Capitalism is economic tyranny Socialism is economic democracy.

No one loves money that know of. I love my God, my family, a few close friends... that's about it. How can you love an inanimate object? (although I HAVE heard of a LOVE ROCK...) I fell in love with my wife. It had nothing to do with money. But i sure loved to see her eat regularly, have a warm bed to sleep in, a roof over her head and indoor plumbing.

 

Utter nonsense.

The hormonal response has nothing to do with moral worth. In fact it's frequently contra-indicated. Some of the worst people are the object of much 'falling in love'.

 

Absolutely. And by "sewing" with my family I sit here today with a loving wife, three great kids (proud papa here), two great grandkids I love and enjoy, friends from coast to coast and a wonderful (paid for) home to enjoy in my golden years. One definitely does reap what one sews.

 

Something only the safe and well fed ever say. Sheer arrogance.

 

Yes, what in hell are you going to do with a degree in "gender studies?" At a minimum you will need a Master's or more likely a PhD to be a psychologist or something like that. Beyond that, what good is it?

I studied accounting in undergraduate school along with a lot of extra courses in economics because I was drawn to it. If I had all the money in the world, I might have gone graduate degree in economics, but I couldn't. I did take nine months off from work to plow though an MBA because I saw I had to have it.

Since graduation, I have studied history extensively. I have also become a numismatic expert. Most of it was self taught, sometimes through "the school of hard knocks." I was a coin dealer for 13 years before I retired. My business and accounting degrees helped my business a great deal. Today in retirement, I get paid for writing an article for the hobby magazines now and then.

My niece has a degree in logistics. She is working for a good transportation firm and earning more money than I could have ever hoped to earn. The degree didn't exist in the early 1970s.

 

So true. I was recruited by the San Diego school system because they were up to their butts in philosophy majors, art and music majors and similar but had no one to teach math or science. They gave me a teaching cert based on my engineering degree and I had a blast teaching high school Physics. I went back to industry ultimately though... better money.

 

You "earn" love? 100 bucks an hour? I fell in love... pure magic... no money at all.

 

Exactly.

We're in this mess because too many people refuse to take even that bare minimum responsibility.

 

If you have something on topic, feel free to share it. Otherwise I'm not really interested.

For those that think there are only 2 sides to an issue:

 

Eh? I think you've responded to me in error?

 

With my knowledge of socialism stemming from over 50 years of interest, I can easily see that you know very, very little about the subject. I would offer to debate you on it but I know it would be a waste of time. Can you even describe the difference between communist ideology regarding socialism, and socialist ideology on it? .... --how each came into being? I doubt it. Or something much easier: how would communist society be established? It's a mystery, huh?

You're talking bullshit opinion and you don't even know it.

 

Here's a little detour to lighten the conversation then.

I have some gold coins including gold $10 pieces from the 1800s. I also have some Indian head pennies. How can I sell them for, say, 85-90% of what they're worth and be sure it's a safe transaction with nobody pulling a gun and/or stealing from me?

 

Apparently all you know is the mental masturbations of 20thC white aristocrats hell bent on toying with the peasants.

You favour mere sophistry. There's little to no capacity to appreciate bona fide collectivism. You're simply not interested.

 

You think it's bullshit that poor kids can't afford to be reckless?

You must be very invested in seeing them remain poor.

 

It doesn't seem like you have a clue.

 

You could take pictures and post them here. I have not been active as a dealer at the shows for over 10 years, but I could give you an approximate grade and the current published averages of dealer buy prices.

When you say "80 to 90% of what they are worth" you have to be working with the wholesale prices as a base. Retail mark-ups are higher than that unless you have something that in strong demand.

The gold bullion prices are high right now, currently over $1,800 per troy ounce, but it goes up and down daily. A ten dollar gold piece contains a little less than half an ounce. Beyond that, there is the collector value, and those percentages can get very high.

As for selling, even I find that tough these days. Having spent a lot of time behind the bourse table at shows, I know what dealers face. Some things are best sold privately. Others should go to auctions, but those are special cases.

 

Just my two cents here... (not making a coin joke)
I am a prepper. While we do have some gold and silver in our " barter items" for when SHTF, most of what we have is stuff you can eat, shoot, or drink. If things get rough, a chicken sandwich will be worth more than an ounce of gold.
... just a comment... no reply required.

 

If we get to the point where food is worth more than gold, you might not want to be living in that society. Things will be very desperate by then. I collect coins dating back to the Romans, and gold has always been good.

 

I understand. But we could get to the point that the only things of value will be things you can eat, drink, shoot or fornicate with. Heck, we've recently seen electrons be worth billions. Doesn't look like that will last long.

 

Here’s quick guide to Indian Cents. The heart of the collection runs from 1866 to 1878. All of those dates are good with the 1871, 1872 and especially the 1877 leading the way. The 1908-S and 1909-S are also good. For those there is a small “S” mint mark for San Francisco on the reverse under the wreath.

 

Same. We've been lifelong 'preppers', but never knew that's what we were. We just hated the feeling of precarious survival, dependent upon infrastructure we have no control of.

Have you experienced people being weirdly angry and/or resentful of your preparedness? We have. It's the most surreal thing, to hear people try and find reasons why acting in the interests of survival is a bad thing. They don't really know why they do it .. all they know is that it makes them feel bad about themselves, so they have to deflect.

I've even had people suggest that peasant behaviour (eg "stocking the cellar") is some kind of wrong, but living day to day like you're made of money is just fine. They want poor people to live like rich people and damn the consequences, just so that they don't have to feel bad about their own empty cellars. One even said that peasant behaviour is morally wrong because it's a form of 'hoarding'. When you drill down into what that really means, you discover what they really want is poor folk sacrificing their own survival, in order to 'share' with those who live day to day because it's more fun. It's grotesquely entitled, lazy, and selfish.

 

I as born and raised in New York City and can totally understand that reaction. But I spent decades in the Army and after all is said and done... I'm retired in semi-rural Texas. Her folks are much more connected to survival activities like self defense, raising food, and all the other prepper stuff. We have lots of food, tools, seeds, water purification, medical supplies, hygiene items, ammunition, barter items, radios, and a great library covering raising food, medical procedures, dental procedures and so much more. We've gone off the grid and gone totally solar. We've stashed a bunch of electronics in Faraday Cages and so much more. We don't broadcast what we've done or have... but I bet its not uncommon around here. We're a long way from any significant nuke targets and no city folks will be traveling through here to get anywhere else. There are no guarantees but we've thought this all out... just in case.

 

<sigh> It's easier to cure a strep throat than cancer, but if you don't cure the cancer, curing the strep throat won't make any difference.

GET IT??

The 89%.

My point is that they are important, and the grifters taking 30% are a lot bigger problem for justice and fairness than the ones taking 3%. Hello?

 

I guess that must be why I am always able to prove you objectively wrong.

 

No data. No facts. No argument. You have nothing, so no further comment.