Comments on Pro Libertate: "The Dream is Collapsing"

MamaLiberty wrote, "When people are starving ...

2011-11-02T10:13:11.543-06:00

MamaLiberty wrote, "When people are starving all around you, a handful of silver will be meaningless."

This is true--however, starvation is not usually what an economic collapse entails. In every economic collapse since the beginning of the industrial age, goods have not ever been that dear. It is the function of society which distributes those goods, and in so doing informs producers of what the needs of the people are, which fails.

It will not be the case that there will be no corn in the fields, oil in the refineries, or cloth coming from the factories. It will be that the people who grow, refine, and spin those products will be demanding something other than what had, to that point, been the standard medium of exchange. A handful of silver is EXACTLY what the average person needs in such a scenario.

My serious argument against government imposing so...

2011-10-02T16:56:04.880-06:00

My serious argument against government imposing sound money is this:

If you don't dispose of the involuntary taxation in all its governmental and banking pretenses, and the taxes are in gold and silver, and you are to buy it via your labor and via your time resources, you have just been had. Again.

So until the idea of government is uprooted from the minds that wish a free market, you haven't really gotten rid of the seed of evil, despite all the attempts in all other forms.

MamaLiberty wrote, "When people are starving ...

2011-09-29T01:00:53.556-06:00

MamaLiberty wrote, "When people are starving all around you, a handful of silver will be meaningless."

This is a common meme these days, one that doesn't quite jibe with the facts on the ground.

I'm surrounded by Oceans of corn, endless squares of soybean fields, almost countless pens of hogs and cattle,... your statement seems to ring hollow. People on the ocean side prolly have a similar outlook.

The Only(!) People who will be starving are those who rely on goberment for sustenance, imho. Or those who have Nothing to trade. People with gold or silver (or anything of value) will be welcomed by those here who have much to give. The free market rocks! And I'm not talkin' about the "free market" put forth by bankers,... the real deal is where it's at.

"Are you still alive?! ... Treasures here, sunkin' there, buried treasure's everywhere"

And, I could have swore the lyrics were: "SUckers walk, B.S. talks, don't touch my Three Lock Box!" ... unless of course you have something to trade.

Another thing I keep in mind, when the U.S was leaving Vietnam, the locals rushed to obtain paper thin sheets of gold to take with them. (Lost the link) I haven't read any stories where they rushed to get sacks of rice, bags of flour or barrels of bacon,... only thin sheets of gold.

What's that tell you?

Also, I have a some caned chicken saved just in case, so I can trade it for gold or silver. If I do,... I imagine many others do too.

~ my two copper Cents.

- clark

To Mama Liberty: I'm thinking silver will be ...

2011-09-28T13:13:03.249-06:00

To Mama Liberty:

I'm thinking silver will be good on the network of the folks who have had the guts to get prepared, because you may have something that I can get but don't yet have in possession, and vice versa. We'll be a bartering network where your knowledge of availability will create the need for the medium of exchange. If you need socks and I have none but know a friend of a friend who does, and you only have a bag of pasta that I or my friend doesn't need, we'll all need something to represent the value that can be passed up and down the supply line. And, of course, the more metal you have, the wider range of possibilites you also have.

Also, as long as products are available in stores at any price, store keepers will take metal before they'll take a trillion dollar FRN for a can of beans. Think Zimbabwe. Products were still available, but the stores eventually stopped taking paper since they couldn't replace stock the next day with the paper they took in the day before. But with gold that people panned out of the creeks, they could.

It's all going to be interesting, no?

Will, thanks for your article. Unfortunately, we d...

2011-09-28T09:09:09.509-06:00

Will, thanks for your article. Unfortunately, we do see this dream collapsing. It is too bad that so many cannot see clearly the intellectual arguments for sound money.

By the way, I am a first time reader and I will be adding your blog to my regular reading list! Great work!

Will, I've followed your column for several ye...

2011-09-28T08:25:28.061-06:00

Will, I've followed your column for several years, and this has to be your magnum opus of all your articles to date. You've taken a complex metaphysical metaphor and lucidly brought it into focus to describe our current condition. Kudos for a job well done....

....Unfortunately, as you have so richly illustrated, our economy is also "well done" beyond salvation.

I think "Inception" might have been insp...

2011-09-27T17:01:42.825-06:00

I think "Inception" might have been inspired by the 1984 movie "Dreamscape." Complete with creepy wolves with red rotoscoped eyes.

Similarly, "Shutter Island" is nothing but a blatant, [and better] remake of "The Ninth Configuration," by William Peter Blatty.

Great stuff, William - but what happened to the fo...

2011-09-27T10:37:38.806-06:00

Great stuff, William - but what happened to the font? Too small to read here. I had to copy/paste to a word processor to see it.

The real wealth, and repository of value, is human ingenuity and productivity. What we choose to use as "money" is not nearly as important if we conduct our lives with integrity within the free market.

In the meantime, my "savings" are invested in a far more precious metal for the immediate future... and other things that will become necessary to ride out the storm.

When people are starving all around you, a handful of silver will be meaningless. Later, yes, it will be a good medium of exchange, but you can't eat the darn stuff.

At least I won't be trading the food I have stored for silver any time soon.

Another excellent post, Will!

2011-09-26T19:58:33.086-06:00

Another excellent post, Will!

Another excellent column, Will!

2011-09-26T19:58:17.020-06:00

Another excellent column, Will!

One of your best, Mr. Grigg. We must all remember...

2011-09-26T13:57:32.622-06:00

One of your best, Mr. Grigg.

We must all remember this lesson: central banking and fiat money are the NUMBER ONE ENEMY that must be destroyed before all the other evils of tyranny.

For it is through printable "money" that tyranny is able to fund its wars against others and its own, able to endlessly cajole, spy, harass, detain, arrest, torture and kill its own.

End fiat money, and you will cage the Beast long enough to finally kill it.

I read a fascinating article--sorry, source forgotten--that chronicled the decline of culture concomitant with debased money. Debased money--and cheap credit--change time preference from long- to short-term; it feeds an ethos of immediate gratification because when money is debased, saving is foolish.

Over time the debasement of money debases culture in equal measure until both are worthless.

Hard money rewards saving, prudence, patience, and thrift--values that made us great once.

P.S. buy silver NOW while it's cheap. If you have to cash out your retirement to do so, do it; the coming market crash will destroy the funds anyway.

Ditto silent critic's comments. It's a tr...

2011-09-26T13:08:22.554-06:00

Ditto silent critic's comments. It's a tragic shame that the millions of ignorant, deluded souls who really would benefit most from this article (and every other that you've ever written) will probably never see it. Even if they did, it would be well above the heads of most and the few that could comprehend it are in such deep denial that its message would never be allowed to penetrate the curtain of delusion behind which they've been existing.

All of the above said, I know you won't let it deter you.

Will, you get better and better as you go. The pr...

2011-09-26T11:16:30.206-06:00

Will, you get better and better as you go.

The predictable consequence of abandoning honest money is so easy to see, and yet we all tend to see only the narratives to which we are accustomed.

People will ignore your airtight arguments all day long, but tell them a good story and they might listen.

This was a really good way to present your position, I love it... well done.