Air Corps 1903 rifle

[John Beard]

Seasons' Greetings!

Permit me to defend myself.

When I graduated from college in 1971 and moved to a big city for employment, I lived in an apartment next door to an elderly retired German couple. Oscar Stein and his wife had emigrated from Germany in the late 1920's, worked in the Detroit auto factories, and retired to Alabama to be near children. Mr. Stein, as I called him, was a wonderful man and I loved to sit and chat with him. What caused him to leave Germany, as he explained, was hyper-inflation. Being in his 20's, he worked as a laborer. He got paid each day in German Marks and, he explained, he had to spend them on his way home because, next day, they wouldn't be worth anything. He added that a piece of gold jewelry or a gold or silver coin was priceless and could be bartered for anything. I found his story quite remarkable and remembered it thenceforth. His story was reinforced recently when I looked up hyper-inflation in Wikipedia. A graph appears showing German inflation in the 1920's and the depiction is utterly astounding.

Our National Debt is at a tipping point beyond which our future will be irrevocably set. We will be following post-WWI Germany's path. The result will be economic calamity. Anything denominated in dollars (bank accounts, retirement accounts, pensions, Social Security, welfare assistance, government employee paychecks, debts, mortgages, credit card balances) will become worthless. When stability eventually emerges perhaps several years later, young people who hustle will have an opportunity and time to rebuild and, being young, will not generally have lost much. Those whose subsistence depends on dollar-denominated items as listed (the elderly, the poor and disabled on welfare, civil servants, schoolteachers) will be hurt very badly. But unlike Mr. Stein's day, a gold or silver coin will not be negotiable currency. Gold and silver are now commodities like soybeans, corn, and cotton. Wal-Mart, Kroger, Target, McDonald's, and Wendy's will not be accepting gold and silver. So one should be careful when planning for the future.

And economic calamity will, most assuredly, be accompanied by political calamity. But that's a different subject, perhaps, for another day.

Happy Holidays!

J.B.

[Dick Hosmer]

Permit me to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

"Seasons' Greetings" and "Happy Holidays", being so blatantly PC, have become offensive.

What happened in Germany in the 1920s is fairly common knowledge - but knowledge which our "leaders" (for many of whom I did not vote) seem to be totally ignoring, or perhaps they figure they have "enough" salted away?

Now that you have spoiled, un-intentially I'm sure (and it is not my intent to 'shoot the messenger' - you didn't cause the problem) every senior's day - what DO you see as a way for oldsters to survive?

Or, should we simply espouse the Indian way, and just walk off into the woods on a frosty night?

This discussion should probably be moved to the political forum.

[rebound]

I agree with you also Rick. I'm 63 but I think we could have gotten by with less years ago. Not today. I believe that woman with families must work to help make ends meet.

Back in the old days,,, the 60s that is.. When I bought my first home they wouldn't count the wife's income, Loan only based the on the one income.. Now a days it's a two income family. You call that progress ???
As an after thought I have about 300,000 in old 20s German marks giving to me by an uncle years back..

[John Beard]

Permit me to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

"Seasons' Greetings" and "Happy Holidays", being so blatantly PC, have become offensive.

"Seasons' Greetings" apply this time of year regardless of religious (or non-religious) affiliation. 'Tis simply a form of holiday greeting and should not be construed as politically correct or offensive.

"Happy Holidays!" on the other hand, is a politically-correct form of expression. I use it when I know not what the recipient's religious persuasion is. I have friends, for example, who may be Jewish, I respect their religious beliefs, and I sincerely wish not to offend them. If I know they're Jewish, I gladly wish them a "Happy Hanukkah!"

I gladly accept your Merry Christmas and Happy New Year wishes! And to my known Christian friends such as you, I unabashedly say....

"MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!"

J.B.

[John Beard]

What happened in Germany in the 1920s is fairly common knowledge - but knowledge which our "leaders" (for many of whom I did not vote) seem to be totally ignoring, or perhaps they figure they have "enough" salted away?

Now that you have spoiled, un-intentially I'm sure (and it is not my intent to 'shoot the messenger' - you didn't cause the problem) every senior's day - what DO you see as a way for oldsters to survive?

Or, should we simply espouse the Indian way, and just walk off into the woods on a frosty night?

This discussion should probably be moved to the political forum.

Survival in a hyper-inflation environment will be different for different people. There is no "one size fits all" answer. But several principles apply.

