Aloha er…Thomas… We have contrarian views regarding precious metals, but they are not
that far apart. I simply want people to understand clearly that in an
agrarian society, silver and gold are place-holders. They do not
constitute wealth in and of themselves. They are merely a compact
method of enabling trade. ‘Wealth’ depends on abundance. Silver and
gold are worth what you can trade them for and nothing else. If someone has a surfeit of food crops which he must sell before it
rots, it makes perfect sense to sell it to someone who can distribute
it efficiently – and in that scenario, silver and gold are reasonable
choices. Maybe the ONLY reasonable choices. As long as I can spend the
silver I accept from you to buy something I need instead of having you
buy everything I need and bring it to me in exchange for my crop,
we’ll both be better doing it that way. That is he reason money
exists. So we don’t have to go through all that. But in EVERY scenario I have discussed, I describe INDIVIDUAL trading
and do not assume surpluses larger than what is immediately
barterable. The second you begin producing in excess of your own
needs, and those of your neighbors, and intentionally grow to sell to
people who you don’t know, you have created a different type of
economy. You now NEED that silver and gold. But at that point a
requirement exists that it all be uniformly valued. That is to say a silver dime must mean the same number of eggs at your
house that it does at my house – or we can’t use the dime for trade –
because it has a different value to each of us. That’s the point of ‘face value’. It has to mean the same thing to
everyone. My point has always been that if fiat currency crashes, the
‘value’ of silver and gold will reset to face value. The face value
might not be anything like what it is now. But you won’t be bringing a
silver dime to some pilgrim who has a stack of sandwich coins and
explaining to them why yours is worth something and theirs isn’t. That
just won’t happen. They’ll say “but they both say ten cents” – and
your argument is gone at that point. There won’t be a lot of manufacturing in this island, so the metal we
have will stay here for the most part. Unless people trade it for
gasoline and then burn up the gasoline. Then they won’t have either.
We all understand that’s called a ‘trade deficit’ and, unless we mine
silver, we will soon have neither silver nor gasoline. Unless we have printing presses. Then we can print paper that says
it’s worth silver or gold….and then, after people trust that it is, we
can print paper that isn’t worth squat. Which is where the US is now. The fact that Utah legalized silver and gold for trade means nothing.
You and everyone else use it for trade right now and always have. The
price is still based on the dollar. The issue I have tried to explain – unsuccessfully so far to most
people) – is that we aren’t Zimbabwe. There will be a currency reset
and, basically, the dollar won’t hyper-inflate here. It will
hyper-DEFLATE. And the result of that – although this is the wrong
terminology and I apologize for using it, will be that silver and gold
will be marked-to-market. Things will cost what they are worth, plus a
fair profit – not what someone can screw you out of for them. If we want jobs and food, especially on an island, we are going to
have to make them. That may well mean that tracts of land owned by
foreigners who have never come here and never WILL come here could be
co-opted to grow food for export. It may mean that county officials
who get $80,000 a year and a new car to futz around will serve in
elective office for minimum wage – which is all they are worth anyway. And it may mean that I am the sheriff and justice of the peace in an
area where people want me to be. Maybe not. But if the economy
collapses, the police won’t have gas to drive out to your place to
handle a problem. So people will learn to handle problems peacefully
and fairly. And that’s a good thing. We have a lot of that here
already – but we have some bad guys too and they will be coming back
from Arizona – we can’t afford to keep them there – and they shouldn’t
be there anyway. I off-tracked, but the deal with metal is that it cannot reset at high
values or it won’t be useful for small transactions. Currency, in
whatever form has to be universally accepted and usable. You have to
be able to buy a pineapple as well as a tractor. That currency reset
is what I am trying to prime people for – and I get a lot of hate mail
for even suggesting it. I’m not saying collecting PMs is wrong – I’m saying the expectation of
getting rich in an economic collapse by virtue of owning it is not
what will happen.
that far apart. I simply want people to understand clearly that in an
agrarian society, silver and gold are place-holders. They do not
constitute wealth in and of themselves. They are merely a compact
method of enabling trade. ‘Wealth’ depends on abundance. Silver and
gold are worth what you can trade them for and nothing else. If someone has a surfeit of food crops which he must sell before it
rots, it makes perfect sense to sell it to someone who can distribute
it efficiently – and in that scenario, silver and gold are reasonable
choices. Maybe the ONLY reasonable choices. As long as I can spend the
silver I accept from you to buy something I need instead of having you
buy everything I need and bring it to me in exchange for my crop,
we’ll both be better doing it that way. That is he reason money
exists. So we don’t have to go through all that. But in EVERY scenario I have discussed, I describe INDIVIDUAL trading
and do not assume surpluses larger than what is immediately
barterable. The second you begin producing in excess of your own
needs, and those of your neighbors, and intentionally grow to sell to
people who you don’t know, you have created a different type of
economy. You now NEED that silver and gold. But at that point a
requirement exists that it all be uniformly valued. That is to say a silver dime must mean the same number of eggs at your
house that it does at my house – or we can’t use the dime for trade –
because it has a different value to each of us. That’s the point of ‘face value’. It has to mean the same thing to
everyone. My point has always been that if fiat currency crashes, the
‘value’ of silver and gold will reset to face value. The face value
might not be anything like what it is now. But you won’t be bringing a
silver dime to some pilgrim who has a stack of sandwich coins and
explaining to them why yours is worth something and theirs isn’t. That
just won’t happen. They’ll say “but they both say ten cents” – and
your argument is gone at that point. There won’t be a lot of manufacturing in this island, so the metal we
have will stay here for the most part. Unless people trade it for
gasoline and then burn up the gasoline. Then they won’t have either.
We all understand that’s called a ‘trade deficit’ and, unless we mine
silver, we will soon have neither silver nor gasoline. Unless we have printing presses. Then we can print paper that says
it’s worth silver or gold….and then, after people trust that it is, we
can print paper that isn’t worth squat. Which is where the US is now. The fact that Utah legalized silver and gold for trade means nothing.
You and everyone else use it for trade right now and always have. The
price is still based on the dollar. The issue I have tried to explain – unsuccessfully so far to most
people) – is that we aren’t Zimbabwe. There will be a currency reset
and, basically, the dollar won’t hyper-inflate here. It will
hyper-DEFLATE. And the result of that – although this is the wrong
terminology and I apologize for using it, will be that silver and gold
will be marked-to-market. Things will cost what they are worth, plus a
fair profit – not what someone can screw you out of for them. If we want jobs and food, especially on an island, we are going to
have to make them. That may well mean that tracts of land owned by
foreigners who have never come here and never WILL come here could be
co-opted to grow food for export. It may mean that county officials
who get $80,000 a year and a new car to futz around will serve in
elective office for minimum wage – which is all they are worth anyway. And it may mean that I am the sheriff and justice of the peace in an
area where people want me to be. Maybe not. But if the economy
collapses, the police won’t have gas to drive out to your place to
handle a problem. So people will learn to handle problems peacefully
and fairly. And that’s a good thing. We have a lot of that here
already – but we have some bad guys too and they will be coming back
from Arizona – we can’t afford to keep them there – and they shouldn’t
be there anyway. I off-tracked, but the deal with metal is that it cannot reset at high
values or it won’t be useful for small transactions. Currency, in
whatever form has to be universally accepted and usable. You have to
be able to buy a pineapple as well as a tractor. That currency reset
is what I am trying to prime people for – and I get a lot of hate mail
for even suggesting it. I’m not saying collecting PMs is wrong – I’m saying the expectation of
getting rich in an economic collapse by virtue of owning it is not
what will happen.
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