What is it that all of the GFs and female spouses don’t get it!
My wife keeps telling me to leave and start a pig farm if I want.
SG
Cedar and Castle,
Apropos of some of the things you were addressing, it seems like there’s been a lot of noise in the mainstream recently deriding the notion of investing heavily in gold (or at all for that matter) or that gold’s a no brainer.
I unfortunately happened to catch that snake oil saleswoman Suze Orman on CNN for a bit and she was literally laughing aloud and making sarcastic faces when a person who had e-mailed the show with a question suggested putting a lot of money into gold. She followed that up with a full-throated endorsement of 401(k)s and stocks, practically begging the person to max out their contributions.
I think many in the mainstream see almost the mere thought of buying gold – not even to mention taking physical possession of it – as some kind of conspiracy theory in and of itself. I know some JP Morgan guys in Boston I went to school with and while they don’t deride the thought they look at me somewhat perplexed when I plug PMs in general. It seems like there’s a prevalent attitude out there that says hotshots make their money on exotic instruments not archaic gold and silver.
And your response?
capesurvivor, that is priceless. My GF wants me to start a garden, but not for food if you get my drift. I will only answer questions from her for now on and still she ends up mad at ME??? Like I am doing all of this. Glad I’m not the only one in this situation.
I think for now on I will only talk about rainbows and gumdrops with her. Oh and Jessica Simpsons wieght (seems to be a hot topic these days) LOL
Who the heck are you guys referring to, when you say "Our Leaders?"
Surely not that bunch of idiots in D.C. or at the helm of those "corporatrosities."
The folks who really "get it" are the ones who set it all up in the first place, and continue,
some way or the other, to benefit from our stupid "followship." Nothings gonna change
'till all that changes, and I can’t see for the life of me how that’s ever gonna change.
Can you?
SG… Now you know you opened a can of worms with that statement… I know you don’t speak of ALL females… Ask Dogs_In_A_Pile who got it long before he did.
Cat
dbajba
You are absolutely correct about that!!
Oink.
SG
I’ve got to second Cat’s statement… can’o worms, guys!
I get the same treatment you discuss from my husband. Well, he hasn’t asked me to start a pig farm yet…
But he sure doesn’t want to hear about any of this, either. He’s happy living in the moment, and doesn’t really want to know something that may bring his world down. I can almost appreciate that view, except I believe too strongly in personal responsibility!
So yeah, we women on the site get all the eye rolls and "you’re wearing a tin-hat" looks that you do!
I couldn’t resist.
No sexist comment meant. The truth is, this has become a red-letter issue after decades of marriage. I started getting interested in resources back in the 70’s, read "The Long Emergency ", Orlov, Simmons, etc., etc., the last few years and now I start to get distressed with various energy misuse around the house. Planning for triple E nastiness…very difficult.
I don’t want to start a diatribe post against my wife here but, my guess is, if your significant other thinks you’re nuts and a doomer, you have a very difficult time.It goes beyond denial, it is living in a different reality.
SG
SG,
You do bring up an excellent point. I trade the stock market, it is a lot of hard work. Dogs is my support team, we have been married almost 25 years. He did finally get on board with CC concepts, I think we all go through a bit of a denial phase, I know I did. Dogs has been to seven years of continual stock classes with me. While I do the trading, he understands all of it. Since the stock market is a man’s world and most of the others in class are men… Dogs jokingly shares me with 15 other men who I call, "my husbands." I literally have them numbered 1-15… As I said as a joke, but it is nice to have "spousal’ support.
And though we aren’t living with you, you will always have a support team on this site!
Cat
Thanks, Cat.
I am attending the Rowe conference where my wife said that I’m welcome to meet a female doomer and leave to start a farm in the boonies somewhere.
She is half-kidding.
SG
I tend to think that is a LARGE part of the problem. All of the current movers, shakers and leaders (used loosely) that are at the helm now have never seen hard times that require investing in gold, silver, seeds etc. The worst thing any of them have seen is maybe the 70’s recession, the dot com meltdown or their Blackberry going down. A depression is only something they vaguely remember reading about in school.
When I first learned about this site and watched the CC I can honestly say that very little about it suprised me. There were plenty of facts I was not specifically aware of but I keep my ear to the ground so I did not need to be convinced by the wisdom of CM.
After watching the CC I came to the conclusion that this economic "crisis" will, in the long run, be a good thing for our country. It might be a long and nasty road getting there and I don’t feel that I’m adequately prepared for it but I’ve done the best I can. My wife and I are both employed in areas that continue to show increased demand and growth, we’ve reduced our 401k contributions to minimum matching levels, started buying gold & silver, hold only enough cash to pay off "fixed debts" and are selling off anything we can’t use to improve our lives and trade or make money with. Luckily we don’t equate wealth with quality of life.
This situation is damn shame. It ought to be interesting watching it unfold.
