> > People do not buy 10 times more shoes with the extra money. ___Explain that to my wife please :o)
> They buy one pair of shoes, just like 50 years ago, but now they have money > left for a mobile phone, a PC, a mountain bike, a massage,... ___ It is not entirely true though. The shoes (cars/clothes/appliances) they made 40 and 50 years ago were built to last as the market seemed limitless. Then everyone had 6 pairs of shoes, one-and-a-half cars, three TVs... To keep the production cycles running while consumer numbers were shrinking at the same time, in real terms, they initially made things cheaper, so that less wealthy consumers could indulge (appicances, cars, etc.). After that market was satisfied, the had to reduce the quality and make sure that the life-span of products becomes ever shorter. An aquaintance's grand father passed away recently and he left behind a black-and-white TV from 1968, fully functional, shoes and suits from the 50s that picked up collectors' values at an antique shop. Do you still have a functional TV you bought, say 15 years ago? Shoes with decent soles from ten years ago? Heck, I'm going through three motorbikes and two cars in a decade... > > > Every debtor also has a creditor out there, and it is certainly not the > government. So, somebody is receiving these interest payments. > Everyone owing more, that is not possible. ___ One word: Banks. Then they buy other banks, insurance companies, real estate, other large companies... There is still a lot to buy for them, you know. Globalisation makes it possible. I wonder if Marx might be right in one way or another and somewhere down the road a few banks own the planet between them. > > But wasn't it you who criticised 'getting something for nothing' when we > talked about interest and islamic banking? > If your gold buys more after putting it away for 5 years, aren't you getting > something for nothing too? ___ I am not getting something for nothing. I still have the same I had before, but people who want what I have (tangible) are willing to give me more goods and services for it. > The people who created these productivity gains should reap the full > benefit. ___ They are. Their costs are sinking as well and they get more for their gold. > > And a bank can go belly up. Why would you risk giving your gold to them at > zero interest? ___ How does paper/fiat currency protect me against a bank going belly up? I believe that in a gold currency system the risk of banks going belly up is more or less limited to bad management or outright fraud. I would have the same risk if I was paid 10% interest on fiat deposits, per month, n'est-ce pas? There was a question how the scenario relates to Australia. I belive the city of Sydney has a debts of over $3 billions? Adding the federal, state, shire and communal debts, the total burden is likely to be higher by far. Then add the burden of the DSS/dole, punitive taxes for starting a business and the hidden cost when hiring staff, and you end up with a huge amount that is unnecessarily deducted from each dollar you spend. Many countries are largely debt-free but manage to do so only because of almost disposessive taxes and social levies. The bottom line is the same, we all pay for our respective government's follies and shortsightedness with every dollar we spend - and most of us are getting poorer in the process. Well, I don't, I never joined the tax club to begin with, don't own anything on the planet and have no intention to ever change that but that's me, billions of others stay on their paddock for regular shearing ;o) Cheers, Robert. budget & privacy website hosting http://www.cyberica.net start a profitable online business http://www.cyberfrontier.biz budget domain registrations http://www.u2planet.com --- You are currently subscribed to e-gold-list as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Use e-gold's Secure Randomized Keyboard (SRK) when accessing your e-gold account(s) via the web and shopping cart interfaces to help thwart keystroke loggers and common viruses.
