Scott Adams: Shiny Objects
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Scott Adams: Shiny Objects
1–10 of 41 posts
Re: Scott Adams: Shiny Objects
#2i saw the excellent documentary "collapse" and got me thinking about how a crisis in oil will make logistics unprofitable and would stop society as we know it
Re: Scott Adams: Shiny Objects
#3Equating gold to cow manure according to the principle that only that has value which you and others think has value is ridiculous. It ignores several thousand years of history during which gold = money. The question is: Why? Because gold is relatively, but not extremely, scarce; it cannot be manufactured; it is durable; it is easily divisible; and sufficiently small amounts are valuable enough according to the above factors so as to make it practical as a portable store of value.
Since these traits, at least on planet earth, endure regardless of the various cultural and economic trends which overtake economies from place to place and from time to time, gold is insulated from the shifting winds of human whim like no other substance on earth. THAT is why gold has = money for thousands of years. No store of wealth based upon GDP or legal tender laws can compare because all such stores of wealth are transitory, and given time, will fail.
Re: Scott Adams: Shiny Objects
#4If things do get that bad, that gold is the only store of value, we're screwed anyway.
Re: Scott Adams: Shiny Objects
#5If things do get that bad, that gold is the only store of value, we're screwed anyway.
Guns, gasoline and leather pants (Mad Max,Fallout,etc) are where the smart money is now.
Re: Scott Adams: Shiny Objects
#6If things do get that bad, that gold is the only store of value, we're screwed anyway.
Yeah, unless you have gold, which you will, given time, without question be able to convert back to usable wealth.
Re: Scott Adams: Shiny Objects
#7It's always possible that a major catastrophe will destroy our economic system, but its far more likely that we will either limp along or improve. I remember the same fears in the seventies, and the concomitant buying of gold, at the same time as the price of gold spiked to $800.00. Yes, the economy was turbulent, but that's not an indication of imminent total meltdown. In the past year the price of gold has been at record highs. Why this encourages scared people to buy is beyond me; the most likely scenario is that it will go down in value.
Re: Scott Adams: Shiny Objects
#8If things do get that bad, that gold is the only store of value, we're screwed anyway.
Yeah, unless you have gold, which you will, given time, without question be able to convert back to usable wealth.
Try taking a gold bar down to the gas station and buying a tank of gas and a hot dog. Do you have change for this? A couple of doubloons and a nugget?
It's battering. Gold is a commodity. So if things really did get that bad, gasoline, food, water or anything else (batteries), would be a much better bargaining medium.
That's what people don't understand when they make this argument. If you hold the physical gold, the value is up to debate and barter, your $1000 worth of gold just became $50? If you hold certificates, then it's just worthless paper.
So the scenario where gold works best is short of total collapse and in which you can get it converted to some foreign currency that is still accepted in you home country.
Again, in New Orleans, people didn't suddenly break out doubloons and start normal operations, so the short term is out.
Where is gold a reasonable investment for the "doomsday" scenario? I'd really like to know, because logically I can't think of a good reason to hold gold.
Re: Scott Adams: Shiny Objects
#9If things do get that bad, that gold is the only store of value, we're screwed anyway.
Yeah, unless you have gold, which you will, given time, without question be able to convert back to usable wealth.
I'm not sure that's true. There is no value in gold, it's imaginary and over time, people have tended to give up beliefs in imaginary things.
Re: Scott Adams: Shiny Objects
#10If things do get that bad, that gold is the only store of value, we're screwed anyway.
Yeah, unless you have gold, which you will, given time, without question be able to convert back to usable wealth.
"without question"
I question. You clearly take that as virtually axiomatic, but I question. Gold's ultimate value is that it is pretty and shiny, and industry has produce metric shitloads of prettyshiny since the last time gold had any real independent value as uniquely prettyshiny.
Your gold is only worth what people will give you in return for it. If society collapses, who is going to trade you gold for food? You'd better hope enough people buy your propaganda about gold's value because it's going to be your only hope; the market for gold jewelry is going to be pretty small and effectively saturated.
Gold has no value anymore. Yes, historically it was valuable, but times have changed. A lot.
God help those who are long on gold once we start asteroid mining. Be sure to dump your gold holdings before then, ideally several years before; once the market figures out what that means gold will plunge even before the asteroid gold hits the market. (By "plunge", I mean that I could see it losing 99% of its value in less than a year. No joke.)