Bill
I’ll post this on the Feb 1 Daily Digest, but there is a ton of info in here, a lot about gold, TIPs and us being in a depression.
http://www.netcastdaily.com/broadcast/fsn2009-0131-2.asx
Take care
SG,
I feel your pain. I think my spousal unit is more in denial…maybe. I tend to have an obsessive nature and she attributes this to another obsession. She asks questions like, "How much food do you think we need?" with a tone that really means, "Are you buying MORE food?"
Fortunately, I am the bread winner and her needs are taken care of. Therefore, I am able to prepare as I see appropriate. However, it would be nice to be in this "together".
A bit more on topic here . . .
As far as I can tell from the press noise, the stimulus package only stimulates what got us into this mess in the first place. I’ll name just a few.
Much of the blame here can be placed at the feet of the bankers. Congress gives them pretty much what they want. What they wanted was to get everyone hopelessly in debt. They also wanted immunity from any sort of regulation or criminal statute. What we have to show for it is another flood of public debt to cover their potential capital losses. Someone will have to redeem that debt plus the interest. Guess who?
In a related story, Obama places himself and us at the mercy of the Fed. "I will not second guess the Fed". The Fed, as it’s shown time and again has no mercy. No mercy for us, that is the class of people who depend on a place to sell our labor. It’s basically the same story for the investment houses that made all the bad decisions. They get a bailout, we get the discipline of the market. This isn’t socialism for the rich. It’s fascism for the rest of us.
Another problem is the massive investments in infrastructure that has a very limited useful life in light of the pending world decline in hydrocarbon production. It’s time to plan for the post oil environment and what are large portions of the stimulus directed toward? Roads, highway bridges, more cars, more consumption, more building of things that conform to the Happy Motoring paradigm.
Then there’s the pittance thrown toward renewable energy, purported to free us from our dependence on foreign oil. This is ridiculous on its face. If we’re to free ourselves from foreign oil, why are we investing in infrastructure that is critically dependent on hydrocarbon energy? Are the so-called alternatives supposed to make up the difference? Not likely. If fossil hydrocarbon based infrastructure is to expand, how will the alternatives ever catch up?
When you’re digging yourself into a hole, the first step to getting out of the mess is to put down the shovel. I don’t see that happening. After putting down the shovel, the next step is to evaluate where you are and where you want to be. That would be something like, ‘I’m in this hole and I want to be out of this hole.’ There’s a lot of empty talk about getting out of the hole, but I don’t see anyone in charge who’s putting down their shovels. The next step would be to get a ladder and climb out of the hole. There’s been no mention of procuring ladders that I’m aware of.
The vast majority of the verbiage in the mainstream has been about bailing out the shovel makers, shovel sellers, shovel operators, shovel insurers, etc. No mention of where we might find some ladders. The federal government has once again shown that it serves mainly as a manager for the capitalist class. It’s interested in solutions that will serve the most powerful property owning entities. These are entrenched interests that will stand to benefit from throwing trillions of tax dollars toward protecting their properties. For all of Obama’s promise and promises, I have to admit that he’s just more of the same. The capitalist class gives a little to keep a lot. Put Obama in charge to make it look like the government pursues some program of economic equality. That’s the change from GeeDub.
The real crime here is that Obama can at best put a happy face on the fact that the note has come due and we have nothing to pay it with. Our landscape is massively overbuilt with an infrastructure that has no future and yet we’re expected to cough up still more claims against our future prosperity to pay for expanding it. Not long ago Mike Ruppert reported on a conference held in the Netherlands where one speaker remarked that there may be no profit in trying to mitigate Peak Oil. Think about it. That means that from the perspective of capital, there is no point in investing heavily in turning the experiment of civilization around toward a sustainable path. Moral imperative be damned. Why bother if you can’t make a buck off it? Has governent or capital done anything of substance in the last 30 years that would convince you that they believe it’s time to try something else? They’ve known about the pending collapse in hydrocarbon energy since the 1970’s and yet they’ve done next to nothing to improve the situation. Arguably, they’ve done a great deal to make it exponentially worse! This stimulus bill is no exception.
I find it very comforting to know that some of you are finding it hard to find people to talk to about these issues.
My friends and family know that I have studied these issues in great depth, and they know that I am reasonably intelligent, and they know that I care about their future. Yet no one really wants to discuss the issue, let alone face it.
Its quite fascinating and probably indicative of society at large. When TSHTF there are going to be lot of surprised and angry people.
As for me, I feel trapped. I know I need to sell my house and buy some agricultural land in a small community. And my wife agrees but she wants to wait 3 years for my son to finish high school. I don’t think we have 3 years. And I think my son would benefit more from helping us set up a small farm than the pain of switching schools. Still can’t get my wife to watch the CC… groan
DAvos, Is "re-denomination" your euphemism for inflation?
Regards,
Scrib
DurangoKId,
Maybe the powers that be are a little like our spouses and friends that are not receptive to our thoughts on the future. They are so comfortable with the present and the profits and power afforded them that they refuse to steer the ship in another direction.
DurangoKid,
How do we get the ladder that we need?
Cat