Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

homestead - Re: [Homestead] More on Gold

homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Homestead mailing list

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Clansgian AT wmconnect.com
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] More on Gold
  • Date: Wed, 24 Dec 2008 10:34:59 EST

>> History supports James' points a couple weeks ago that gold/silvere will
>

Leslie, as far as gold goes, one must per force separate the pearls from the
rotting oysters as far as "experts" and "smart people" and their advice on
gold. 99.9% of the advice about why gold is such a good investment comes
from
people who hope to earn a lot of money selling you gold. Separate out the
people whose livelihood or investment values don't depend on your willingness
to
be caught up in they hype and buy gold, and picture changes dramatically.

Has it ever occured to you that if these golkniks really believe that
currency is about to collapse and gold will hold its value or greatly
increase in
value, why in the world would they be wanting to sell their gold to you for
said
currency?? Whey wouldn't they be keeping it themselves?

Through Fekete's writing (and there is a great deal more along these lines
from other writers) you understand that gold has not always been a viable
token
of exchange. It makes me feel as if I am not wasting my time after all.
Gold
coins have very rarely been used for everyday transactions. One did not stop
at the inn in the middle ages and pay for his sup and bed with gold coins.
The farmer of a century ago did not fill the buckboard with supplies at the
general store and pay for it with gold coins. The denominations were far too
large. Gold was used for very large debts. If you had a gold coin and
wanted to
take care of your daily or weekly expenses for a while, you'd have to
exchange it for other currency unless you'd be willing to give me the gold
coin for a
dozen eggs, an excange which I'd seriously consider.

During times that Fekete is talking about if there is no established currency
and means for translating that exchange into gold, the gold is more or less
useless.

And as he pointed out, and as most goldniks that actually understand gold
point out, the storage value of gold is not in having it available for you to
buy
bread and cloth and fuel with when TSHTF, but rather a very LONG term storage
that you family has prospects of using two generations from now if you manage
it keep it quietly hidden.

It has been pointed out by Fekete that there were times in history where the
trafficking in gold comes to a stand still, that is, gold loses all of its
value as a medium of exchange. For the golkniks to shake their pouch of
coins
and demand that the gold still has value is like arguing how many angels can
dance on the head of a pin. It would be like being in the desert with an
empty
water bottle and demanding that it was valuable and would save you because
someday it would likely have water in it again.

So we've seen the times in history where if you were there with only your
sack of gold coins, you'd have starved to death anyway. Let's look at the
proposal of the goldniks. Can you point ot an example where there has been a
collapse of the currency (or even a drastic devaluation) and those holding
gold were
able to buy land, livestock, farm tools, and grub stake supplies with the
gold they were holding? No? It's because it doesn't happen that way, never
has.

We've heard that farmland here or there sells for so much an acre and if I
took this jingly purse of gold coins which are worth that much times that
many
acres, I could buy that farm ... so that proves gold has value, right? No.
That is only possible because of a supported and enforced currency. What if
the
currency collapsed and you showed up to buy that and with your leathern pouch
of gold coins, could you get the land owner to agree. History says 'no'.

So in thinking about gold, first filter out where the information is coming
from. If the source is mainly infomercials and web sites of people who make
money talking you into buying gold and the "experts" of finance are those
whose
ONLY asset would be gold if things got dicey, you can understand the bias.
But if you study the history of gold written by those who have no material
investment in thy hype, you see a very different story.


>
> James, do you have any time line of your own in mind on when you think you
> might find yourself in a position to have to close your own front gates?
>

If you mean that I cannot depend on the outside world for the things my
family needs to survive and thrive, that timeline would be twenty years ago,
and
that's only because I started way too late. Our existence is divided into
two
distinct parts: what we need to physically survive and be comfortable on the
one hand and the superfluity and frills on the other. We worked dilegently
to
make sure our food, fuel, and other such needs were secured by our own work
and cleverness without reference to the outside world. And this does not
consist of a mirthless bowl of gruel eaten in a cold and gloomy hovel. Among
us we
read as many as 20 books in two weeks. We are all filled to the brim with
stories and when the night or winter closes in, we often sit by the fire and
relate them. We all play musical instruments and sometimes get into one of
those
rounds where we make up the verses as we go and those will involve events in
our life together, charicatures of people we know.

That is, as the title of an old Appalachian tune would have it, there are
Fine Times at Our House.

As I have described before, we also participate in the wider world, but we do
NOT depend on it.

But if by closing the gates you mean to protect ourselves from the roving
hordes of angry day traders and exectutive secretaries that have suddenly
found
themselves destitute and on the rampage, that point on the time line would be
never.

James





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page