Back in the 1980's, Wall Street suffered a huge one or two-day crash. A newspaper reporter approached Sam Walton and solicited his reaction to having lost several billion dollars in one or two days. He replied something to the effect of, "Two days ago, I owned 60% (or whatever it was) of Wal-Mart. Today, I still own 60% of Wal-Mart." And he turned and walked away. His viewpoint was that he was not denominating his wealth in dollars, but percentage of Wal-Mart. So owning stock in good solid companies is a good form of security that is also readily negotiable.

One's assets should also not be stored in a medium which the government knows you own. If you own real estate, for example, the government can tax it and ultimately seize it for taxes. Ask any Southerner who is familiar with post-war Reconstruction. Ask any landowner who lived through the Bolshevik Revolution and Stalin. A dying government will desperately grasp for revenue wherever it can find it.

One should also be prepared for lapses in essential services, such as electricity, food, municipal water. New York City, for example, has a population of about 8 million. And I could probably weigh on a cotton scale the amount of food that's grown daily in the city limits. Can you imagine the line of tractor-trailer trucks on the Interstate highways that haul enough food into New York City for 24 million meals each day? One should not be deceived into thinking that a 2-3% shortage will be insignificant. Once the public becomes aware of a shortage in any item, they immediately begin hoarding and that item vanishes overnight. Have you tried to buy any .22 caliber ammunition for the past several years? And yet production has been at record levels. Do you remember the Johnny Carson toilet paper shortage? Ooooo!

And, finally, companies such as Wal-Mart, Target, Kroger, etc., are NOT going to follow our government over the cliff and into the abyss. And neither will they train their clerks to accept gold and silver (or soybeans and cotton). They, along with private employers, will switch over to an electronic currency and continue business as usual. And the government, the dollar they're married to, and those who depend on those dollars will slip over the cliff and into the abyss.

I do not endorse the Indian way.

Permit me to close by stating that neither you nor I will likely see these conditions. They're off in the future. But our young children may see them.

Merry Christmas!

J.B.

[Fast996]

"Gold and silver are now commodities like soybeans, corn, and cotton. Wal-Mart, Kroger, Target, McDonald's, and Wendy's will not be accepting gold and silver. So one should be careful when planning for the future."

That's right pay $5000 for any rare rifle that sits on your wall or in your safe.It pays no interest but goes up as long as the credit is easy.Currency inflation was the problem of the Weimar we have a credit inflation easy money built thru easy credit(stock prices) .Not currency inflation of bank notes. Gold maybe in little demand now but if we head down the road of corrupt South America inflation and devaluations of 50 per cent I'll gladly hold the yellow metal.

[John Beard]

Gold has two issues that one must acknowledge when dealing with it:

(1) A very small amount has a very large value. When using it for barter, it can only be used for big-ticket items. And when using it for barter, the person receiving it will likely make change in worthless inflationary currency, not like metal.
(2) Trading (i.e., buying and selling) gold incurs a 25% commission. So you will only get back in equivalent value 75 cents for each dollar invested.

Gold, however, has two virtues. A very large valuation occupies a very small space and, thereby, stores easily. And the government will not likely know you own some.

J.B.

p.s.,

The Depression-era Roosevelt Administration outlawed the ownership of gold and forced owners to sell their stockpiles to the government at a fixed price that turned out to be a huge loss!!!

[Promo]

Gold and silver are now commodities like soybeans, corn, and cotton. Wal-Mart, Kroger, Target, McDonald's, and Wendy's will not be accepting gold and silver. So one should be careful when planning for the future.

Please let me disagree.. I always say that lead is the most valueable thing on earth. Add a bit of powder to it and case it in some brass, and you yourself can set the currency rate

[Rick the Librarian]

Permit me to close by stating that neither you nor I will likely see these conditions. They're off in the future. But our young children may see them.



J.B.

That was my point in stating earlier, that most of us will probably live through the rest of our lives, pretty much as we have so far. But that things will be different for our children and grandchildren.

I have studied history virtually all of my life and have noted the so-called "watershed" elections. 1932 and 1860 were two of them; 2008 was another. Progressivism/liberalism or whatever you call it, was rescued from the grave. You also have nearly 45-50% who pay NO income tax (or very little) and are basically into government for what they can get from it. Government is not concerned with getting people off welfare or food stamps - indeed they boast when the number of people receiving it increases.

There are signs that 2016 will just continue the trend. Will I give up?? NO!!

[Kragrifle]

And now that I have decided to slit my wrists...........