want to discuss IT, learn from IT, get an idea what we would do, then let's look at a real live model of IT.

This post is in no way in support of any one side. It only presents a model as the 3 cousins presented a model.

Interesting cousins you have Gordon, by the way, if Barry needs
an investment advisor...........Kidding!

But, seriously, I think that something is protecting us. I
am not really that religeous so maybe an explanation is we are
all in a gigantic matrix game or who knows what. But the fact
that we have survived so far is against all odds. For example,
I read about fuel air explosives that are almost as powerful as
an atom bomb. They were invented by the Nazis during WW2.
Basically, if I remember the details correctly. A professor
stirred a few pounds of very finely powdered brown charcoal
with some liquid oxygen. When this was ignited the explosion
took out a few square miles of forest. Now, can you imagine
this in the center of Manhattan? I used to work in Manhattan
so I have imagined it. The fact that no one has done this
or a used a "dirty bomb" or any of the other amazing easy
methods of destruction indicates to me that the Mad Max
future may not be coming soon.

Trevor

[Ankesh]

Originally Posted by GordonJ

As for gold, when IT (the shyeet) goes down, my opinion: you can't eat gold. I think it is, perhaps, the biggest scam on investors ever perpetrated.

I have a friend who stays in Pune, India. One day we were talking real estate. And he said real estate prices in Mumbai - 200km away from Pune - are the biggest scam.

In Pune it costs Rs 8,000 per square feet of space.
In Mumbai it costs Rs 40,000 per square feet of space.

Why would anyone pay so much more for the same amount of space in a city just 200km away?

Why is the price of a product not based on the utility of that product? Why do countries like Venezuela crumble when they try to force and fix the prices of products based on their utility?

May be in there somewhere lies the answer to why gold costs so much too?

[Ankesh]

Originally Posted by GordonJ

OK, do you have thoughts on the future?

I like the quote by William Gibson: the future is already here, its just not very evenly distributed.

In the future, we will have everyone's DNA recorded from birth. So that we can help them predict what diseases they are probable to suffer from - and help them take precautions. The health insurance industry will go through a big upheavel until every country starts providing governmental health programs.

Designing babies will be a real thing.

In the future, wearable tech will lead to intrusive tech. People will wear special lenses to keep track of their blood glucose level. All shoes will have embedded tech in their soles that track how much you walk and sit every day. Shirts and pants will regulate body temperature. Voice recognition and hand gestures will lead to brain recognition - you just have to think to call someone.

Hybrid humans will be a field. Operations will be done to enhance people. Maybe instead of wearing shoes to track how much you walk, you could plug this inside your feet itself?

In the future, cars will drive themselves. Once that is proven to be safe, we will finally see aerial cars. Drones will do the deliveries.

We are probably the last generation who will see human to human wars. The next stage of war is drone to human guerilla warfare. Radars will be everywhere.

In the future, physical notes and bills will lead to digital currencies. Every transaction will be trackable. Advertising will be laser focused. Super computers will be everywhere solely comparing your transaction with that of the whole world and determining what next you will buy based on your past behavior.

In the future, cameras will be everywhere and always on. Quite a lot of people will have their own truman show.

In the future, solar and wind will rule. It may be the last 2 decades of heavy fossil fuel usage. Oil and gas generating countries without foresight will have revolutions. You have to become Norway. Not Venezuela.

In the future, countries will try to control their own weather. Leading to unintended consequences to other countries.

The future will be both scary and exciting. And its already here.

I've long been predicting a financial collapse but not sure what that will look like. The markets are being artificially inflated by all the Quantitative Easings (QEs - notice how nicely the government makes it seem like a pleasant phrase, much more pleasant than Bail Out or Excessive Debt - but I digress) and they can't be sustained like that forever. The US is 18Trillion in debt, and it is not the worst of the lot. As nations continue to borrow to prop up their economies which are led by burgeoning bureaucracies, something has to give. What does that look like? I really don't know.

