More On Gold
The mass desertion of the dollar to gold we are currently witnessing reminds me of an ominously prophetic passage from the novel Atlas Shrugged -
Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society's virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion—when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing—when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors—when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you—when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice—you may know that your society is doomed.
Money is so noble a medium that is does not compete with guns and it does not make terms with brutality. It will not permit a country to survive as half-property, half-loot.
Whenever destroyers appear among men, they start by destroying money, for money is men's protection and the base of a moral existence. Destroyers seize gold and leave to its owners a counterfeit pile of paper. This kills all objective standards and delivers men into the arbitrary power of an arbitrary setter of values. Gold was an objective value, an equivalent of wealth produced. Paper is a mortgage on wealth that does not exist, backed by a gun aimed at those who are expected to produce it. Paper is a check drawn by legal looters upon an account which is not theirs: upon the virtue of the victims. Watch for the day when it bounces, marked, 'Account overdrawn.'
posted by Intellectual Insurgent @ 5:22 PM
13 Comments
13 Comments:
Wow! I hate to use a cliche, but it's not my fault this cliche is over-used, because it applies here: that was deep! (Once again.)
At least we are allowed to own and trade gold bullion again. I was one of the first to jump on the gold futures bandwagon back in 1974 and I remember a struggle to get out of a long position somewhere around $200/ Oz
But if you look at where the dollar stands against the 1974 dollar, I think Gold doesn't look quite so good in the long run.
Although I tend to dislike Ayn, she's right here. The dollar is the measure of our country's virtue as an investment and as we depend almost completely on our value as an investment, it's time to be worried, or at least well hedged.
That what you get when you have morally bankrupt leadership.
We have men of cloth and men of power selling their souls at the expense of the good people, the American people.
A true leader has to emerge, to illuminate the simple truth of corruption. It is not a hard story to explain or defend.
It makes your skin crawl to think that in order to protect yourself, you have to hoard the goods "Gold" that the abusers of power crave.
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves. -- William Pitt, 18 Nov 1783
I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave. -- H. L. Mencken
think the great depression, and ask what percentage of the population is impacted. imagine 40+% unemployment.
The passage points to a larger economic truth: the US is turning into a country of paper pushers. Real production is done overseas – we move capital and provide other “services”.
In parallel, we’re loosing our ability to innovate and bring new products to market. Science, technology and manufacturing are simply not valued in our society: better to be a wall street trader who gets rich skimming money from another’s pile of moeny for just moving it around (i.e. - not adding much value to society or the marketplace).
Sure, we need investment and capitol markets – but they are already the main avenue to wealth (as opposed to entrepreneurial creativity or labor).
R of R. Frankly this pisses me off. Ultimately we have to find a way to be competitive in the manufacturing space in the worldwide market. All of our Politicians should be tarred and feathered for lack of leadership, and our CEO's should be flogged with a cat o' nine tails for their inability to make this clear to Politicians.
Sooner or later the public will grow tired of the Have's and Have more's who say "screw you" to the little people. History does repeat itself, and we'll find out, if this "pissoffedness" reaches a creshendo during our lifetimes.
Note, every day, the water line rises, on who falls into the little people bucket.
That security most of us feel in the upper middle class bracket is a false sense of security.
Yes, in case all your were wondering, MrSleep does have a burr up his butt. I'm on edge about a lot of things (obviously).
Now on to positive news. Calee4kneeah is drying out and getting some good weather. So while we debate the U.S.'s ills, we should get outside this weekend and enjoy this great weather.
mr sleep, I agree with almost everything you have to say. There is one thing I don't agree with, however. You said all someone has to do is point out the corruption, and it'll stop.
If only it were that easy. The reason I started blogging to begin with (and I've been side-tracked from both blogging and the reason I started blogging) is because I happen to feel that what goes on in Washington, although important, really doesn't amout to a hill of beans on the local level.
I happen to feel that local politics (and the economic development policies of your local government) will have more impact on everyone's quality of life than most decisions made in Washington.
There are still good paying jobs out there, but the clique of big businesses in the towns and cities don't want them in their backyard, just like you wouldn't want a grave yard or nuclear reactor next door to you.
These cliques of businesses are your local economic development agency. As long as they can attract low-paying jobs to keep wage competition from happening, they'll always point to the low unemployment rate and hype that like it's the best thing since sliced bread, while we all ignore the fact these jobs don't pay enough for a single person to get by without government assistance, let alone a family.
The industries that come in and pay very little are dumping their problems on the locals where they ply their craft, and hope (but don't really care one way or the other) that the federal government will step in to provide government assisted housing and food stamps. From the fat cat's point of view, hey if the government can pick up where we leave off, fine, and if they can't, that's fine too.
I ran a county commissioner campaign where that's all I talked about on my radio ads.
This town has just recently added 2 factories where one starts out at $24/hour and the other $35/hour. Believe me, it's creating some major waves. The industry around here is really bitching, and I'd be willing to bet these factories won't last long because if they need to rely on other local factories for anything, they won't get the help &/or cooperation they need - but, it's a start.
We do need something. First of all, we need to change peoples' attitudes about voting. Someone who votes straight down party lines or worse yet, during the primaries, won't "waste" their vote on someone they've never heard of, are just as bad as someone who doesn't vote at all, because not wanting to waste your vote on someone you've never heard of because you don't think they have a chance, is the very same thing that got the unions into trouble; the unions will only back the candidate they think will win, regardless of that candidate's stance on labor. This way, the unions can say when they throw their support behind a candidate, that candidate wins.
That candidate wins - not because of the support of the unions, but because the people who finance their campaigns make sure that their boy or girl is someone who everyone will hear of, so no one will think they're wasting their vote on a nobody.
As long as you've heard of them, it doesn't matter what they do when they get into office. People chalk it up as business as usual, and they still vote for the same peice of crap they voted for the last time, because that person has name recognition.
There needs to be a grass-roots movement where everybody, just for one election cycle, purposely votes for either the underdog, or someone they've never heard of, just to send a message. It needs to be done, nationwide, one May or November election cycle, to grab the attention of the "powers-that-be." That would be a great first step.
boris, I didn't say it would simply stop, but I said a true leader could effectively draw attention to it, and continue to drive on it, and capture public attention.
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