I pity the next generation that has to actually pay for the debt this generation borrowed. Or I guess you can say they voted for it so they deserve it.

Interesting quote from Einstein:

'I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."

We're going to get a shot at a "do-over". I'm just not sure what to expect.

I went to withdraw about 10K from a bank a couple of years ago and they didn't have the money on hand. The most they could give me was $5K and scolded me to call ahead so they could have more money on hand if I did it again. I'm pretty certain that FDIC claim about being insured to $100K is a huge lie. How do I know? They tell us this. They have $25 billion in reserves, but there is $9.4 Trillion in deposits across the country. Something's gotta give.

The future is looking fairly bleak I'm afraid. It's easy to blame politicians, but I blame the voters who want the handouts and "freebies", and who continue to elect absolute dolts to public office. The classic example of this is Congressman Hank Johnson's questions to an Admiral

[GordonJ]

But, being aboard a nuclear powered submarine, with many weapons, we were pretty certain we could hold off the natives when trying to climb on board while the island collapsed. We only had to make it a half mile out to sea then we could dive and all those still left clinging to the boat, were on their own.

We would practice drills, alarms would sound, we go to battle stations, and the captain would announce, Guam is Sinking, Guam is sinking.

Yea, we elect only the best and brightest, and along those lines, 26 years of an Ivy league President (and the results)...maybe it is time to say NO to Yale and Harvard too, perhaps we need a GED prez, or at the most, a Community College tradeswoman, like Josephine the plumber.

Gordon

Originally Posted by TommyBoy

I've long been predicting a financial collapse but not sure what that will look like. The markets are being artificially inflated by all the Quantitative Easings (QEs - notice how nicely the government makes it seem like a pleasant phrase, much more pleasant than Bail Out or Excessive Debt - but I digress) and they can't be sustained like that forever. The US is 18Trillion in debt, and it is not the worst of the lot. As nations continue to borrow to prop up their economies which are led by burgeoning bureaucracies, something has to give. What does that look like? I really don't know.

I pity the next generation that has to actually pay for the debt this generation borrowed. Or I guess you can say they voted for it so they deserve it.

Interesting quote from Einstein:

'I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."

We're going to get a shot at a "do-over". I'm just not sure what to expect.

I went to withdraw about 10K from a bank a couple of years ago and they didn't have the money on hand. The most they could give me was $5K and scolded me to call ahead so they could have more money on hand if I did it again. I'm pretty certain that FDIC claim about being insured to $100K is a huge lie. How do I know? They tell us this. They have $25 billion in reserves, but there is $9.4 Trillion in deposits across the country. Something's gotta give.

The future is looking fairly bleak I'm afraid. It's easy to blame politicians, but I blame the voters who want the handouts and "freebies", and who continue to elect absolute dolts to public office. The classic example of this is Congressman Hank Johnson's questions to an Admiral

[Dien Rice]

Originally Posted by GordonJ

As for gold, when IT (the shyeet) goes down, my opinion: you can't eat gold. I think it is, perhaps, the biggest scam on investors ever perpetrated.

Hi Gordon,

I read that one of the reasons why gold is valued in "hard times" is because it's easy to take it with you when you escape!

1 oz of gold is now just short of $1200. That means if you want to "run away" and carry a wealth of $100,000... You'd just have to carry around 100 oz of gold, or around 6 lbs (or just under 3 kg for metric folks). Easily doable for the average man or woman!

It's interesting, but... I read that when the Spanish went to South America, even though the two peoples had never met before, they both placed a high value on gold!

Why do we value gold? It seems the bottom line is because gold preserves itself... It doesn't react with things, rust, tarnish, decompose, or otherwise degrade, unlike almost everything else... A golden statue created today, will look pretty much identical 1,000 years from now. If you're going to use something for "money" - you generally don't want it to rust or decompose...

Why do we value gold?
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-25255957

Anyway, I didn't know this before... I only just found about it now after getting curious from reading your post, and doing some "Googling"...!

Best wishes,

Dien

[GordonJ]

"Gold has never NOT had value." G. Gordon Liddy, pitchman and former "plumber" of Watergate infamy.

And the well heeled herd believes.

When the markets crash, it more than likely will not be because of a natural disaster (although could be)...it will probably be a result of political moves in the world currency markets, IF there is a split over whether the dollar remains the "gold" standard of trade.

Because gold (and diamonds and silver) has always had value, it always will. This is the Normalcy bias which is going to doom the profiteers, the speculators, those licking their chops over the impending crash so they can profit while millions are thrown into the chasm of despair.

The ONE difference in today's times, well armed "gangs", an abundance of low cost ex-military for hire, and a couple of decades of preparation.

Those in the enclosed enclaves, those walled bastions of wealth, like Atlantis in Lake Worth FL for example...could be seized and taken by any of the SEAL teams.

Gold speculators expect and prepare for a collapse, but they woefully under estimate the hoi polloi responses, which, this time, will NOT be as docile as they may think.

When the hunger of the masses passes the tipping point, the gold meisters find their families bloody in the streets or in the basements ala Romanoff's of Russia.

You can't eat gold. It may be worthless when trying to buy a jar of instant coffee, but, with the right guns and the skills to use them, you could come away with both gold and coffee if you're the third party in this transaction.

G. Gordon Liddy may soon be shilling bullets, "they have never not worked on the unarmed".

Gordon

Originally Posted by Dien Rice

Hi Gordon,

I read that one of the reasons why gold is valued in "hard times" is because it's easy to take it with you when you escape!

1 oz of gold is now just short of $1200. That means if you want to "run away" and carry a wealth of $100,000... You'd just have to carry around 100 oz of gold, or around 6 lbs (or just under 3 kg for metric folks). Easily doable for the average man or woman!

It's interesting, but... I read that when the Spanish went to South America, even though the two peoples had never met before, they both placed a high value on gold!

Why do we value gold? It seems the bottom line is because gold preserves itself... It doesn't react with things, rust, tarnish, decompose, or otherwise degrade, unlike almost everything else... A golden statue created today, will look pretty much identical 1,000 years from now. If you're going to use something for "money" - you generally don't want it to rust or decompose...

Why do we value gold?
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-25255957

Anyway, I didn't know this before... I only just found about it now after getting curious from reading your post, and doing some "Googling"...!

Best wishes,

Dien

Originally Posted by GordonJ

"Gold has never NOT had value." G. Gordon Liddy, pitchman and former "plumber" of Watergate infamy.

And the well heeled herd believes.

When the markets crash, it more than likely will not be because of a natural disaster (although could be)...it will probably be a result of political moves in the world currency markets, IF there is a split over whether the dollar remains the "gold" standard of trade.

Because gold (and diamonds and silver) has always had value, it always will. This is the Normalcy bias which is going to doom the profiteers, the speculators, those licking their chops over the impending crash so they can profit while millions are thrown into the chasm of despair.

The ONE difference in today's times, well armed "gangs", an abundance of low cost ex-military for hire, and a couple of decades of preparation.

Those in the enclosed enclaves, those walled bastions of wealth, like Atlantis in Lake Worth FL for example...could be seized and taken by any of the SEAL teams.

Gold speculators expect and prepare for a collapse, but they woefully under estimate the hoi polloi responses, which, this time, will NOT be as docile as they may think.

When the hunger of the masses passes the tipping point, the gold meisters find their families bloody in the streets or in the basements ala Romanoff's of Russia.

You can't eat gold. It may be worthless when trying to buy a jar of instant coffee, but, with the right guns and the skills to use them, you could come away with both gold and coffee if you're the third party in this transaction.

G. Gordon Liddy may soon be shilling bullets, "they have never not worked on the unarmed".

Gordon

Read Howard Ruff for your solution. Just my 2¢.